A Constellation of Vital Phenomena: i am ruined

One of my favorite things -- besides free books -- is GREAT books.  

To be clear: an all-caps GREAT book first totally hooks me, makes me want to call in sick just so I can luxuriate all day in its pages, & second ruins me for all other books for a while.  

A GREAT book obsesses me. I read everything I can about the author, I Like their Facebook page, follow their Twitter feed, watch interviews, go listen to them read if I can.  I talk about it to anyone who will listen.

So listen: A Constellation of Vital Phenomena is a GREAT book.

I'm feeling double-lucky because I received Anthony Marra's brilliant debut novel in the Advance Reader's Edition from my on-line book club, From Left to Write. I am still Christmas-morning jump-around delighted to receive a book before its publication date. That doesn't get old. And while I've definitely read some medium, good and really good books thanks to the book club, this is the very first one, in my opinion, to be GREAT.

Our deal with the book club is we're not supposed to write a review, but use the book as a sort of prompt, be inspired by it. I'm itching to review it -- even though I'm no professional reviewer -- only because it's that good. I want to write papers about it, in short. I want to devote days to studying every page, every theme, the many passages of utterly gorgeous writing. It's THAT good.

The problem for me now -- and really, this is my only problem, so I count myself TRIPLE-lucky -- is that I'm fairly ruined for any other book.  It's been a week since I finished Constellation, and even though I'm two chapters into Animal Wise and about the same into Salman Rushdie's The Enchantress of Florence , I just can't settle.  I am still one foot in Chechnya with Sonja and Natasha and Akhmed and Havaa, one foot in the shadow of snowy birch trees even as the sun blazes outside conjuring food from the ground.

I'm ruined and I have a feeling I'll stay this way for at least another week. It'll be at least that long until I'm able to place the book in its temporary holding place until January 1st of next year when it moves on, with all the other books read in 2013, to permanent shelf-space.  At least that long until I'm done re-reading some pages that are just so beautiful that they blow my heart up every time I see the words.

To Anthony Marra, thanks for the ruination. I really do appreciate it.  It's been such a long time since I have felt this moved and devastated and exhalted by a book. Real tears.  Real joy. Real good.

This post was inspired by the novel A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra. In a war torn Chechnya, a young fatherless girl, a family friend, and a hardened doctor struggle with love and loss. Join From Left to Write on May 20 as we discuss Anthony Marra's debut novel. As a member, I received a copy of the book for review purposes.