The Main Character

Check out this author Jaclyn Gordis, she has a very vivid immagination.  Her novel The Chateau was an interesting twisting plot with a mysterious thread running through it. Now Gordis has captured the imagination again with this new novel, The Main Character.  

Have you ever wondered if there are things about those closest to you that you do not know? How would you react if their secrets came out and affected your life? This mysterious novel shows how characters react to the secrets as they come to light.  

One of the interesting themes in this novel is sibling rivalry, a topic close to my heart. Always in competition with a younger smarter sister, always wondering who Mom loved best.  This is a novel that examines how the relationship between siblings can fester and grow into love and or resentment.  How a parent responds to each child can have an affect on both children and their relationship.  Reader, you may want to watch your back after reading this story, you never know what your sibling might be planning.

Following in the footsteps of Agatha Christie, we meet our characters on the famous train ride along Italy’s Mediterranean coast, the renovated Orient Express. Rory is the main character in Ginevra Ex’s new novel.  Ginevra Ex is a prolific author who studies people and writes mystery novels based on their lives.  She learned early on in her career to write what you know sells the most books, but she cannot bring herself to really delve into her own life for a book. 

Rory is the newest character that Ex is writing about.  She has interviewed her for hours about her life and also the people closest to Rory, her brother, Caroline, her best friend, and her ex fiance, Nate.  When they all turn up on the train Rory begins to wonder if real life will start to imitate fiction and that Ginevra is manipulating her life into a mystery novel.  She is concerned that this may lead to someone’s death.

Riding the train and stopping at various tourist locations builds suspense.  Learning about each character’s lives through alternating chapters, we become privy to the secrets each person is hiding and how that information will affect the group.  Even the author Ginevra Ex has an agenda and secrets she is haboring.

On a more serious note this book also discusses the topic of the refusnicks, Jewish refugees from the Soviet Union who escaped and came to America.  The author bases the character of Rory’s father, Ansel, on her father and his parents' experience.  The author’s father was born in Ukraine and his identification card stated he was Jewish. He took the perilous parth to freedom in 1976.  The author describes life in the Soviet Union and refusnicks situation beautifully.  She also paints the picture of the scenery of Italy’s Mediteranian coast with a rich palette.