Re-enchanting Nature
Re-enchanting Nature by David Vigoda, published by Collioure Books in August 2016, is a thought-provoking exploration of the sacredness of nature within a scientific context. This edition spans 269 pages and is presented in English. The narrative follows Frank, an American photographer who has shifted his focus from documenting human suffering to seeking beauty and redemption in the mountains of the French Riviera. As he embarks on this personal quest, he grapples with his isolation and the challenges of reconnecting with the world around him.
Readers will find a rich tapestry of relationships and philosophical inquiries woven throughout the story. The characters, including Aurore, a physicist, and her family, navigate their own quests for meaning amidst chaos and personal turmoil. The book delves into themes of transformation, love, and the intersection of art and science, offering intricate descriptions of human connections and the subtleties of life. This narrative invites contemplation on the complexities of existence and the pursuit of hope in a world often overshadowed by despair.
Official synopsis Publisher
Product Description
Is nature sacred? What might that question mean in a scientific culture? An American photographer, done with documenting disasters, seeks an answer on a personal quest in the mountains by the French Riviera. For years Frank traveled the world to wherever human misery was greatest; now he seeks redemption. He photographed evil and wretchedness, now he seeks the good and beautiful in people. He has no home. He is alone, and he has embarked on a quest that frightens him more than danger ever did. Aurore is a physicist at a prestigious institute who looks for hidden patterns in chaotic systems. She s beautiful. Her husband is a rising star in a far-right anti-immigrant party. He s irresistible. They have a five year old daughter who s very bright. All, in their own ways, are seekers.
Review
Frank is a photographer who has spent his life documenting disasters, but now he’s on a different kind of mission: one that seeks to capture not despair and terror, but what is good and hopeful in the world. His journey to the mountains of France only serves to emphasize his isolation, for there is nobody to greet him upon arrival and no connections to touch base with. He is alone, and his seclusion will be one of the facets that makes his re-connections with the world so vivid. David Vigoda’s special strength lies in his ability to take ordinary settings and circumstances and elevate them into accounts packed with extra-sensory life and perceptions: [book quote] Under his hand, the process of rebirth and protagonists whose very different lives and forms of chaos intersect make for gripping descriptions of vulnerabilities and revelations without neglecting intricate descriptions of the most subtle of details, such as a dinner between a physicist and a philosopher and how their discussion evolves into touch and something more. Of necessity, these descriptions are sometimes lengthy and adopt a step-by-step examination of the process of connection. There’s nothing quick about Vigoda’s representation of these experiences, and readers searching for stories that skim over these smaller details in favor of nonstop action and drama might find themselves stymied by the slow, inevitable documentation of relationships and close encounters. But that’s one of the delights afforded to those who would take the time to absorb a fine meal rather than inhaling aromas on the run: they settle, they grasp, and they become an irresistibly compelling piece of a story line that moves deftly beyond two isolated and lonely individuals and into the trajectory of their lives and decisions and the intersection of choices both good and bad. Using this slower approach, truths sparkle like gems from casual and serious encounters: [book quote] Arrogance, survival, science and nature, and the worlds of art and science ultimately lead to new definitions of love, new confrontations of myths, and original insights into reality, choice, and consequence. Readers who look for a novel well steeped in philosophy which takes the classic love scenario and turns it upside down will find much to relish in this evocative story of adventurers who seek to reinvent not just themselves and each other, but their worlds. –California Bookwatch
[Excerpt #1:] He had been happy, satisfied, more than satisfied with his life, but after his wife died he had suffered a kind of wasting illness, leading not to death but torpor, a death-in-life against which he had now launched himself toward a constructive death, a death leading to rebirth. He had done his reading, he knew that transformation was not his for the asking, he must earn it; and evidently he had not earned it through the death of his wife. An additional suffering was apparently before him, which he must discover and undergo. It was one thing to say that and another to do it, however. [Excerpt #2:] He drove down the nearby cape to a famous harbor and again walked up and down the quay to observe everyone an
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