Edward Whittemore's Secret Histories

Quin's Shanghai Circus; Edward Whittemore (Old Earth Books; 2002; ISBN 1-882968-21-2; cover by Julie Burris). Introduction by John Nichols. Foreword by Tom Wallace. Afterword by Judy Karasik.

I first came across Edward Whittemore when my mother gave me a paperback acquired from a yard sale. It was Jerusalem Poker and featured a rather strange cover. An occult novel? A fantasy novel? A spy novel? I tried it, and put it aside (too many books, too little time) as it did not catch my attention.

Several years later, I read this extensive review of Whittemore by Jaff VanderMeer in Locus, written in conjunction with the Old Earth Books release of his works. Maybe the mindset had changed and evolved as they sounded very interesting. I set out to acquire them as they were published. (Alas, fate and reality intervened and it was not until last year that I read Quin's Shanghai Circus. And read it again this year.)

Describing the plot of this book would be a fairly meaningless task. There is so much going on that I could spend several paragraphs in summary (indeed, near the end of the book, Whittemore does just that...spends several paragraphs of dialog relating the plot). The book resembles a Noh play, a few actors, a few masks, infinite variety. Or you might think of the classic Japanese tales Rashomon and In a Grove, and the combined story that became the classic film Rashomon: a story told from multiple viewpoints, each containing a grain of the truth and more than a grain of distortion.

That? Just that? But you should have said so before, nephew. Right this way for the illusive dream often sought and seldom found, or to be exact, often found but seldom recognized. (Edward Whittemore, Quin's Shanghai Circus)

It would be silly to summarize the story. How could I do justice to (for example) one character that influences both Lenin and Mao in their respective revolutions, crosses a continent, learns dozens of languages, shortens World War II, fathers more characters and dies an obscure death? Or the story of a Japanese rabbi? Or a Baron who becomes a spy and a general? Or a circus master? Or a clown? Or a giant who tries to sell a load of pornography and return a valuable cross to its rightful owner? Or...

Both actions are for the same purpose. He wants to assure himself that the insane tale told by the stranger on the beach won't end the way it began. He wants to prove to himself that even an account of history as grostesque as that can have some small measure of order behind it. Above all he wants to believe there has been some meaning in the pathetic parade of events and people that he calls his life. (Edward Whittemore, Quin's Shanghai Circus)

This will be a difficult read for many. Whittemore jumbles the story, jumbles the points of view, does not employ quotes for the dialog. You jump from period to period, you are never sure what is reality and what is the hammered and reworked memory of somebody's perception. But there are real literary jewels here. Some reviewers compare Whittemore to Thomas Pynchon or Jose Luis Borges. Perhaps. But it is more than likely that his was a unique voice, one that has influenced further generations. Obscure as he may be, I find echoes of his writing in the recent novels of William Gibson (Pattern Recognition and Spook Country), but with the difference that Whittemore takes the fantastic and makes it real (where Gibson takes the real and makes it fantastic). Perhaps another heir would be Neal Stephenson and his Baroque Cycle. If you've enjoyed either of those authors, seek Whittemore out.

The book also contains an obligatory introduction by a famous literary figure (John Nichols), but also an excellent and illuminating foreword by Whittemore's former editor and agent, Tom Wallace and a moving and heartfelt afterword by Judy Karasik.

Great fiction is hard to sell. What happens to a person who reads a book—if it's any good—is a profoundly private and irrational process, and the more distinctive the novel, the more private and irrational the process. That's where the trouble with publishing begins. (Judy Karasik, An Editorial Relationship: Afterword to Quin's Shanghai Circus)

A strange journey, a difficult one, but a worthwhile one.

More resources: The Jerusalem Dreaming website is probably the best place to start. Dreaming of Jerusalem, an excellent article by Anne Sydenham. A Christian Science Monitor article that contains some good details. Jeff VanderMeer's excellent review and overview. Paul Di Filippo had a brief entry on the books in The Washington Post. Whittemore's obituary in The New York Times.

An excerpt from Quin's Shanghai Circus can be found here. An excerpt from one of the volumes of Whittemore's Jerusalem Quartet, Jerusalem Poker, can be found here.