I really enjoyed the first half of the novel, "The Timepiece" by Richard Paul Evans. He began every chapter with a quotation from the main character's diary. These quotes were then proved or demonstrated through the events of the following chapter. These quotations were very insightful and it was interesting to relate them to the story or even my own life.
"Of all, clockmakers and morticians should bear the keenest sense of priority- their lives daily spent in observance of the unflagging procession of time . . . and the end thereof." David Parkin, the main character, was fascinated with clocks and timepieces of any sort. He collected them, and his house and office were adorned with many different types of clocks.
He said that he bought his first clock the year he turned twenty-one, the year his father died, and the year that he first needed eye glasses. David claimed that the clock helped him to "acknowledge the creeping vines of age that entwine our lives." In a way, it is as though he is trying to buy time. Before he met Mary Anne, David's life consisted only of work. It is possible that he didn't want to die without being loved, so he bought time instead.
David's longtime friend, Lawrence, repaired clocks for a living; he was a horologist. Having survived two wars but not completely dodging injury, Lawrence walked with a limp. David and Lawrence were both amazed at the clocks. Where David saw immortality in the interminable motion of the clock's function, Lawrence was fascinated by the mechanism itself.
For repairing a church clock, a minister paid Lawrence with a large marble, dove-winged angel. Instead of selling the sculpture for money, Lawrence decided to keep the angel because, "black man got no r'spect in this life. So I was thinkin' when I die, the put this angel here on my grave. Somebody walks by, even white folk, see that find angel. ‘Looks like real Italian marble,' they say. ‘Mighty fine. Mus' be someone real important has that kinda monument.'" Since Lawrence has possessed this angel for six years, and he's just telling David about it now, I think the angel will play an important role later in the book. I look forward to reading the second half and looking for it.
Back to my Journal Page