NOTES FROM A BOTTLE FOUND ON THE BEACH AT CARMEL

"Each life is a myth, a song given out / of darkness, a tale for children, the legend we create. / Are we not heroes, each of us / in one fashion or another, / wandering through mysterious labyrinths?"
—page 8, Notes from a Bottle Found on the Beach at Carmel by Evan S. Connell

The book was a Christmas gift from the friend D. At first glance, I couldn't quite figure out why he chose this particular book. Once I started to read the book, it made complete sense.

The book is 240 pages of apothegms knitted together by theme or juxtaposition. The apothegms read (mostly) as prose but contain poetic language and line breaks. Three or four of these brief sayings will seem related to one another by subject matter, only to be followed by one which seems to be unrelated. The farther in the book I delve, I realize that this is not true. The fabric of this "narrative" is being woven together by volume and presence and time.

Notes from a Bottle is a true Pandora's box of myths from many ages and places and cultures. Christian, Gnostic, and Hindu mythologies are nestled next to snippets from fairy tales, modern psychology, Arthurian legend, pagan rituals, and historical events. Pantheism rests next to monotheism. The world is immense and overwhelming, yet collapsed into one small, fragile ego. This is the cloth of our culture. It is not a melting pot, but rather a dream of dreams.

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The book makes complete sense as a gift now. The friend D. and I have a relationship that has a few things that are foundational, and are also found within these pages—a love of literature, interest in mythologies of all kinds, the darkness that haunts us. To the friend D.: a hearty thank you!

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The book that Notes from a Bottle most reminds me of is Patrik Ouředník's Europeana: A Brief History of the Twentieth Century. The structure of both books is similar, and the result the same. They both declare that this is who we are—individually and collectively—without either book having a protagonist or characters. I am amazed at the brilliance of both authors.