It may be our times that favor this kind of theme, think of "The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown. It may be that it is because our world is going the way it is going that we need to find refuge in some different and not-so-mad world. It is not just because of wars; everything is becoming so uniform everywhere. With Florence having become little more than a sophisticated food court, complete with McDonald's and other fast food joints, it is normal that we search for the exotic and the different in ancient times.
This said, let me try a critical evaluation of The Bequest. It is a complex story involving several narrative levels: one is modern Europe in Scotland, Italy, and France, and the other is an old mystery that goes back to Renaissance times. In "The Bequest" the author does what all good novelists should do: inject fantastic elements into something they know well. She knows well the life and the habits of international graduate students in Europe, having been one herself. Then, the story is carefully crafted around the search for a mysterious emerald that was owned by a rich Genoese family, the Falcone. It is another subject that Margaret knows well, having a Ph.D. in history. The story moves from one place to another in Europe, again telling of things the author knows and places where she probably traveled in person.
The novel doesn't lack fascination in its weaving of exotic places and ancient history. It is at its best when the modern and the ancient settings overlap, that is, when the protagonist, Isabel, travels to Genoa, in Italy, to meet the descendants of the ancient Falcones who were engaged in a complicated story of love, wars, and treasures during the heyday of the family, in Renaissance times.
It has a problem, though. It has to do with having been written in the first person. There is nothing wrong with that, and some of the best novels in history were written in the first person: just as an example, think of "The Great Gatsby" by Scott Fitzgerald. Or, if you like an even more high-sounding example, the Comedy by Dante Alighieri.
Yet, writing a novel in the first person is challenging, and "The Bequest" suffers from the need to report a complex and intricate plot only from the viewpoint of a single person. One consequence is that the Renaissance story, with all its twists and mysteries, can only be told through the letters that the ancient characters exchanged with each other. And that makes it difficult to blend it with the main story, that of the protagonist in contemporary times. Sometimes, the ancient protagonists seem to be appearing out of the blue as if they had just landed with their flying saucers, and then disappearing again, leaving little traces, except maybe some crop circles.
The result is that the novel is somewhat uneven. It has moments in which it is fast pacing and exciting, with the protagonist going through the intricate plot, sometimes awed, sometimes risking her life, and sometimes falling in love with characters whose true intentions are mysterious. But there are moments where the novel becomes slow, bogged down by a certain lack of motivation of the protagonist, surely a competent professional, but never deeply involved with the ancient story she is investigating.
I would also say that some elements are over-detailed, including the descriptions of food. Not that there is any problem with telling details in a story. Details are important in novels, and food is one. Do you remember how Melville tells us about what Ishmael and Queequeg ate at the "Try Pots" inn in Nantucket? In my opinion, it is one of the best moments of the novel. But note that we are told very little about food in the rest of it, except when Stubb has his supper of whale steak, another wonderful moment in a wonderful novel. But, in The Bequest" I had the impression that some details about European food were a bit too detailed. But that may be because I am European myself, and I am familiar with the theme. American readers may have the opposite impression.
Eventually, all novels have a life of their own, they are like sons and daughters of their authors, and they never are exactly what their parents would like them to be. This is the case of "The Bequest," a novel with some problems but with a life of its own that clearly reflects the mind and the ideas of a real human being, Joanna Margaret, who projects herself in her narrative universe as Isabel Henley. As Walt Whitman said, "In this book there is a man" (in this case, a woman):
Now that I wrote this, I realize that the criticism I made to "The Bequest" could also apply to my novel, "The Etruscan Quest" -- it is also written in the first person and in many places it describes food eaten by the protagonist. One thing I can say is that it is shorter: some 200 pages (against the 300 pages of "The Bequest"). But I am sure it also suffers from a similar problem, the difficulty of managing an intricate plot taking place on two different temporal settings. In my case, I tried to enliven the past mystery by having the ancient characters appear as ghosts to the protagonist. I am not sure I succeeded but, as I said, novels have a life of their own. In this case, I am told that the protagonist of "The Etruscan Quest", the "non-professor" Samuel Heppler looks very much like me. In any case, the author is the least qualified person to judge a novel, and I leave that to the readers, if there will be any!
