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Codex
Lev Grossman
Harcourt, 2004, 348 pages
Reviewed by Carolyn Burns Bass
Everyone loves a quirky protagonist in a knotty situation. Codex, Lev Grossman’s second novel, delivers both with easy readability. According to publishing pundits, thrillers are forecasted as the hottest reads of the summer. A perfect beach read, Codex will keep you turning pages as the surf threatens to wash the book right out of your hands.
Edward Wozny suffers from mediocrity. After a short-lived taste of brilliance as a child chess prodigy, Edward loses his luster in the murky dawn of adolescence and never shines at anything until he dumps his English degree for a position with a prestigious international banking firm. For some reason, he’s remarkably good with other people’s money. So much so that he attracts the attention of the Duke and Duchess of Bomry, for whom he’s done wonders with their millions.
On the eve of a promotion to the bank’s London office, Wozny takes his first vacation in several years. But before he can begin his vacation, he is sent to the New York apartment of Mr. and Mrs. Went, known to peers of the British Empire as the Duke and Duchess of Bomry. It seems the Wents were so impressed with Wozny’s golden touch with their money that they think he’s just the man to catalogue their collection of priceless books. Why they choose an investment banker instead of a bibliophile is part of the mystery that Wozny haps into.
And here’s where the story gets interesting. The Bomry collection of books has been crated in a New York apartment since the 1930s when Hitler threatened to level England. The Wents recognized the value of their books, many of them dating back hundreds of years, and wanted them preserved from imminent Nazi bombs. Crating the library and shipping it to New York for safe keeping, the entire collection sat undisturbed until the Duchess decided to hunt up a legendary codex (an early book; hand-lettered on parchment and bound between wooden covers). While anyone else might have excused himself from the task, referring the project to someone more qualified, or someone remotely interested in books, or someone not on vacation, the capricious Wozny agrees to take a look. Despite his shame at being an English major, he’s intrigued by the revelation of priceless first editions and is mesmerized by the antiquity at his fingertips, the beauty of the bindings, and the musty smell of old books. Readers are treated to descriptions of great literature along with archival insights that lend superb credence to the premise.
Parallel to the search for the codex is Wozny’s immersion into a sophisticated virtual reality computer game. Addictive as it is intriguing, the game, Momus, eventually reveals imagery that Wozny recognizes from his search for the fabled codex. Yet Wozny’s mediocrity at gaming -- while other kids were playing their Atari consoles, Wozny was blowing away chess opponents -- blocks him from perceiving the parallel between the search for the codex and the conclusion of the game.
Wozny’s quest is aided by another anti-hero, one Margaret Napier, a home-schooled child prodigy and medieval scholar who agrees to aid Wozny’s search for the legendary codex, although she openly denies it could be anything but a fake. Napier’s ordered, academic demeanor lends welcome contrast to Wozny’s tendency to let life bleep him along in bits and bytes of accomplishment. Sexual chemistry plays no part in the inevitable coupling that occurs between Wozny and Napier, yet readers can tell early on where Wozny and Napier are headed.
Thrown into the already boiling pot is the plot reversal when the duke decides he doesn’t want the codex located and pulls the plug on the library cataloging project. Hovering now on the possibility that the codex could be authentic, Napier is so immersed in finding the codex that she refuses to quit the search. The duchess, who wants the codex at any cost, enlists the aid of Wozny with seductive promises and saccharin charm. Compelled by dreams of a job catering to the duchess, Wozny carries on beside Napier, dodging threats from the Duke’s henchmen.
The secret of the codex and why Wozny can’t seem to make headway in the computer game Momus propels the story to a conclusion that both satisfies and leaves readers wondering. Wozny, hapless fellow that he is, wonders not at all.
Carolyn Burns Bass is the author of the yet-to-be-published novel The Nexus, where the present meets the past at the gate of eternity. Look her up at WordArtSolutions.
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