Once Again, a Kaleidoscope of Stories Lacking Focus
I was disappointed last year when I picked up Dorothy Gilman’s The Clairvoyant Countess despite being a huge fan of the author’s Mrs. Pollifax series. Still, I decided to go ahead and read Kaleidoscope, the second book featuring the characters. As expected, my thoughts are pretty much the same.
This is the only time outside of the Mrs. Pollifax series that Dorothy Gilman returned to a character. The original book came out in 1975, but this came out in 2002, and turned out to be the last book she would write.
The stories feature Madame Karitska who has been blessed with the gift of clairvoyance. No, she isn’t a fortune teller. Instead, she can use objects to learn about the owner’s past and present.
As with the first book, we get several stories that weave in and out of each other. Sometimes, they touch. Sometimes they only take up a chapter. Madame Karitska winds up in the possession of some diamonds when she runs into an old friend on a train. She helps a wife whose husband is interested in a nearby commune. A man who is deathly ill comes to her for help. She even helps a government official who is afraid some home grown terrorists might be at work.
As with the Mrs. Pollifax series, the characters live in their own world time wise. What do I mean by that? While it’s been about a year since the first book happened, we are still in the present. While the first book was clearly in the 1970’s, this time around there are references to cell phones and other things from the late 1990’s or early 2000’s. Given some of the subject matter, the fact that 9/11 isn’t referenced is a bit strange. I’m chalking that up to the lead time between when a book is written and when it is actually published. Anyway, as long as you know to expect this, you’ll be fine.
While I don’t believe in clairvoyance and would normally skip a book with this premise, I read it because it is Dorothy Gilman. I have to say, that part didn’t bother me nearly as much it might have. I guess I bought into the premise.
What did bother me is how the plot was handled. Or should I say not handled. Kaleidoscope really is a good description for things. We’ll follow one thread for a while, then we’ll pick up something else. We might go back to the first, things might combine. It’s a collection of short stories, really, some of them interconnected. Even expecting this when I picked up this book, I found it frustrating. It didn’t help that one of the stories just fizzled out instead of having any kind of real climax.
Of course, to fans of the first book, this is good news. And there are plenty of fans, so it’s possible this is just me. That might be one reason why she decided to return to this character even after so many years. When I talk to Dorothy Gilman fans, they mention these books right behind Mrs. Pollifax as being a favorite.
I will say this, the characters are still charming. We see several return from the previous book, and I did enjoy spending time with them again. There are several others who we meet here who are just as charming. They did balance out my frustrations with the plot.
I am glad I read Kaleidoscope because I always would have wondered about it. But now that I have, I don’t expect to return to Madame Karitska by rereading these books.
