2 Book Lovers Reviews
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The Marigold was an intriguing book. The cover with its tower and all of that stuff in the middle first caught my attention. The story of a dystopian future with a new sinister lifeform growing beneath the city; this was a story for me.
Sullivan’s story bounces around from character to character, some we only get to see for their final moments, others, we spend a lot of time with. The only thing binding these characters together is the toxic mold rotting the city from its foundations. The reader gets to know these characters, understand their motives, strengths and especially their weaknesses.
I love the selection of Toronto for a story about a mold spreading out eating everything in its path. For anyone who has ever been to Toronto, the city has only one natural border, the lake. From there Toronto has spread out, consuming everything in its path. Even the communities around Toronto have been gobbled up by the ever-expanding city.
For me The Marigold was a story of wealth and avarice. The towers, with their blatant Babel reference, speak of pride (another one of the seven deadly sins). And you cannot have pride without hubris, as we all know hubris must be punished. The story looks at the price that must be paid to build an eternal monument and those who pay that price rarely pay it themselves, wealth is built with the blood of the poor.
I enjoyed my time with Sullivan and his vision of the future. I felt that The Marigold really touched on some relevant themes regarding greed and privilege, the disdain with which those who have, look down on those who don’t. I would definitely go to some other world from Andrew F. Sullivan’s imagination.
*4 Stars
