October 1994

OITM REVIEW: THE MUSEUM OF LOVE

Steve Weiner
Overlook Press

Antony S. Galbraith

The Museum of Love, a first novel by
Steve Weiner, is the bizarre story of a
French—Canadian boy’s coming-of—age,
which becomes a horror story of
nightmare images and scenes piled upon
one another with ever increasing
intensity. At times the book is rather
difficult to follow because the novel
possesses little in the way of plot, but
the story moves well and is written in a
beautiful and often frightening, lyrical
style.

The main character, Jean—Michel, comes
from a disturbing family——an ugly,
abusive father and a beautiful mother on
the verge of insanity as she is plagued
with mystic visions of saints and God.
His younger brother, Ignace, is thought
to be a living saint, both by his parents
and the people in the town. Despite
Jean-Michel’s own tendency toward
seeing mystical visions, he does not
accept religion as readily as those
around him, and as a result he becomes
somewhat of an outcast.

Once Jean-Miche1’s family and
hometown are introduced, the novel
progresses into 21 nightmarish freak
show as Jean-Michel begins a cycle of
running away and returning home.
During these cycles, he meets new and
terrifying people, listens to each of their

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own tragic life stories, and is confronted
with his homosexuality. Throughout
the novel he is called a homosexual by
the strangers he meets—-he is kissed by a
childhood friend and on another
occasion he witnesses two men having
sex. He never responds to the
accusations and events, it is rather like
he is watching a film——he does not
participate in his own life, but is more
content with watching everything pass
him b . URI“
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Church Street
City Hall Block

While on his travels, he meets grotesque
and violent characters. They are missing
arms, eyes and one boy he meets has no
bones in his fingers-—even Jean—Michel is
lame in one leg. The novel grows more
grotesque and bizarre as Jean—Michel,
during his mystical visions, visits the
Museums of Death, Life, Negritude and
Love.

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The novel plays out like a horror movie

of image after image and while these "95

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scenes are exquisitely written, they are
confusing and contribute very little.
Jean—Michel never really seems to
come—of-age, he simply gets older. The
events never culminate into anything,
they just stop. Issues of sexism, racism,
classism and homophobia are brought up
and then left wide open without resolve.
It seems clear in the end that
Jean-Michel is homosexual, but we are
left to wonder if he knows yet, or if he
ever will. V

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