Mr Gwynn

by Alessandro Baricco

This book is a book about an author who writes an article listing 50? things which he will never do again, one of which is write another book.

He is a rather lone figure, his agent has to have people track him down, usually in laundromats and hand him a phone so he  can talk to him.  The agent is very sad, and skeptical at first, that Mr. Gwyn means what he says.

However, Gwyn decides that what he will do is write portraits for people.  He hires a studio, furnishes it with a bit of furniture and lights that will gradually burn out in approximately 30 days.  Then he has his subjects come and "live" in the studio for four hours per day, naked.  He observes them, not wanting them to talk.  Near the end he does ask them a few questions.  He finds that people's behaviour changes over the days.  When the 30 days are up he give them a narrative about themselves of a few pages long.

The clients have paid a lot for this experience and they are all delighted with the profiles he produces.  Many of them are quite strange.  He tries to swear his clients to secrecy and all comply except the daughter of his first client. She is an angry spoiled teenager who takes his tale to the press.  Mr. Gwyn then turns copies of the profiles to his secretary/office manager and asks her to take care of them.  He also leaves her a copy of a book by an author she has read previously.  She is so angry at him that she tosses the book against the wall.

She goes on to marry and have a child.  One day she sees a copy of the book he gave her.  She reads it and sees elements of the profile he wrote about her in the book.  She then becomes convinced that he is still alive and eventually tracks him down.

The first part of the book contains this part of the story, the second part is a side story, the third is related to the first.  I think the best way to summarize the book is a quote I found by an Amazon customer "While the story was clever and you inevitably become emotionally invested in the characters, the story falls apart at the end. The story becomes difficult to follow, and while it doesn't lose its enchanting style and remarkable way with words and storytelling, the plot disintegrates and fades into disjointed vignettes and a conclusion that feels as unsatisfying as Jasper Gwyn's own end."