I’m really not sure what to make of “Bellman & Black”. I picked it up on the advice of Orson Scott Card, and he was everything he said it would be. It’s an epic tale, in that it covers the lifespan of its main character, William Bellman, a young man blessed with a singular focus of mind. At a young age he, in a moment of competitive energy, makes the impossible shot with his sling and kills a rook. He goes on to achieve amazing things. It seems as though everything he touches turns golden, and he’s by no means stingey with his success–he lifts those around him at the same time.
Yet into every life a little rain must fall, and William Bellman’s comes in a sudden, brief deluge of Job-like proportions. From this point onward the story takes on more the shade of tragedy, though a gentle one, as ultimately he brings harm only to himself. In the end his attempts to micro-manage his world and avoid such loss again, no matter how well-intentioned, can be judged as much by the opportunities missed as by the success achieved.
The ending is somewhat nebulous and unsatisfying, but I’m not certain that wasn’t Setterfield’s point. William Bellman himself was somewhat nebulous and unsatisfying, and for those who knew him best, it’s as if he never lived. The man was a genius at business, certainly (and I found these parts of the book particularly interesting), but in many ways he is the embodiment of Thoreau’s fear of reaching life to find he had not lived. It is the tragedy of a man who was in no way unlikable, and yet could have been so much more.
The book is well written–almost hauntingly so. Fans of Setterfield’s first novel, “The Thirteenth Tale”, seem to struggle with it, but I had no previous experience/baggage coming in, so I appreciate “Bellman & Black” on its own merits. It’s a novel that grabs hold of your mind and leaves its fingerprints everywhere. It’s not one I care to read again, most likely; sometimes the author’s job is to discomfit and disgruntle the reader, and Setterfield is willing to be unliked for it. “Here’s a really good guy,” she seems to say, “but because of his flaws you don’t want to be him.”
It’s not an easy book to get out of one’s mind. I see shades of Bellman in myself and in people I know. It would be an easier book if Bellman were less a good person. But it’s not an easy book, and while the ending may be unsatisfying, it could not have been otherwise and still remained true.
Do I recommend you read this book? Yes. And no. If you want to be entertained, this is not your book. If you want to be made to think, you might want to consider this one. If you want to be made to feel something…unsettling…this is your book. Ultimately I must give my kudos to Setterfield for the courage to write it.