Book Review: Waiting for Columbus

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links to my Amazon.ca affiliate account. If you purchase anything after following these links, I’ll get a cut of the profit.

A few days ago, I finished reading Thomas Trofimuk‘s excellent novel, Waiting for Columbus. I cannot recommend it enough.

Yes, I know Trofimuk. We chat at Raving Poets and we’ve enjoyed the odd cigar together. But that’s got nothing to do with why I’m recommending the Edmonton author’s 3rd novel.

I’m recommending it because it’s an exquisitely written book that tells the beautifully tragic story of a man who shows up in a Spanish mental institution believing himself to be Christopher Columbus. He begins to tell his story to his nurse, Consuela, and soon she is entranced by and smitten with this mysterious Columbus. And so is the reader.

Like all of Trofimuk’s novels, Waiting for Columbus is a work of pure poetry. It’s evident, even in his prose, that Trofimuk is a poet at heart. It’s rare that a book evokes images and emotions in me as strongly as Columbus did.

Where Waiting for Columbus outshines Trofimuk’s previous novels—The 52nd Poem and Doubting Yourself to the Bone—is in its storytelling.

Though I greatly enjoyed both of his previous novels, Trofimuk didn’t really capture me with the stories he was telling. I remember the feelings of the books much more than the plots. They are, in a certain sense, like very long poems—they make the reader feel something, but the story takes a backseat to that feeling.

With Waiting for Columbus, Trofimuk manages to keep the poetic language that is so effective at giving his novels a powerful emotional punch, while weaving a truly engaging and unforgettable tale of obsession, love, and loss.

The story is so entrancing, in fact, that as I approached the end of the novel, I actually thought about closing it and putting it down for good. I wanted so badly for it to never end that I gave serious thought to simply leaving the last few chapters forever unread.

Ultimately, I did finish the book and was better for the experience of having read it. Waiting for Columbus is a novel that will stay with me for a long time. And it’s one that I’ll definitely read again. You should too.