Little by Edward Carey
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Edward Carey’s Little tells the story of Marie Tussaud, the woman known for her famous wax sculptures. The novel encompasses her life from Marie’s birth to her death. From the early years of her life learning about wax to her time in Versailles to her years making death masks during the French Revolution.
Little is written from Marie’s point of view in the first person, and because of that, I experienced a most interesting, yet odd, mind. I have never read a book where the anatomy of a human being is used so many times to describe emotions, places, and events. Marie was particularly obsessed with analyzing and detailing people’s facial features and mannerisms. This facet of Carey’s Marie made sense for her character as her love for wax figures grew.
Once the character Dr. Curtius, her mentor, entered the scene, there was never a chapter where a human body part wasn’t used as a symbol. At times, it felt like too much, but I understood this was just a part of who Marie was, whether I liked it or not. The mix of art and anatomy was handled in a way I had never read before, and that in itself was intriguing. However, a lot of the time (especially once Marie and Dr. Curtius move to Paris), the emotional aspect of the novel was lost to me.
I couldn’t ultimately connect to Marie, no matter how much I wanted to. I wanted more psychological and emotional writing than Carey’s physical observations and sometimes detached writing in Little. From Marie’s mother’s death to Marie being forced to make a death mask, I was missing the emotional turmoil.
Historical fiction can be “loosely” based on actual people and events, but Little got a bit too “loose” for me. It’s always a balancing act between writing a good story and staying true to the historical figure or event. Carey went too far from Marie Tussaud’s true life for my liking.
Overall, Little by Edward Carey was average. Not horrible, but not great.
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