A Coincidence of Calliope
Jamieson Villeneuve
June 22, 2007
I am a firm believer that all things come in threes.
You know how it goes. You’ll get three pieces of good news all at once: A birth, an engagement and a wedding. Or maybe you’ll get three pieces of bad news in a short period of time: Your record deal fell through, the novel you submitted to Harlequin was rejected or maybe you were spurned by the one you love.
Whatever the case, things usually come in threes. Though this is not usually true with books. Books tend to stand on their own and maintain their distance from other books. They tend to be solitary objects until you place them side by side on your bookshelf. But even then, their stories are separate, apart from one another.
Now, I usually read more than one book at a time. I’m not sure why I do this; perhaps it’s because I get bored easily. I read a lot and it takes a really good book to keep my interest all the way through. Normally though, I’ll read one book at home in the evenings, one book at work and I usually have a bathroom book or two. And I’ve never found any book that links to another until now.
Recently, I was reading Candles Burning by Tabitha King and Michael McDowell. It’s a spooky tale of a young girl named Calliope who lives in the south and is probably a witch, though that is never made too clear. It takes it’s time building up the story and I found that, while it was enjoyable, the story was slow in the first hundred or so pages.
So I picked up another book: Coyote Blue by Christopher Moore. It concerns a business man who falls in love with an Indian woman named Calliope. I remember seeing the name on the first page thinking to myself: ‘That’s odd. What are the chances of two books having a character named Calliope?’ I put it down to coincidence and kept reading Coyote Blue and Candles Burning.
I should have remembered that there is no such thing as coincidence.
Oprah recently announced her new book club pick for the summer. I didn’t read too much about it but heard that it was called Middlesex and it was about a hermaphrodite. I figured that sounded promising. She’s been choosing some real interesting books lately and I’m always on the lookout for something to expand my scope of reading.
Imagine my surprise when I opened the book and started reading about a girl that was named Calliope when she was born and became Cal later in life when he realized what he was.
I was stunned. I had never come across the same name in three different books that I was reading at the same time. What were the chances that, out of all the books out there, I choose three that had a character with the same name?
Though the three books were separate stories that had nothing to do with each other, I started thinking of each book no matter which book I was reading. While reading Middlesex, I found myself thinking of the Coyote Trickster in Coyote Blue. Or while I was reading Candles Burning, I would find myself thinking of Calliope from Middlesex beginning to discover her femininity.
And, much like the name implies, everything started swirling together like a Calliope, like a Carousel. All the characters spinning, the storylines turning, everything weaving into one another. It’s almost as if the books were all part of the same story and each was Calliope at a different period in her life: In Candles Burning, Calliope is a young girl. In Coyote Blue, Calliope is a young lady. In Middlesex, Calliope is an older woman.
It got me thinking. Every great story has already been told and each new story is part of the same larger story that was started all those years ago. As I stated before, I don’t believe in coincidences. So why was it so important that I stumble upon three books with the same character name by chance? Why was it so important for me to read those three books?
I couldn’t tell you, but I think I have an idea what Fate was trying to tell me: Though every great story has already been written, there is always a new way to tell a story, a way to give an old story a new skin so that others may enjoy it. Or maybe that there are many sides to one story; that the one we live is only a part of what was, what is.
And what has yet to be.
You know how it goes. You’ll get three pieces of good news all at once: A birth, an engagement and a wedding. Or maybe you’ll get three pieces of bad news in a short period of time: Your record deal fell through, the novel you submitted to Harlequin was rejected or maybe you were spurned by the one you love.
Whatever the case, things usually come in threes. Though this is not usually true with books. Books tend to stand on their own and maintain their distance from other books. They tend to be solitary objects until you place them side by side on your bookshelf. But even then, their stories are separate, apart from one another.
Now, I usually read more than one book at a time. I’m not sure why I do this; perhaps it’s because I get bored easily. I read a lot and it takes a really good book to keep my interest all the way through. Normally though, I’ll read one book at home in the evenings, one book at work and I usually have a bathroom book or two. And I’ve never found any book that links to another until now.
Recently, I was reading Candles Burning by Tabitha King and Michael McDowell. It’s a spooky tale of a young girl named Calliope who lives in the south and is probably a witch, though that is never made too clear. It takes it’s time building up the story and I found that, while it was enjoyable, the story was slow in the first hundred or so pages.
So I picked up another book: Coyote Blue by Christopher Moore. It concerns a business man who falls in love with an Indian woman named Calliope. I remember seeing the name on the first page thinking to myself: ‘That’s odd. What are the chances of two books having a character named Calliope?’ I put it down to coincidence and kept reading Coyote Blue and Candles Burning.
I should have remembered that there is no such thing as coincidence.
Oprah recently announced her new book club pick for the summer. I didn’t read too much about it but heard that it was called Middlesex and it was about a hermaphrodite. I figured that sounded promising. She’s been choosing some real interesting books lately and I’m always on the lookout for something to expand my scope of reading.
Imagine my surprise when I opened the book and started reading about a girl that was named Calliope when she was born and became Cal later in life when he realized what he was.
I was stunned. I had never come across the same name in three different books that I was reading at the same time. What were the chances that, out of all the books out there, I choose three that had a character with the same name?
Though the three books were separate stories that had nothing to do with each other, I started thinking of each book no matter which book I was reading. While reading Middlesex, I found myself thinking of the Coyote Trickster in Coyote Blue. Or while I was reading Candles Burning, I would find myself thinking of Calliope from Middlesex beginning to discover her femininity.
And, much like the name implies, everything started swirling together like a Calliope, like a Carousel. All the characters spinning, the storylines turning, everything weaving into one another. It’s almost as if the books were all part of the same story and each was Calliope at a different period in her life: In Candles Burning, Calliope is a young girl. In Coyote Blue, Calliope is a young lady. In Middlesex, Calliope is an older woman.
It got me thinking. Every great story has already been told and each new story is part of the same larger story that was started all those years ago. As I stated before, I don’t believe in coincidences. So why was it so important that I stumble upon three books with the same character name by chance? Why was it so important for me to read those three books?
I couldn’t tell you, but I think I have an idea what Fate was trying to tell me: Though every great story has already been written, there is always a new way to tell a story, a way to give an old story a new skin so that others may enjoy it. Or maybe that there are many sides to one story; that the one we live is only a part of what was, what is.
And what has yet to be.
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