The Tattooed Map

Carol U. Merrian is an assistant professor in the Department of Classics
at Brock University in St. Catharines.

Lavishly illustrated with maps, papers, photographs, and notes, this
novel is written in journal form. The story begins with the first
narrator, Lydia, as she travels through cities of Northern Africa,
recording her experiences and reactions. Her journey takes an unsettling
turn when marks appear on her left hand, marks that eventually develop
into a tattooed map on her arm. A mysterious stranger connects this map
with a spiritual journey Lydia must take, whereupon she disappears. The
narration is picked up by her (Lydia) original traveling companion,
Chris, who searches for Lydia both in Africa and at home in Canada.

Despite its journal format, The Tattooed Map reveals remarkably little
about its characters; the distance between the characters and the reader
is never bridged. More successful is the novel’s evocation of the
sense of disorientation that engulfs Lydia, and later Chris. Though
initially disturbing, this disorientation is a necessary part of the
book’s spiritual mystery—a mystery with no solution beyond taking
the journey oneself.