An Inexplicable Story

John Walker is a professor of Spanish studies at Queen’s University.

Joseph Skvorecky has been a resident of Canada since 1968 when he fled
from his native Czechoslovakia following the brutal Soviet invasion.
Although the award-winning author’s latest work of fiction is set
mainly in Rome, in first century A.D., the story begins in the New
World, with the discovery of a seven-part scroll in the wall of a Mayan
king’s tomb. The ancient manuscript, Narratio Questi, is judged to be
about 2000 years old. Expert editor Patrick O. Enfield describes the
young engineer Questus, and his relationships with his soldier-father
Gaius, his beautiful mother Proculeaia, the poet Ovid, and the Roman
emperor.

Through the remains of the manuscript, plus Enfield’s notes and
commentary, we gain some insight into the “inexplicable story,” not
to mention court intrigue in Rome, military history throughout the
empire, and the banishment, disappearance, and death of Ovid. Some
questions— including the mystery of how the Narratio Questi turned up
in the burial chamber of the Mayan king—are left unanswered.

There is a whiff of Umberto Eco in the author’s dazzling display of
linguistic, cultural, archeological, and biblical knowledge. This
display, together with the novel’s experimental structure, will
challenge readers but ultimately reward those who are willing to make
the effort.