The Lewis chessmen are a collection of 12th-century walrus-ivory pieces discovered in 1831 on a remote coast in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides. With their intricately carved attire and wide-eyed expressions of alarm, these diminutive figures are (to the modern eye) as comic as they are awe-inducing.
SA-based writer Jennifer Mackenzie Dunbar’s novel, Missing Pieces, follows 36-year-old British Museum lab technician Marianne, who is packed off to the Isle of Lewis by her scheming boss George. While curating an exhibition on the chessmen, she becomes intrigued by the idea of the few pieces that remain undiscovered. She must also face the missing fragments in her own life: a father lost in a hit-and-run accident, and a child given up after a teenage pregnancy.
The novel’s structure is one of its strengths. Marianne’s story is interspersed with snapshots from the chess pieces’ history, beginning in medieval Iceland with Margrit the Adroit (who, according to some theories, was the original carver).
As she introduces us to a series of women who created and protected the ivory hoard, Dunbar successfully captures each unique voice, placing the book within the growing genre of novels that reclaim the forgotten women of history.
Dunbar is passionate about her subject matter, and in writing the novel has become well-versed in theories surrounding the chessmen, as well as issues such as cultural repatriation and the legacy of the Highland Clearances. Unfortunately, this wealth of research sometimes surfaces as chunks of historical exposition in her characters’ dialogue.
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A further distraction from the novel’s powerful themes is how contrived Marianne’s modern-day storyline feels. By the book’s end, narrative threads involving her father and child, an improbable Who Do You Think You Are-style family history discovery, and increasingly far-fetched sabotage efforts from the villainous George are all resolved. While there is certainly no lack of drama, the reader can usually guess these developments long before they come to pass. A similarly predictable romance subplot between Marianne and a caramel-eyed accordion player – seems to have a few missing pieces of its own.
With its timely themes and fascinating historical background, Dunbar’s novel has all the ingredients for a compelling tale, but unfortunately falls short of its potential.
Missing Pieces, by Jennifer Mackenzie Dunbar, is published by Adelaide’s MidnightSun Publishing.
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