PILGRIM, by Timothy Findley, Harpercollins, 496 pages, $25In April 1912, an art historian named Pilgrim hangs himself from a maple tree in the garden behind his London home. When his butler discovers him three hours later, Pilgrim is apparently dead. But seven hours after this suicide, Pilgrim's heart begins to beat and he once more begins to breathe. Another of many attempts to end his life has failed.
The revived Pilgrim cannot speak. He is taken to a psychiatric clinic in Zurich, where he soon becomes the personal obsession of a brilliant staff psychiatrist, Carl Gustav Jung, who is intrigued by the challenge Pilgrim presents. When Pilgrim finally speaks, his confession is stunning:
"I am older than the mountains beyond those windows, and like the vampire I despise, I have lived many times, Dr. Jung. Who knows, as Leda, I might have been the mother of Helen -- or, as Anne, the mother of Mary. I was Orion once, who lost his sight and regained it. I was also a crippled shepherd in thrall of Saint Teresa of Avila; an Irish stable boy and a maker of stained glass at Chartres. I stood on the ramparts of Troy and witnessed the death of Hector. I saw the first performance of 'Hamlet' and the first performance of Moliere, the actor . . . I am both male and female. I am ageless, and I have no access to death."
As a man of science, Jung at first thinks Pilgrim is delusional, and that his vivid memories are dreams. But the evidence suggests a more startling explanation, that Pilgrim is speaking the truth, and that he has lived for 4,000 years, has witnessed some of the great events of history and has known personally some of the great figures who shaped Western culture.
The best evidence for this comes from Pilgrim's fascinating journal, provided by his friend, Lady Sybil Quartermain. As Jung reads the journal, it becomes apparent that he is as demonized as Pilgrim. Both have voices talking to them, haunting them because of their shortcomings, causing each to become more confused.
The premise may seem outlandish, but in the hands of a gifted storyteller and a master of dialogue, it is beautifully written, genuinely suspenseful and infinitely mysterious. Considering the author's lack of a formal education, his eloquent use of language and his mastery of historical characters and events in framing the novel are brilliant.
Findley uses real historical characters and events to frame his story, such as Jung, a famed psychoanalyst who worked with Freud and actually devised the theory of "the collective unconscious," which he described in his collected works as "a category of the imagination, consisting of mythological motifs" taken from all nations.
"In fact," said Jung (in his writings, not the novel), "mythology is a sort of projection of the collective unconscious," and "heavenly constellations explain the influence of the stars as asserted by astrologers. These influences are nothing but unconscious, introspective perceptions of the activity of the collective unconscious. Just as the constellations were projected into the heavens, similar figures were projected into legends and fairy tales or upon historical persons."
Findley has made Jung's real theory of the collective unconscious a major element in the story.
The great question of the novel -- "Who is Pilgrim and why does he want to die so badly?" -- is not really answered, except by implication, but the story is provocative indeed.