Having read several of Lisa Goldstein‘s books (The Dream Years, Tourists, A Mask for the General, Walking the Labyrinth) I was happy when I saw on my local public library’s shelf one I haven’t: Dark Cities Underground. I was even happier when the first page of the book talked about Kabbalah, a hobby of mine: “The Shadow Committee had seen to it that BART was built in the shape of an aleph. Aleph was the first letter in the Hebrew alphabet, the Kabbalistic sign of beginnings.” Later on there are far less references to Hebrew mythology and much more to Egyptians, but the opening cheered me up enough. I feel though that I would have got more out of the book if I had been more versed on Egyptian history and literature.
I am lucky enough that I traveled on most of the underground lines covered in the book, including New York, London, Paris and the ay area in northern California. These locations (and Moscow, where I haven’t made it yet) are integral part of the book. The cities mentioned in the title are along the lines of the lines of these transportation systems. Except that in the novel they transport way beyond to the known areas, both in physical and in metaphysical sense.
The third kind of background information that may help to have a deeper appreciation of the books is Children’s books from the 20th century, particularly ones where children go on a journey on their own. These three distinct areas (underground transportation systems, Egyptian mythology, and children’s book) are woven together in a magical and seamless way in Goldstein’s book, forming the basis of a mystery novel, where a mother is searching for her lost daughter a man for his lost childhood and a woman for her dead husband. If any of these intrigues you I recommend you reading this book. I liked Goldstein’s poetic prose and you might like it too.
