Ideally we should all let
go of the past as what is past is past, good or bad decisions have been made,
we are where we are. Even if we are allowed to travel back to the past, we
cannot recapture the feelings we had nor revisit the wonderful experience
we had in our youth when we are no
longer the youths we once were. If we believe that things happen for a reason,
do we really want to rewind the past ? Everything is transient and it is
necessary for us to be present at every moment of our being. Easier said than done as we carry our
past with us and they become part of the emotional baggage we carry and if we do not handle
them properly, they haunt us and
even stunt our growth. 
Every Anxious Wave , the debut novel by Mo Daviau is an
engaging read for those who like the concept of time travel. Ms Daviau cleverly weaves a story that
centres on the theme of time travel where the characters are able to make trips to not only their past but
their future as well and in the course of undoing certain traumatic incidents
that have scarred them for life, they face a new kind of challenge.
One of the main
characters, Karl Bender has just turned 40. Karl feels miserable as he clings on his memories of his
ex-girlfriend and the Axis, an Indie rock band he played in throughout the 90s.
He owns the Dictator’s Club, a bar in Chicago and his life revolves between his
dingy apartment and his bar. One day he stumbles upon a wormhole in the closet
of his abode. He starts using the wormhole for selling trips to the past to
fellow music fans and he accidentally sends his buddy Wayne to Manhatta in the
year 980 when the latter wants to
travel to Manhattan in 1980 to save John Lennon’s life. Reentry requires an
electrical power source and Wayne
would have to be in a place with many electromagnetic fields. Karl finds Lena
Geduldig, a PhD student in astrophysics and in the course of working on ways to get Wayne back , they
end up finding themselves falling in love, entangled with their own pasts and
somehow their meddling around with time travel threaten their future together.
Meanwhile as they find a way to get Wayne back, Wayne is comfortable where he
is and although he misses Karl, the bar and his mom, he does not miss Chicago
or his job. Where he is, the sunsets are too beautiful and the people whom he
has met don’t hate or compete and they find food, they eat and they share
everything, ‘and they all
seem to love each other in this
really magical, uncomplicated way.’
Ms Daviau writes:
I RECEIVED A long –email from Wayne :
The
native tribe I have hooked up with has names. I wrote them down with ash on a
leaf. Would it be wrong to teach them written English ? They are long and
complicated names, names that contort the tongue in new and stretchy ways. They
gave me a name that sounds like Honnakuit. It probably means “ tall pasty white
guy.” They are not armed and seem to be very concerned with oen another. They
sit very close to each other in a circle to eat. They all have long hair, even
the men, and spend a lot of time doing each other’s hair…………………………………
The story is hilarious and
as they bounce around time, the characters realize that when they try to change
their pasts, they might mess up
the present as well. The novel asks the question : who would we become if we
were to rewrite our pasts? Ultimately love is what propels the characters to
hold on to across time. click
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