A Review of ‘The Metaphysical Touch’ by Sylvia Brownrigg

(Phoenix, 1998)

When I stumbled across this book in my local library, I thought it sounded fairly entertaining, that it would be good to read on the train to work, some light reading to pass the time.  It turned out to be one of the most intriguing and compelling books I’ve read in recent years.  I did read it on the train, and just about everywhere else, until I had devoured the whole story.

On the surface, this is a fairly simple, straight-forward tale.  A young woman in California is attempting to move on with her life after a fire destroyed all her possessions, including her beloved philosophy books and her philosophy thesis.  On the other side of the states, a young man is gradually posting a ‘diery’, which he intends to be the ‘longest suicide note in history’, on an Internet noticeboard.  The two start to communicate by e-mail.  Their meeting at this important point in both their lives affects both them and those around them.  And, as they learn about each other, so does the reader.  Soon they realise that they have found themselves as well as each other.

But The Metaphysical Touch is more than a modern-day love story.  It can be read as one, but there are also other, more intriguing levels to this book.  The young woman is a philosopher, nicknamed ‘Pi’, and through her we come to understand the place that philosophy and thought, and metaphysics (the branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of existence and knowledge), holds in her life and in society.  Also covered are sociology and literature, as the characters discuss life and try to make sense of the world and their place within it.  Pi is alone and wondering what can define her life now that her philosophy is as good as gone; whilst the young man, JD, is depressed to the point of suicide by trying to find his place in the world. He embarks on a journey, both physical and spiritual, to find an elusive soul-mate.  The person he believes has always been missing from his life.  A Horatio to his Hamlet, as he tells a friend.  And then he finds Pi, and although they have never met face-to-face, he wonders whether it is she who is the missing piece of the puzzle.  In the same way, it is her conversations with, and finally, love for, JD that enables Pi to move on with her life after the fire.  Through e-mails about nature, people, society, literature, and of course philosophy, they develop a ‘metaphysical touch’ with each other and the world in general.  And the reader is along for the ride. 

Sylvia Brownrigg mixes humour and drama to tell this sweet and thought-provoking tale.  Her characters become friends and her descriptions are colourful and interesting.  There is originality and charm, and an unexpected ending.  A blend of old-fashioned romance and modern relationships, of the humorous and the emotional, and of the dramatic and entertaining.    

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