An astronomer works nights in an observatory in Dorset. Nearby an archaeologist with a crippled wife excavates a tumulus around which strange shapes flit. A retired TV comedian whose act is based upon the innocent malapropisms of his wife seeks a cottage he remembers. And are the local yokels comical or sinister?
It is written in the past tense, head-hopping between the PoVs of a number of characters in very short chapters.
In some ways this is typical of much of Ackroyd's work: normal life encounters a supernatural element. There are some extravagant, almost Dickensian characters (the city-living representative from the government who pretends to be wildly enthusiastic about everything as a PR technique was my favourite) and the exuberance of the portrayal more than compensated for the stereotyping (of, for example, the farmer, the camp antique dealer, and the comedian). There were some jokes. But the plot seemed very hackneyed: archaeologists disturb ancient and occult powers; it reminded me of the ancient TV show 'Raven' starring Phil Daniels but also of countless similar novels. And the prose was sometimes very dense. Given the Dorset connection I wondered whether John Cowper Powys (eg Wolf Solent) or Thomas Hardy had been influences.
Some memorable moments:
- "Everything has to end ... All we're doing is waiting for the end." (Ch 32)
- "They say that suffering is noble. But it's not. It's a mean thing. A petty thing. It crushes the meaning from you." (Ch 32)
- "I was dazzled by my own madness, like a man upon an operating table who looks up and sees the lights at the same moment as he shrieks with pain." (Ch 45)
- "But everything was left unsaid. There were avenues of silence down which they walked by mutual consent" (Ch 48)
March 2021; 328 pages
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| This review was written by the author of Motherdarling |
Other novels by the prolific and talented Peter Ackroyd include:
- The Clerkenwell Tales
- The Lambs of London
- The Fall of Troy (also based on archaeology)
- Milton in America
- Hawksmoor (one of his earliest, and still my favourite)
- The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein
- Chatterton
- The House of Doctor Dee
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