Customer Reviews

Dark places

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Kate Grenville is a terrific writer. Her prose is clear, concise and flowing, yet never dry or prosaic. Albion Gidley Singer, the subject of "Dark Places", could very easily have become a caricature, but in Grenville's expert hands, he is at once a monster for the evil he perpetrates but also a victim of his parent's grotesque upbringing methods. Brought up to despise the female species - in his eyes, soft, weak, mindless, lacking in intellect and above all, trivial - the cruelty he shows to his society wife Nora and his fat but intelligent daughter Lilian, is a front and a cover up for his own pitifully underdeveloped inner self. He surrounds himself and obsesses with facts simply because he hasn't the ability to offer an opinion or make a common human judgement on anything. Lacking a sense of humour, he is socially inept but retreats behind a picture perfect persona manufactured to fool the world. His unspeakable cruelty and crime against the rebellious Lilian marks the start of his own unrevelling. Even poor weak John finds his vocation and loosens himself from Albion's clutches. "Dark Places" is a fascinating study of dysfunctionality, yet there are times you feel your interest dulled by the sheer deadweight of its predictability in characterisation and its unremitting sense of doom. If not for Grenville's remarkable skills as a writer, some may even find it one dimensional and tiresome in parts. I myself enjoyed it immensely and would recommend it as a text to be studied and discussed.

The narration/ point of view in this novel is really exceptional as it all takes place in the mind of a supposedly upstanding Aussie citizen, owner of a family stationary business, men's clubbite, and ravenous consumer of all and any facts, especially odd reproductive habits of plants and animals, not exempting the human species. There is so much dark and wry humor in this 1st person narrative that I was laughing almost against my better instincts thruout. Every scene is near perfect from the awkward courtship ceremonies of our slowing maddening hero, through the visits to brothels, business practices, and family life/marriage through to the bitter end.For a truly unique perspective into the mind of a very depraved man, this one is hard to beat. And to think it was written by a woman! Amazing!

This is a novel of outstanding quality in every respect. Grenville knows how to write right across the gender barrier. If one were to remove all details of authorship from the cover of Dark Places, I very much doubt that even the best critic would detect that the author was female. She does a spectactular job of writing from a male perspective. Her main character Albion Gidley Singer, is to all intents and purposes an upstanding male citizen who comes complete with all the accolades of success, but who has a very dark side. He has "... a fear and loathing of the flesh of females." Worse still, he despises himself. What's interesting about Grenville's approach to this character is that the reader somehow becomes Albion; that he/she is transformed into the monster that he is. Ironically, there's no way that Grenville is being anti-male here. In fact, she shows the reader that Albion is a victim of his mother as much as he is a victim of a patriarchal society and ultimately, himself. A fascinating novel that takes the reader white water rafting into the darker realms of their consciousness.

Dark Places (aka Albion's Story) is the prequel to Lilian's Story by Kate Grenville, although it was published after Lilian's Story. Albion Gidley Singer can be defined as: the son of George Augustus Singer and Angelica Singer; the brother of Kristabel Singer; an acquaintance of James Ogilvie; proprietor of Singer Enterprises and pillar of society; husband of Norah Singer; father of Lilian and John Singer. But who is he really? He cannot grasp his real self; he feels he is an empty, hollow shell. This novel is filled with beautiful, evocative prose and haunting characters. The story dovetails neatly with events in Lilian's Story, and, after reading that novel, it is intriguing to see Albion's point of view of events described in common. It is also interesting to come to understand how Lilian's father came to be the way he was. A thought-provoking read.