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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Barker's Carnival,
By
This review is from: Darkmans (Paperback)
This incredible, Booker-nominated novel from Nicola Barker hasn't gotten much attention on this side of the pond. This is tragic. "Darkmans" didn't win the Booker either, which doesn't surprise me. The big, anarchic comic novel doesn't do so well with prize juries (think "Gravity's Rainbow," 1973.) But how alive this book is! Barker's touch is deft and quick, and she has an unerring ear for the dialogue (external and internal) of her characters. These include a text-messaging drug dealer who reveals an unexpected compassion, a precocious child building a medieval town out of matchsticks, and the unlikeliest and funniest evangelical convert in recent memory.
I can't do justice to Barker's enormous achievement here. Her great theme is the way the past seeps into the present, the ways we betray our ancestors and also, inevitably, stumble up against them. Ghosts of the past, both recent and ancient, haunt her characters in vivid and bizarre ways. (One character, in a trance, digs for a petrified forest that has sunk below the tide; characters blurt out etymologies like ums and ers.) Her rich sense of history pervades the novel, but "Darkmans" also feels utterly contemporary with its unique form and propulsive prose. You will whip through these 848 pages, breaking only for laughter. Don't miss this one!
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Technically Well-Written, but Nowhere Plotlines,
By
This review is from: Darkmans (Paperback)
Darkmans is a joy to read - in the literal sense. The sentences are well-crafted, the humor is pervasive and intelligent, the cadence is captivating. Unfortunately, all I'm left with is that Ms. Barker will someday write a great novel - this one just isn't it.
The fatal flow, as others have pointed out, is the incoherent mess of a plot. The book is long (800+) and yet very little happens. What does happen doesn't fully coalesce into any recognizable beast. It's muddled and it's blurry. The last 20 pages are the most difficult. It's clear Ms. Barker was basically told to wrap things up as soon as possible, and with no clear plot line to seal up, she just threw down some random threads and hoped that no one would notice the frayed ends. Despite this, I did enjoy reading the book. Her style is enjoyable - she knows HOW to tell a tale. She just needs to find one worth telling.
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Yowza,
By
This review is from: Darkmans (Paperback)
A wacky, deranged, baffling, fabulous linguistic romp. How many books can boast that? Nicola Barker is clearly insane and loves language and loves history and loves creating real characters. What a surprising pleasure to read this bizarre book!
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