Darkmans [Paperback]

Nicola Barker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 27, 2007

Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, Darkmans is an exhilarating, extraordinary examination of the ways in which history can play jokes on us all... If History is just a sick joke which keeps on repeating itself, then who exactly might be telling it, and why? Could it be John Scogin, Edward IV's infamous court jester, whose favorite pastime was to burn people alive - for a laugh? Or could it be Andrew Boarde, Henry VIII's physician, who kindly wrote John Scogin's biography? Or could it be a tiny Kurd called Gaffar whose days are blighted by an unspeakable terror of - uh - salad? Or a beautiful, bulimic harpy with ridiculously weak bones? Or a man who guards Beckley Woods with a Samurai sword and a pregnant terrier?

Darkmans is a very modern book, set in Ashford [a ridiculously modern town], about two very old-fashioned subjects: love and jealousy. It's also a book about invasion, obsession, displacement and possession, about comedy, art, prescription drugs and chiropody. And the main character? The past, which creeps up on the present and whispers something quite dark - quite unspeakable - into its ear.

The third of Nicola Barker's narratives of the Thames Gateway, Darkmans is an epic novel of startling originality.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

There isn't much plot to Barker's Man Booker-shortlisted novel (after Clear and Behindlings), but a cast of eccentric characters, a torrent of inventive prose and an irresistible synthesis of wickedly humorous and unsettlingly supernatural elements more than compensate for the loose itinerary. The novel is set in a contemporaneous British district bisected by the arrival of the Channel Tunnel's international passenger station, a sore point for one of the central characters, cranky 61-year-old Daniel Beede, distraught at the loss of local landmarks. Beede is estranged from his prescription drug-dealing son Kane, though they share a flat, where Gaffar, a muscular Kurdish refugee with a rabid fear of salad greens, takes up residence. Beede is friends with Elen, a podiatrist, and with Isidore, Elen's paranoid and narcoleptic husband; their young son Fleet is a spooky prodigy who, in one of this intricate tale's several instances of mind-bending nuttiness, may actually be Isidore's ancestor from nine generations ago. This improbable premise is supported by the boy's propensity for quoting bits of the biography of King Edward IV's court jester, one John Scogin, the dark man who haunts the book. Despite the story's plotless sprawl, any reader open to the appeal of an ambitious author's kaleidoscopic imagination will relish this bravura accomplishment.
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Review

‘This is the work of a very fine storyteller indeed.’ The Times‘The writing is often hilarious. Barker carves up the suburban dinner party savagely, and anatomises the dodgiest builder on Earth…Nicola Barker’s writing is hugely attractive, because it conjures images and ideas from a tremendous wealth of inspiration. It is the product of a powerful, sprawling imagination.’ Daily Telegraph‘a loud shout of glorious, untidy, angry, joyous life. Barker is a great, restless novelist, and “Darkmans” is a great, restless novel. At the end of 838 blinding, high-octane pages, I was bereft that there weren’t 838 more.’ Guardian'When a new novel by Nicola Barker arrives, there is a host of reasons to break into a smile. Chief among them is that she is one of the most exhilarating, audacious and, for want of a better word, ballsy writers of her generation. And, in a publishing terrain that often inhibits ambition and promotes homogeneity, there is nobody writing quite like her.’ Observer‘A visionary epic.’ Sam Leith, in the Spectator ‘Books of the Year’'Darkmans is all about the ebullience of language, the erruption of the past into the present, the seriousness and darkness of jokes. It defies moderation because it celebrates misrule. Highly original and interesting, and doing it with conviction and sharp humour. I know I whipped through its more than 800 pages with attention unbroken. And I know that the very night I finished it, it showed up in my dreams. Seriously.' Literary Review'An idiosyncratic, witty and utterly original vision of Albion.' Independent on Sunday‘There is a constant sense she might launch us into the minds of one of her psychotics and leave us there, and this gives her books a fearsome energy.' Independent'Barker's flair for acidic description and ability to buff up the most tired old cliché and make it gleam serve her well in rendering this landscape in all its mundane splendour. Barker's fiendish sense of humour and her unshirking determination to pla... --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 848 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (November 27, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061575216
• ISBN-13: 978-0061575211
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #271,194 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Barker's Carnival, January 8, 2008

By 

Eric Lundgren (St Louis, MO) - See all my reviews
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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, July 11, 2008

By 

Tom Olick (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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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, February 6, 2008

By 

SBO - See all my reviews

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!