Customer Reviews

Darling Jim: A Novel

5 star:		(50)
4 star:		(30)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

A handsome stranger on a red motorcycle comes to a small Irish town. As he travels from pub to pub telling tales of wolves and betrayal, the townspeople become enraptured with him and women are vying to become the one with whom he chooses to spend the night. One family in particular, three sisters and their aunt, are torn apart as "Darling Jim" tries to wheedle his way into the family. We learn the whole story as a postman reads the sisters' diaries and goes on a mission to discover what really happened.

This is the best book I've read in ages. Deliciously creepy without going over the top, lots of mystery, a bit of fairy tale, passion, great writing, surprising and perfect ending--absolutely everything you'd want in a book. If I could have, I would have given this 10 stars!

Gems:
An irresistible dark tale of murder and revenge successfully told from the primarily feminine point of view by a male author. Darling Jim is a story within a story within a story. The perspective does change, but the author makes transitions easy to follow and does it seamlessly without creating any disjointed jolt in time. It held my interest all the way through and I thought all the characters were fully developed and engaging. The book contained the interesting use of several themes including old fork lore, superstitions and cultural details, all of which are incorporated in modern scenery and time and expose social issues and flaws in the system. The language was neatly designed with believable dialogue and fairly tolerable imagery.

FLAWS:
Although this was a story within a story within a story, I would have liked the main tale to remain the forward focus. It needed to carry the weight and continue to capture the audience. The supporting stories provide details, but at times became a bit too lengthy. Towards the end, the story wobbles taking a turn towards the fantastical. A map, a castle gate and descriptions of wizards and princes are intended to aid to the fairy tale sub theme and could have worked if the author remained more concrete with his details. I think this approach was done to create a mysterious atmosphere but because it does not remain grounded it takes away from the actual horror of the story by making it too unbelievable and I began to lose some of the sympathy I originally felt for the sister characters. Although the author made a valiant attempt, the language did not evoke or appeal to all senses and therefore did not carrying the spine shivering effect he was most likely hoping for.

All in all, it was an entertaining read that I think is great for a stormy day or to cuddle up with on a chilly October night.

I'm going to have to part company with the rest of the reviewers on this one. While the author has an interesting voice alternating between the richly dark and the cleverly sardonic and the story concept is interesting, the execution was ultimately unsatisfying.

The beginning was compelling and remains the best part of the book. The emaciated and devastated bodies of two young women and their aunt are found in an unassuming Dublin home, under circumstances so shocking it makes the reader cringe but at the same time overwhelmed by curiosity. It's a near-flawless bit of foreshadowing that definitely set the mood - or would have.

The story then unfolds mostly via a journal written by one of the dead girls, and that's where it began to lose me. It never did recapture the feel of the well-done beginning, for me. I didn't care for the tone of the narrator Fiona, for one. It felt much too contrived. I didn't like any of the sisters, who all seemed rather directionless and dull. Most of all I thought the title character, the unbelievably (literally) handsome hottie around whom this story revolves, utterly banal. I couldn't help but think that the author (a man) had made the common mistake of many authors and decided to insert a secret fantasy version of himself into his writing. Maybe that's unfair, but that's just how it struck me. I couldn't relate to the way Fiona, Rosie, the aunt and every other female kept swooning over this rather irritating character who tells horrific fairy tale-type stories of torture and revenge. I found him a complete turn-off. I tried to just put that aside and accept the passion Fiona and the other women felt regardless of my own opinion, but I couldn't. I just couldn't relate, I suppose. I'm a woman, but I don't react that way to a man I've never met and I can't imagine doing so. Seduction on that level is cerebral, and it takes a little time - at least for most women. Or maybe that's just me! At any rate I think it was important that Jim be a well-fleshed character, and that was not accomplished by a long shot. He wasn't appealing, sexy, scary, or even interesting, and I found myself constantly wondering why this whole story centered around someone so dull.

I'd give it only one star except that it's obvious the author has talent. I'd like to see him use it a bit more creatively.

The plot sounded promising, but after reading the first few pages, I realized this was one of the most ridiculous, poorly-written books I'd ever read. I can easily get lost in other worlds and far-fetched tales, but not with Darling Jim. The diary angle could have been creative, but I couldn't imagine any captive in imminent fear for her life shaping such articulate, elaborate descriptions of how she got into the situation in the first place. The plot was contrived, Niall's commitment to his quest strained credulity, and the sisters' actions had me saying, "NO ONE would act this way!" Even the descriptions of small moments (smoking cigarettes, smoothing a skirt, tucking hair behind an ear) seemed forced into sequences that weren't natural.

The handful of negative reviews for this book are spot-on. I completely agree with Jed Murphy's comments about the author's similes: "Finally, some of the similes are frightfully bad. Something or other is 'black as the inside of a miner's lungs.' They're the kind of similes that take you right out of the story and show the author trying to be clever."

I have to finish what I start, so I read to the end, with much eye-rolling and exasperation. This is one of the most aggravating books I've ever read.

A first-rate use of Irish swear words? Check. Unsettling visuals? Check. Gratuitous make-out scenes? Check. Gripping storyline? Check. Darling Jim has everything one would expect from a Warner Brothers film-exec turned published novelist.

What I hadn't anticipated however, is the author being an über-hot Danish guy (which possibly makes the book worth buying just for the back-leaf publicity photo alone). Thus, you can imagine how the icing on my cake piled even miles thicker when I actually re-focused my drooling gawk long enough to discover that Christian Moerk has a beautiful genius with words. I'd even stumble so far as to call his debut American novel a fair exercise in literary fiction.

"God averted his eyes from number 1 Strand Street and, instead, sent rolling clouds draped in suicide gray in from the sea to obscure something imminent not meant for public consumption," caused me to break off from my Constant Comment tea, mid-sip, just to re-read the sentence. Not for clarity's sake, but for pleasure. The pleasure of words. Words and their strange possibilities . . . something which Darling Jim has in loads. Possibility: Of love. Fear. Obsession. Humanity. Murder . . .

Especially murder.

Two young ladies and their aunt are found dead just north of Dublin, and the response of the locals is to shake their heads over whispered gossip and quick burials. All except for Niall, the postman, who discovers a diary kept by one of the girls--and through it, a nomadic storyteller who seduces women with his tales of princes and castles, haunted woods and wolves. Except, wherever this bard wanders, women end up dead.

I'll just say it now that I realize this book may not work for some of you who have certain sensitivities toward the gothic genre and sexual encounters. In fact, I personally had to skip over a few highly inappropriate scenes. But others of you will find within it a thought-provoking reflection on the depravity of human nature as well as the art of good storytelling.

Three brazen Irish sisters. A petty town called Castletownbere. A too-appealing storyteller. A lonely aunt. The postal worker who finds the bodies . . .

It's all there. You just have to follow the stories that trickle along like blood from the book's opening line, "Long after the house had been disinfected for new occupants and the bodies rested safely in the ground, people still didn't come near it."

This novel starts off in Dublin with a horrifying scene, when the local postman peeks through the mail slot of Auntie Moira's home, to see a bluish-black, swollen body. The Garda are summoned and sister's, Roisin and Fiona are found deceased, as well, elsewhere in the home. A quick investigation reveals the girls had been prisoners of their dear Aunt, poisoned and starved to death. But why? And, there's evidence of another prisoner who can't be found. Could it be Aoife, the third and missing sister?

The once idyllic, Irish town of Castletownbere has lost its innocence, at the hands of---'darling Jim.' He rides into town on his red motorcycle pumping out pheromones, and temptation, as sure as the Devil would. He begins to put his spell on the ladies, while telling tales in the local Pub. Tales of mystery, betrayal, treachery and magic, along with a little lore of the wolf. He terminates each segment with cliffhangers leaving the audience begging for more---of the story, and of him. You're left to wonder if he is just a charismatic, antisocial personality disorder, or if there is something demonic driving his appeal. Just who is this mysterious, intoxicating guy?

Only the sisters know the true mystery surrounding Jim, leading to their destruction. They realize only they can reveal the story. Roisin and Fiona, knowing they have only a short time to live, set out to write their stories through detailed diaries. Stories within stories, unfold, each filling in pieces of the puzzle beautifully.

Since the sisters and Aunt are dead, when we first meet them, Moerk does a splendid job of bringing these characters to life through the girls' journals. I found myself becoming quite attached to all of them. Well, maybe not Auntie Moira, although I did feel sorry for her in some respects. And, even though I knew their fates in advance, except for Aoife, it did not diminish the sadness I felt for what they had to go through, as the novel progressed. This was a very clever, creative endeavor, that paid off well and had those pages flying.

Then we have one final story---that of Niall, who comes across Fiona's diary (and later Roisin's) and becomes obsessed with uncovering what happened to the Walsh sisters, as well as the fate of Jim. It is through his harrowing, personal investigation, that concrete discoveries are made and the story finds closure.

Yes, I found flaws with Moerk's first novel, but it will be a success in spite of them. For these flaws, did nothing to dampen my desire to complete the story. Finding the truth behind this mystery of horror became almost as compelling and obsessive for me as it was for Niall. His wanting to seek the truth was believable for me, because under the same circumstances, I think I just might have set out on the same quest.

The 'Seanchai' are the keepers of the Irish lore. According to Moerk, they can sometimes still be found in Ireland today, traveling and telling their tales. It is an honored and well crafted skill. I suspect that if Moerk sat in one of those Pubs telling the story of 'Darling Jim,' he might just be declared a 'Seanchai' himself. He can certainly spin a yarn!

I think it helps to be a lover of all things Irish to truly appreciate this dark macabre tale. The small-town Irish setting is as important as the characters in establishing the eerie tone which resonates throughout. There is an ancient feel to Ireland which anyone who has spent any time there is acutely aware of, and with which this gifted author has permeated his story.

The title character, Jim, is an itinerant storyteller, who weaves magical sexual fairy tales in pubs, seemingly just for the coins which he can collect from his enthralled listeners. But Jim earns more than pocket money from his stories. He earns sexual favors from fascinated women, and he captures their hearts with his charm and wit. One evening he rides his vintage red motorcycle into the village where three sisters and their frumpy aunt live.

The oldest sister, Fiona, the first narrator of the story of "Darling Jim" is a bored schoolteacher who shares one incredibly lustful night with Jim. He moves on without a backward glance the next day. Jealous, Fiona follows him to his next storytelling engagement where he picks up another woman. Fiona follows the couple, and thinks that she has discovered that Jim and an accomplice are not just con men, but robbers and serial murderers. But when she finds out that she is mistaken -- or at least it seems so -- she becomes a laughingstock to everyone in town except her younger twin sisters, Aoife and Roisin.

However Fiona is not wrong about Jim's true nature. And when Jim diabolically insinuates himself into the lives of these three sisters by seducing and proposing marriage to their gullible aunt, their lives change forever. After threatening Fiona, and then committing a brutal rape against one of the twins, Jim's dark persona causes the sisters to descend into a nightmare of murder, torture and death.

Although this is a grisly story, it is wonderfully written. Told from beyond the grave by several of the main characters, the story is full of unexpected twists and elegant foreshadowings of the novel's horrible happenings. The foreshadowing makes the ultimate fates of the characters seem satisfyingly inevitable -- and the technique also makes the story very immediate and realistic. The author is erudite in his use of language. I found myself reading with pen in hand so I could mark especially well-worded phrases, such as describing the town as having "professionally cute storefronts."

Literary references to death and suffering add to the dark pull the story has on the reader. For instance, the young postal worker, Niall, who finds and reads Fiona's diary discovers it in the dead letter bin, evoking Melville's doomed "Bartleby the Scrivener."

I loved this gothic novel, and I recommend it to anyone who shivers with glee at the thought of a damp moor on a wild Irish night, full of thumps and strange footsteps, and perhaps an unearthly creature or two.

I have not read anything this good since "The Thirteenth Tale" by Diane Setterfield. And as Ms. Setterfield pointed out, it is important for a good story to have a 'beginning','middle' & 'end' that properly builds on each other to hold the readers attention.

Mr Moerk delivers in spades! In some ways quite literally, but I don't want to give too much a way.

Darling Jim is, without giving any spoilers, a sociopathic rapist. So knowing this going in how on earth can a story build any suspense? That is what sets this novel aside from the wannabes.

The story takes place in Ireland & revolves around the introduction of the three Walsh sisters: Fiona, Roisin, & Aoife and their unfortunate, tragic and unpredictable interaction with 'Darling Jim'. Wrapped around this equation is the young women's aunt Moira; a woman whose disapointment in love and loss in life finally pushes her over the edge. The result is a tale like none other than you have ever heard and a real page turner.

The author includes an afterword where he discusses the actual events that eventually inspired "Darling Jim". Interestingly enough, while I was reading this I thought of ANOTHER as of yet outstanding unsolved mystery in Ireland. Throughout the 90's and early 2000's young women have been disappearing without a trace in and around Dublin. This investigation reached international publicity with the disappearance of Annie Mc Carrick, an American whose family wouldn't let the mystery or the astounding ineptitude of the Irish 'Gardia' die.

While reading this book Mr. Moerk does nothing to dispell the sheer idiocy of the Irish Gardia (why do they bother? you will ask yourself repeatedly.) this may offend some but it does help illustrate why Ireland has so many great myths and mysteries.

The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel

Death, secrets, hatred, and obsession--I won't call it love, what the women of Castletownbere and too many other towns felt for Jim Quick. His stories wormed their way into hidden places of the mind. His voice, his eyes hooked them like opium. And women died... and he remained the county's darling Jim.

Christian Moerk is the real master of story, not Jim Quick, and his skills bring most of the main characters to breathing, cursing, defiant life. Fiona and Roisin Walsh are his heroines, telling their stories beyond the graves willful blindness dug for them. Niall Cleary finds their diaries and chases across Ireland for the truths they never found. You can feel the eyes of the savage village gossips on you and almost smell the cigarettes. There's a sense of inevitability to every stage of the Walsh sisters' downfall; the incidents tumble like dominos to bury them in the end, but the suspense of it never quite leaves even when you know from the start what the ending will be. This is Moerk's first book published in America, the jacket says. I predict a long and successful writing career for him.

But--something's missing. What should be a brilliant book doesn't live up to its potential. The horror isn't strong *enough*, there's a strange emptiness at the story's very center, and I think it's Jim Quick himself. He needs to be a dark, beguiling, charismatic figure to make much of the plot make any sense at all, but for me he was a mostly empty cypher, someone I was told again and again had mesmerizing power over women but when he was on the stage I couldn't see the fascination. If I understood what about him compelled so many to abandon their reason I'd probably praise _Darling Jim_ to the skies. It definitely hurts the book that I just *don't*.

It may not matter so long as you're willing to take Jim's power on faith, and either way this is strong, emotional work that didn't disappoint. Anybody with a taste for horror who likes the sound of the book flap summary can read it with confidence they'll probably enjoy it. Take care to pick it up when you've time free; you don't want to end up like Niall and get in trouble for reading dark secrets through the night.

Darling Jim starts slow and builds momentum until you're on a full-out speeding train and you can't stop until you get to the end. It's a dark, gritty, modern day romance with sex and violence and a fairy tale twisted enough for the Brothers Grimm. If you want to know what the story is about, read the description. If you want to know if it's worth buying, here's my opinion.
The cast of characters is well developed and widely varies. I could literally hear their voices speaking as I read the last half of the book. I judge a book by several things, but one of the simplest is how I feel at the end. If I continue to think about the characters for days after I've finished the last written page, then the book is a success. This book is a success on several levels. I definitely recommend it.
The story is told in both first person and narrative with different people providing the perspective as the tale unfolds. I never knew what was going to be revealed next and while I had a hard time getting accustomed to the Irish names and settings in the beginning, I soon became so caught up in the story that I couldn't put it down. In fact, I finally allocated a full morning to do nothing but read so that I could finish this tale.
Note: While there is sex and violence aplenty in this book, none of it is gratuitous or overly explicit. You know what's going on and you don't need to have the gory details smashed in your face. This is something I greatly appreciate and find in too short supply in many modern novels. The tale is dark, don't read it if you are looking for a romance novel or a sunny little romp in "chick flick land." It's not all dark though and it won't leave the reader stranded in a depressing state of noir when it ends. This is a good read of just the right length and depth for a recreational break, be it a weekend or an all out vacation. I don't suggest you read it at bedtime though, unless you want to stay up reading all night just to find out what happens next.