Customer Reviews

Drood: A Novel

5 star:		(61)
4 star:		(45)
3 star:		(42)
2 star:		(34)
1 star:		(22)

 

 

At nearly 800 pages, Drood is literally a doorstopper of a book. Set in 1865 through 1870, the story centers around Charles Dickens, beginning with his train accident at Staplehurst on the ninth of June. On that very day, as Dickens rushes to assist the dead and dying, he meets a mysterious, and quite creepy, man named Drood. Dickens's story is narrated by Wilkie Collins, both friend and competitor, as Drood plays a kind of cat-and-mouse game with the two authors, in the dangerous underbelly of London.

I had a really, really hard time putting this book down. It's just my kind of novel: lots of adventure, lots of tension. The narrator has a tendency to wander a bit, going off on tangents when he should be following the story, but I didn't see the extra information (and there's a lot of it thrown in) as detracting from it. Rather, I liked all the biographical notes on both Dickens and Collins, and I liked the interactions they had with one another, and the creative give-and-take of information that lead to novels like The Moonstone and The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Although Collins talks mostly about Dickens (sometimes with jealousy) and his demons, Collins finds that he has a few demons of his own to vanquish.

The biggest problem I had with this book was the ending. Honestly, I felt a bit cheated: the ending of the book was very anticlimactic, disappointing after all that wonderful buildup. And there are some parts of Chapter 25 that sound as though Simmons ripped them right from the movie The Mummy.

But for the most part, I enjoyed this novel. It contained great characters (though both Dickens and Collins could be infuriating at times), and great suspense.

I have been a fan of Dan Simmons work for over 20 years and this is the 25th book that I have read by him. I almost always enjoy his work. That being said I have never been so surprised by all the 5-star reviews for a book as I am with this one. If you read the jacket blurb on Dan Simmons' latest novel you would think that this book was about a mysterious underworld character named Drood, who Charles Dickens obsessed over in the last 5 years of his life. Or you may think that the book is centered on Dickens himself. Both of these sound interesting but unfortunately this book is about neither.

It is about, and narrated by, one Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens' friend, collaborator and competitor. This is more of a personal diary than an actual story. When you read this you will want Wilkie to get to the point on Dickens and Drood but what you will get get for most of the book is Wilkie's ramblings about every aspect of his personal life. You will get detailed self-absorbed descriptions about his writing, his 2 relationships with women, his theater work, his dining habits, his relationship with his mother, his appearance, which one of his various places he will sleep on a given night, his increasing dependence on opium, and lengthy descriptions of his domestic situations. Over 771 pages he will spare you no detail. Simmons is a good writer so some of these are interesting or humorous but nowhere close to entertain us over almost 800 pages. Yes, there is a story in here about Dickens and Drood (sort of) but maybe this covers one third of the book. To say that half or more of this book should have been lopped off by a good editor is in no way an exaggeration.

But what is truly amazing is that if one manages to wade through all the minutiae of Wilkie Collins' life to get to the meat of the Dickens/Drood story there is an additional caveat - as the story goes on Wilkie is more and more impaired by opium so you can't rely on everything his says being true! Did this event actually happen? Did Wilkie imagine it? Have a hallucination? Often we never find out and you realize that most of this book is pointless.

Now I suspect that the author's response to my criticism would probably point out that this is the point of the book - the jealousy, arrogance and weakness of Collins compared to the great Dickens. That may be so but I personally can't take this in such a large dose, and more importantly no one could possibly get a clue from the marketing of this book that this is in fact what it is about! I will admit to greatly enjoying the last 50 pages of this book as Wilkie's character is exposed even further; It is just a shame that it took such a long and sometimes tedious path to get there.

...and ended so poorly. The opening chapters of Drood had me completely hooked. "Can't wait to read all of DS' novels," I thought. "Man, this guy can write." Well, turns out DS has Dickensian ambitions but talents for story-craft that fall far short of the Dickensian. To whit: Drood is long. Endlessly endlessly long. And far from the fascinating exploration of the human psyche -- healthy or addled, murderous or mild -- that some critics claim, it is the banalest of explorations, chicken scratches on the surface of what might (and at 800 pages(!) should) have been a psychologically penetrating narrative. Another DS pretension: that he is master of the unexpected. The 'twist' in this novel comes about 30 pages before the novel wraps. Let me just say: seriously? That's your idea of a zinger, DS? No spoilers here; if you've read this far and decide to slog through Drood anyway, far be it from me to chip away at what little reading pleasure you're likely take from the experience. Who knows, perhaps your own readerly sympathies will align with those of the Publisher's Weekly critic who gave Drood a "starred" review, or the New Yorker critic who crows that DS is "a master of otherworldly suspense" who "cleverly explores envy's corrosive effects." My theory: both critics wrote their reviews under the corrosive influence of laudanum and the mesmeric arts.

My second star is for DS' occasional flashes of writerly brilliance. When this guy writes well, he really really writes well. 50 pages' worth of Drood was the stuff of a 5-star novel for sure. Would that Dickens or Collins had risen from the grave to rewrite the remaining 700...

A delightful book, made so by the voice of the narrator, Wilkie Collins. I will leave the details of the plot and it's historical basis to other reviewers. The humor, surprise, and dread of which this book is brimming all come from Dan Simmons' creation of the drug addicted, envious, murdering, completely self absorbed Collins. Simmons has worked the same magic that Nabakov (I am not comparing their stature as writers) did in Lolita, taking despicable feelings and acts and by inverting them make them entertaining.
To me he carries it off flawlessly, keeping a steady forceful momentum from beginning to end.

Let me start out by first saying that I'm a big, big fan of the novels by Dan Simmons and have been for over a decade. I think his last book, The Terror, was one of the finest horror/historical novels ever written, and I was hoping for more of the same with Drood. Unfortunately for me, Drood proved to be one of the most boring books I've ever read. It's nearly eight hundred pages long, and the blasted thing took me a solid month to read. I almost stopped reading the novel several times during the course of those four weeks, but only kept at it because of a promise I'd made to review it. The Terror, on the other hand, is nearly a thousand pages in length; yet, I read that in eight days, which pretty much says it all.

Drood deals with the last five years of Charles Dickens' life as told by his one-time friend and collaborator, Wilkie Collins, the author of Moonstone. In 1865, Dickens was in a terrible train accident that left dozens of people dead or injured. As the great English author was helping those still alive, he encountered another passenger named Edwin Drood, who's appearance would be enough to give children nightmares for the rest of their lives. While Dickens is attempting to give comfort to other passengers, Drood appears to be sucking the life right out of the ones he comes into contact with and bringing about their deaths. The actions and strange physical appearance Drood begins to haunt the author's mind after he returns to London and his life of writing, public readings, his family and mistress, and to his close friends in the literary community. In time, Dickens tries to find out more about Mr. Drood and eventually discovers that the man is supposedly an outcast from Egypt and lives in the catacombs of underground London. Dickens' trip through the catacombs with his friend, Wilkie Collins, is one of the most suspenseful and terrifying journeys he has ever traveled and it leaves a definite mark on Wilkie's psyche. Still, in many ways, this is only the beginning as Dickens makes contact with Drood and then quickly finds himself bound to this unusual person for the last few years of his life. The rest of the story pretty much deals with Collins and how his relationship with Dickens slowly deteriorates over time and how he, too, becomes a victim of Drood's mesmerizing powers.

Now, that brief synopsis makes the book sound rather interesting, doesn't it? Yet, the book completely fails to deliver. I will say that the novel does offer a great deal of information on the lives of both Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins, and there will be some readers who'll enjoy that. In fact, I found the descriptions of eighteenth century London and the life of Dickens to be interesting for the first couple of hundred pages, but after passing the halfway mark, the story began to drag, and I was like a kid being led to the dentist's office every time I had to pick it up. Why? The main reason is that though Edwin Drood is discussed throughout the book, he only makes a short number of actual appearances, covering less than forty pages of this massive tomb. Also, though Drood is the most intriguing and scary character in the story, the tale seems to center around Wilkie Collins and his growing jealousy of Dickens' success. I wanted more of Edwin Drood. After all, the novel is named Drood, not Wilkie Collins. Instead, what happens is that the reader gets a series of long dissertations on how Charles Dickens spent the last five years of his life doing public readings in England and America, working on his magazine, arguing with Collins over trivial matters, divorcing his wife, visiting his mistress, complaining about his son-in-law, who happens to be Wilkie's brother, etc., etc., etc. You also have the same experiences being discussed by Wilkie Collins about his own life, but at least they hold your interest for longer periods of time and are occasionally inter-mixed with information about Edwin Drood.

Dan Simmons is one of the best writers today in the field of horror, and when he writes a descriptive horror scene, it will stay in your mind for weeks to come. He does this with about five scenes in the novel: the train wreck at the beginning, the journey of Dickens and Collins through the underground catacombs, the hunt for Drood in the catacombs by Detective Field and his team of a hundred men, the journey through the top floors of several buildings by Collins and Detective Barris, and when Collins goes up the employee's staircase in his new house and encounters a dangerous ghost. If there had been more scenes like this in Drood, the novel would've reached the excellence of The Terror because Simmons knows to create atmosphere and dread and danger lurking in the dark shadows. This is when the novel flows with an energy that captures you within its grasp, holding you prisoner until the scene has ended, lost in another world where death is anxiously awaiting only a few feet away. I literally couldn't put the book down during these magnificently written scenes, and Drood is one heavy book to hold. I should also note that Mr. Simmons creates many fabulous characters in Drood such as the tough police officer, Hatchery, and private investigators, Field & Barris (though Field may be based on an actual individual), plus the student from the train wreck, Edmond Dickerson, who's befriended by the famous writer. There's also King Laazaree, who controls the opium den in the underground part of London; and, of course, the infamous Edwin Drood. Still, all of these positives weren't enough to win me over, especially when I finally reached the ending. The final pages of Drood leave the reader hanging and not knowing what to believe. Dickens says one thing about Edwin Drood, while Collins believes the opposite. At this point, the real question would probably be--Who cares?

Maybe I was expecting too much from Drood. I mean two years is a long time to wait for a novel to come out. Still, if I could talk to Dan Simmons (he doesn't respond to e-mails from fans), I wouldn't ask for my money back, but rather the thirty-or-more hours I spent in reading Drood and then writing the book review. That's time I'll never get back, and at my age, I don't have a lot of hours left. Now, if you want to read a truly horrifying story that will leave you awake at night and shivering beneath the bed covers, I would highly recommend that you pick up a copy of The Terror by Dan Simmons. This is the author at his absolute best!

I have never been inspired to write an online review of a novel before. Clearly, Dan Simmons has talent as many of his books are highly praised, award-winning affairs. This is not one of them.

I was impressed by the vast amount of research Mr. Simmons did before writing this book, but unfortunately it was PAINFULLY OBVIOUS that he'd done a great deal of research, because of all the useless and impertinent details and anecdotes inserted into the narrative.

This story was repetitive to the point of insulting the reader and lacking any subtlety. There was no surprise in the plot. The editor(s) failed poor Mr. Simmons in their jobs and the result is an 800-page wandering, unfocused script.

I had to finish it because I hoped it would be worth all the toil in the end, but alas, 'twas not.

Dan Simmons' new novel "Drood" covers roughly five years in the relationship of Victorian writers Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins. Neither one emerges as particularly likeable. Dickens is egocentric, manipulative, and sometimes cruel. He serves as mentor to, (and frequent collaborator of) Collins, who is twelve years his junior. Collins' admiration and genuine liking for Dickens eventually becomes twisted by his extreme jealousy. The relationship between the two forms the heart of "Drood."

The story is told as the first-person narrative of Wilkie Collins. Collins, a laudanum addict, frequently suffers from nightmares, hallucinations, and occasional loss of memory. He thus functions as an unreliable narrator and the reader is sometimes left wondering what is real. I don't mean this as a criticism; for me it made the book that much more intriguing. Collins is drawn in by Dickens to search for a man named Drood, a reputed serial killer living literally underground. Thus begins a nightmarish journey through a world existing below the streets of London.

I enjoyed this book immensely and would highly recommend it to readers of historical fiction, especially those familiar with and interested in the works of Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins. I love the way Simmons incorporated the actual events of these writers' lives into this very imaginative tale. Simmons must have done quite a bit of research. I've only read "The Woman in White" and "The Moonstone" by Wilkie Collins, but "Drood" has definitely inspired me to read more.

Up until I read "The Terror" a few years ago, I had never heard of Dan Simmons. Hearing excellent things about the Terror, I decided to embark on the terrifying journey. I was throughly pleased and looked for more books by Mr. Simmons. I read "Summer of Night" over the summer, and while its a bit sophomoric compared to his current work, the chills were just as good! Being a fan of Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens I put "Drood" on my must read list. Stephen King's recommendation helped immensely as well. I absolutely loved reading this book! From the start it has an air of mystery and suspense that never lets up. The majority of the negative reviews attack the novel's length. Sure it's a lengthy novel, but in looking at the context Simmons was trying to reproduce it all makes sense. All of the truly great Victorian novels are door stoppers in themselves. Just looking at the novels Collins and Dickens created in and of themselves is staggering. "Woman in White" and "Bleak House" are gigantic in size and worth every page. "Drood" replicates the time period of these two authors perfectly. The atmosphere is bone chilling, the characterization is stunning, and the plot was a pleasure to follow. Going on this exciting ride the reader detours at stops along Dicken's and Collins's life that add to the richness and believability of the story. I loved "The Terror", I loved "Drood", and I can't wait to start "Black Hills"!

In the closing chapters of 'Drood', after one particular groaner of a revelation (hint: It's two steps away from being 'all a dream'), I actually wondered if it was worth it to continue onward. It pains myself to admit to that, as I have argued to anyone who would listen (and to several who didn't) that no one could close out a narrative like Simmons. So I pressed on, hoping for a reversal or further expansion.

It never came.

But up until that point, Dan Simmon's work is up to his usual high standards in detail, character, and development. And more often than not, I found myself identifying with Wilkie Collin's perspective, sometimes to my own dismay. Too bad it hits a wall and never recovers. The ultimate downfall is in the usage of the 'unreliable narrator', which is stretched to such extremes here that one wonders why they bothered listening to this narrator in the first place.

I'm fairly stunned that anybody is giving this book 5 stars. I can't remotely imagine why. DROOD is very long with a convaluted plot that ultimately ends in an unsatisfying conclusion. Blah.

I enjoy historical fiction, and I give Simmons credit for his detail and ability to employ real historical characters like these in his novel. He's a talented writer. I just have to be honest that after investing a lot of time plowing through this book, I was left feeling underwhelmed and wishing I'd used my time reading something else. I may have enjoyed this book more at 400 less pages.