WIlliam Morrow, February 2009
The Domino Men is an indirect sequel to and superior to Barnes' The Somnambulist. In that novel the Directorate was fighting sleepers put into place by the Russians. Here, the Directorate seems to be fighting the very Devil himself, or maybe it is on the side of the Devil, or maybe it is fighting the House of Windsor. One can never be too sure of anything when Barnes puts a hand to it.
Nearly a century and a half ago, Queen Victoria has made a Faustian pact with some nefarious entity to ensure that her family would continue to rule Britain. Now, the time has come to pay the piper, and the Directorate is trying to stop this process - or is it? One Henry Lamb, a mild-mannered clerk in the archives section is drawn unwittingly into this fight. Indeed, though he does not know it, he is the key figure for good or ill. What we have here is his account of the terrible and confusing events which eventuate.
The Domino Men is an indirect sequel to and superior to Barnes' The Somnambulist. In that novel the Directorate was fighting sleepers put into place by the Russians. Here, the Directorate seems to be fighting the very Devil himself, or maybe it is on the side of the Devil, or maybe it is fighting the House of Windsor. One can never be too sure of anything when Barnes puts a hand to it.
Nearly a century and a half ago, Queen Victoria has made a Faustian pact with some nefarious entity to ensure that her family would continue to rule Britain. Now, the time has come to pay the piper, and the Directorate is trying to stop this process - or is it? One Henry Lamb, a mild-mannered clerk in the archives section is drawn unwittingly into this fight. Indeed, though he does not know it, he is the key figure for good or ill. What we have here is his account of the terrible and confusing events which eventuate.
His account is presented to the reader by an "editor" who says he has done little more than correct some grammar and divide the manuscript into "sympathetic chapters." This account takes us into a world of the weird, where little is as it seems to be, where bad jokes turn out to be state secrets. Unnamed horror lurks. A window cleaner falls from the sky and gives Henry a vital but enigmatic message. Henry keeps telling us that something untoward is going to happen. Before the apocalypse occurs, however, there are many minor horrors along the way. Most are just hinted at, making them all the more horrendous for our imagination.
On one level, this is simply a story of a bargain made with the Devil and the consequences thereof. Now 150 years later the bill is due, but to whom is it to be paid? The bargain has been verified by attorneys who will live forever to see the end of things. The second level of this story is a detective story. Henry is trying to discover the identity of this "Leviathan" that looms so large. At a deeper level, it is a parable of bureaucracy run amok. Henry works in an archive where, it seems, all the paper records in the British Isles are stored. There is so much paper that he and other workers literally push paper all day, every day.
On one level, this is simply a story of a bargain made with the Devil and the consequences thereof. Now 150 years later the bill is due, but to whom is it to be paid? The bargain has been verified by attorneys who will live forever to see the end of things. The second level of this story is a detective story. Henry is trying to discover the identity of this "Leviathan" that looms so large. At a deeper level, it is a parable of bureaucracy run amok. Henry works in an archive where, it seems, all the paper records in the British Isles are stored. There is so much paper that he and other workers literally push paper all day, every day.
Interesting and grotesque characters abound and are more finely drawn than in his debut novel. "A. W." is an important participant, but delineation of his role beyond that of editor would be a spoiler of the plot. Hawker and Boon appear at times to be Tweedledum and Tweedledee, but they are the Domino Men, mercenaries for whom "All history is a game ... and all human lives their pieces. Their weapons are our selfishness, our greed and our cupidity. With infinite patience, over days and weeks and years, they set us up into long unknowing rows (arguments) until at last ... they send us toppling down, one after the other and clap their hands at the fun of it." Despite the seriousness of their role in this novel, they provide comic relief with their vaudevillian patter and humor.
Graduating from Oxford with a first in English literature, Barnes lives in London and reviews books for the Times Literary Supplement. This is his second novel.
Graduating from Oxford with a first in English literature, Barnes lives in London and reviews books for the Times Literary Supplement. This is his second novel.
