William Morrow, 2007
In the first paragraph of The Somnambulist the omniscient narrator suggests that nothing is as it seems, that perhaps this is a phantasmagoric imagination, a conceit of illusion, "a book with no literary merit whatsoever. It is a lurid piece of nonsense, convoluted, implausible, people by unconvincing characters, written in drearily pedestrian prose, frequently ridiculous and willfully bizarre." The narrator is exactly right.
One Cyril Honeyman is murdered in the first chapter, tumescently naked, in the presence of a drab, who has lured him to an assignation, his mother (!), and the murderer, who has scaled the sheer wall of the tower and pushed poor Cyril out the window to a splat far below. It was a "grisly and gothic and bizarre."
There is that word "bizarre" again. Edward Moon, the protagonist, is waning in more ways than one. Hair thinning, tending toward fat, the bubble of his reputation had burst before this novel with the notorious Cellophane Case. An amateur detective, contemporary with the more celebrated Holmes, his cases have dried up. His career as a conjurer is limping to an end. Once the toast of London, he seldom commands attention.
In the first paragraph of The Somnambulist the omniscient narrator suggests that nothing is as it seems, that perhaps this is a phantasmagoric imagination, a conceit of illusion, "a book with no literary merit whatsoever. It is a lurid piece of nonsense, convoluted, implausible, people by unconvincing characters, written in drearily pedestrian prose, frequently ridiculous and willfully bizarre." The narrator is exactly right.
One Cyril Honeyman is murdered in the first chapter, tumescently naked, in the presence of a drab, who has lured him to an assignation, his mother (!), and the murderer, who has scaled the sheer wall of the tower and pushed poor Cyril out the window to a splat far below. It was a "grisly and gothic and bizarre."
There is that word "bizarre" again. Edward Moon, the protagonist, is waning in more ways than one. Hair thinning, tending toward fat, the bubble of his reputation had burst before this novel with the notorious Cellophane Case. An amateur detective, contemporary with the more celebrated Holmes, his cases have dried up. His career as a conjurer is limping to an end. Once the toast of London, he seldom commands attention.
His Watson is the Somnambulist, an 8-foot tall mute who communicates via poorly spelled chalk messages on a small slate board. Most significantly, and this is part of Moon's act, the Somnambulist can absorb the thrust of a sword or swords completely through his body with no blood or ill effects. Bizarre.
Some of the descriptions of early 20th Century London evoke Dickens as do the characters. The Archivist is an old blind woman who works in the British Museum. Clearly a seer, she knows exactly what Moon is looking for. His housekeeper, Mrs. Grossman takes up with a "gross man," Arthur Barge. He is described as "Bulbous-nosed and endowed with disproportionately large ears, he had the appearance of an oversized toby jug." Then, there is Thomas Cribb who claims to have seen the future and lived the past. Can he be Lud, the mythic founder of London? He gives Moon a tour of London that is strangely akin to the ghosts of Christmas. There's even a crippled boy with crutches! Moon's sister Charlotte says of his friends, "They're...unusual."
Some of the descriptions of early 20th Century London evoke Dickens as do the characters. The Archivist is an old blind woman who works in the British Museum. Clearly a seer, she knows exactly what Moon is looking for. His housekeeper, Mrs. Grossman takes up with a "gross man," Arthur Barge. He is described as "Bulbous-nosed and endowed with disproportionately large ears, he had the appearance of an oversized toby jug." Then, there is Thomas Cribb who claims to have seen the future and lived the past. Can he be Lud, the mythic founder of London? He gives Moon a tour of London that is strangely akin to the ghosts of Christmas. There's even a crippled boy with crutches! Moon's sister Charlotte says of his friends, "They're...unusual."
After the second death, Moon learns through a séance that he is targeted to be the third. And, Cribb tells him, the main target is the City of London the financial center of the world. Plus, Moon is in a desperate fight against the Directorate (think CIA), which is fighting "sleepers" placed in 1905 England by the Russians. "It's a Mad Mad...World." Moon solves the first two murders quickly, but that was just the appetizer as the forces of good and evil begin to battle. But, which is which? On one side is the Directorate and the other is a group that calls itself Love Love Love and Love. Something of a cross between 60s flower children and the worst of the conservative Christian right, they want to throw the moneychangers out of the temple.
The Somnambulist was not a satisfying read. The characters, many of which are quite memorable, are little more than cardboard cutouts without depth and feeling. The plot line, such as it is, simply does not hang together because it is too implausible and unbelievable. The end is wrapped up too quickly, too facilely. We move from what promises to be a detective story to a-well, I just do not know how to characterize this tacking to and fro. Has the rotting corpse of Coleridge ever before been summoned to help move the action along?
The Somnambulist was not a satisfying read. The characters, many of which are quite memorable, are little more than cardboard cutouts without depth and feeling. The plot line, such as it is, simply does not hang together because it is too implausible and unbelievable. The end is wrapped up too quickly, too facilely. We move from what promises to be a detective story to a-well, I just do not know how to characterize this tacking to and fro. Has the rotting corpse of Coleridge ever before been summoned to help move the action along?
Jonathan Barnes graduated from Oxford with a first in English literature. He reviews books for the Times Literary Supplement; one wonders what he thinks of the decidedly mixed reviews this first novel has received. Perhaps one does not learn about the basics of plot, theme, and characterization in literature classes these days.
