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A review by ablotial
The Quincunx by Charles Palliser
3.0
I had never even heard of this book or this author before it was nominated in my "Chunksters" reading group here on Goodreads. But the premise intrigued me, so I jumped into the group read, and I was instantly hooked. The beginning of this book is full of mystery, unreliable (child) narration, and history and caught my attention quickly.
Although the book was written in modern times, it is intended to mimic the Victorian style. As we continued to read, we noticed many parallels to Dickens (which I found amusing, since I can't stand that guy but was very much enjoying this novel) as well as other Victorian novels. But then there came to this giant, long, explanatory monologue ... many chapters worth of one person talking, and I just ... blah. Got bored. Couldn't keep myself awake through it. But so much necessary information was given out, I didn't feel I could just skip ahead. So I fell behind with the group.
Eventually, I slogged through it, and the book picked up and got interesting again! But eventually I came to another one of these multi-chapter monologues and just got bored.
Isn't there some other way Johnnie could have learned some of this information? There were three or four of these sections and they really caused my enjoyment level to sink. Not only that but there were sections that I felt just "didn't fit". Most notably, Johnnie's stay at "the school", which (like many characters in this book) was introduced, used as a plot device, and then vanished a few chapters later, never to be mentioned again (or not so as it mattered). I also felt the job he took on with the Digweeds fell into this category.
And then the ending! JUST when I thought Palliser was going to redeem himself, there was the ending. I understand why he wrote it the way he did, and discussing the "modern vs. Victorian" novel perspective in the group helped also, but it was sorely disappointing.
There were parts that I did love though! The author did a great job of pulling the story together. There were so many complicated moving parts and at the end everything came together nicely. Just when I was starting to worry about all the coincidences and that it would turn out to be lazy writing, the author throws in a section making fun of authors who use coincidences as lazy writing to not have to explain why something happened. That made my day. And the historical aspects of the novel were very well done.
Overall, I'm glad I made it through. But I had high hopes based on the first quarter or the novel, and I didn't feel that it lived up to my expectations in the end.
Although the book was written in modern times, it is intended to mimic the Victorian style. As we continued to read, we noticed many parallels to Dickens (which I found amusing, since I can't stand that guy but was very much enjoying this novel) as well as other Victorian novels. But then there came to this giant, long, explanatory monologue ... many chapters worth of one person talking, and I just ... blah. Got bored. Couldn't keep myself awake through it. But so much necessary information was given out, I didn't feel I could just skip ahead. So I fell behind with the group.
Eventually, I slogged through it, and the book picked up and got interesting again! But eventually I came to another one of these multi-chapter monologues and just got bored.
Isn't there some other way Johnnie could have learned some of this information? There were three or four of these sections and they really caused my enjoyment level to sink. Not only that but there were sections that I felt just "didn't fit". Most notably, Johnnie's stay at "the school", which (like many characters in this book) was introduced, used as a plot device, and then vanished a few chapters later, never to be mentioned again (or not so as it mattered). I also felt the job he took on with the Digweeds fell into this category.
And then the ending! JUST when I thought Palliser was going to redeem himself, there was the ending. I understand why he wrote it the way he did, and discussing the "modern vs. Victorian" novel perspective in the group helped also, but it was sorely disappointing.
There were parts that I did love though! The author did a great job of pulling the story together. There were so many complicated moving parts and at the end everything came together nicely. Just when I was starting to worry about all the coincidences and that it would turn out to be lazy writing, the author throws in a section making fun of authors who use coincidences as lazy writing to not have to explain why something happened. That made my day. And the historical aspects of the novel were very well done.
Overall, I'm glad I made it through. But I had high hopes based on the first quarter or the novel, and I didn't feel that it lived up to my expectations in the end.