The hip, the square and the crazy trip over their pasts and each
other in this boisterous latest from Barker (Clear, 2005, etc.), a
finalist for the Man Booker Prize. The primary focus of the novel,
set in Ashford, England, near the Channel Tunnel, is on two
families. There is a father, Beede, and his son, Kane. Kane is a
cool prescription-drug dealer. Beede is stuffy, civic-minded and
pedantic; he supervises a hospital laundry. They tolerate each
other warily; their one great crisis occurred when Kane's mother
(Beede's divorced wife) died painfully after a botched suicide
attempt. The other family consists of Isidore (or Dory), his wife,
Elen, and their five-year-old son, Fleet. Dory, who pretends to be
German, is a mess, narcoleptic and paranoid. He suffers dangerous
"episodes" of which he has no memory. At times he is possessed by a
medieval jester called John, who once burned down a barn with
people inside. Little Fleet is weird too (he knows about John). The
sane one is Elen, who radiates calm and commonsense. She's a
podiatrist who has treated Beede and Kane and is the link between
the families. There is a third family, the Broads, a collection of
lowlifes. Foremost among them is punk, anorexic Kelly; she has a
big mouth but a good heart. The novel generates heat but no light.
The hijinks (searching in a haunted forest for Dory, for example)
are enhanced by playful typography and counterpointed by erudite
riffs on, among other things, similarities between the medieval and
modern worlds. The past weighs heavily, even on the Broads. The
questions pile up but go unanswered; projected climaxes (a rooftop
encounter between Dory and John) fizzle out. As in her previous
work, Barker is still seductive, idiosyncratic and infuriating.
"Everything is arbitrary" says a character who is the designated
truth-teller. That's quite a cop-out. If you go with the flow and
reconcile yourself to the lack of plot, you'll find plenty to
enjoy. (Kirkus Reviews)
Shortlisted for the 2007 Man Booker Prize, an epic novel of
startling originality which confirms Nicola Barker as one of
Britain's most exciting literary talents. If history is a sick joke
which keeps on repeating, then who keeps on telling it? Could it be
John Scogin, Edward IV's jester, whose favourite skit was to burn
people alive? Or could it be Andrew Boarde, physician to Henry
VIII, who wrote John Scogin's biography? Or could it be a Kurd
called Gaffar whose days are blighted by an unspeakable terror of
salad? Or a beautiful bulimic with brittle bones? Or a man who
guards Beckley Woods with a Samurai sword and a pregnant terrier?
Darkmans is a very modern book, set in ridiculously modern Ashford,
about two old-fashioned subjects: love and jealousy. And the main
character? The past, creeping up on the present and whispering
something quite dark into its ear. Darkmans is the third of Nicola
Barker's visionary Thames Gateway novels. Following Wide Open
(winner Dublin IMPAC award 2000) and Behindlings it confirms one of
Britain's most original literary talents.
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