Told in first person narrative, this is the story of Gabriel Swift, an orphan in 1820's England, sent to work as an apprentice to one of the greatest anatomists of the time - he helps prepare bodies for dissection. At the time it was only legal to use prisoners whom had been executed for this purpose - hence 'Resurrectionists' filled the severe shortage of bodies which anatomists could use - digging up fresh corpses and selling them.
The story tells of Gabriel's personal demons from when his apprenticeship fails to him becoming an opium addicted Resurrectionist himself.
Over halfway through the story there is a location and time jump to New South Wales 1836 - which I did find rather unsettling and awkward.
By the time I had finished the book it felt as though the time jump had been an imposed added extra by an impatient editor.
Although the writing style is good - there was little development in the characters themselves with too many 'walk-on' characters. The main characters were thin rather than full-blooded so it was difficult to care one way or the other as to what was happening to them.
The story itself lacked pace somewhat and because of the 'thin' characters I could see a lot of people finding this book not very easy to get into and enjoy, and be turning over a few pages to find the next bit of 'gore' rather than wanting to turn page by page because they are enthralled by the story. I did not find it to be the 'brooding gothic horror' it was depicted as although there are certainly moments which will make the skin crawl slightly.
I DID however enjoy James Bradley's writing style immensely. His place and time description in the first part of the book are excellent and his use of prose and turn of phrase are very well displayed - so I shall be looking at one of his other novels to see if this was indeed a one-off slow read.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment