The Dante Club - Matthew Pearl

"In 1865 Boston, the literary geniuses of the Dante Club—poets and Harvard professors Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, and James Russell Lowell, along with publisher J. T. Fields—are finishing America's first translation of The Divine Comedy and preparing to unveil Dante's remarkable visions to the New World. The powerful Boston Brahmins at Harvard College are fighting to keep Dante in obscurity, believing that the infiltration of foreign superstitions into American minds will prove as corrupting as the immigrants arriving at Boston Harbour.

The members of the Dante Club fight to keep a sacred literary cause alive, but their plans fall apart when a series of murders erupts through Boston and Cambridge. Only this small group of scholars realizes that the gruesome killings are modelled on the descriptions of Hell's punishments from Dante's Inferno. With the lives of the Boston elite and Dante's literary future in America at stake, the Dante Club members must find the killer before the authorities discover their secret."

This is not a long book, but it often felt that way. Verbose, densely-written, with constant references to the state of literature, and publishing, in Boston just after the end of the Civil War. It really helps if the reader has some knowledge of the history, location, and the social and political complexities of the time. Seriously, it often assumed we all know who Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russell Lowell, Oliver Wendell Holmes and a few others are and that we are privy to a large amount of personal information about each. Because of this fact, there is unfortunately very little characterisation and growth in the characters. None of their voices felt unique, nor did I  feel like I was seeing a literary hero come to life on the page before me. Now I do know who they are, but I still mixed them up.

I'd be reading about one of them dashing off somewhere and then the scene would change to the study of a house where another was sitting, reading, perusing - and I'd think, wasn't he just running down the road? No, no, no! Get your famous, mid-nineteenth century New England, literary figures straight!

The book is a mixture of real historical facts and a well - crafted fictitious story. Most of the characters were real people and the main ones are celebrated poets. This is one of the most interesting features that I have found in Pearl's book. This feature gives realism to the story, and in this story, the poets of the Dante Club assume the role of detectives in their attempt to find a serial killer. 

However there where many side plots that weren't dealt with. The police officer of mixed-race, Nicholas Rey, is just... kind of there. We never delve deeper into his phycological state, he never says or is used to demonstrate anything interesting about the social time/ racism in Boston. There is nothing said about the hypocrisy of the Northern States who fought for the freedom of slaves but where still battling against their own racism. It would have also been interesting to see how these old rich white men would react to having to work closely with a mixed race man. 

There where also no women in this book. No main characters and not even an interesting side character that felt well fleshed out. It was frustrating and disappointing. I don't need every book to have a strong female protagonist, and watching a group of grandpa's trying to solve crime was sweet, but at least have a fleshed out supportive wife or spunky daughter/granddaughter, please. 

It was, overall, an interesting read. There were many surprising twist and turns. The historical facts relating to the time of Dante translation were quite intriguing. However, I found the flow of the story choppy, awkwardly cutting from scene to scene and the pace very, very slow. There was suspense, but it was built up so incrementally and only towards the very end. When Pearl finally does start to delve into the psychology of the killer (which was intriguing and actually my favourite part of the book), it was far too little, far too late.

Age Rating 15+. The murder scenes are really quite brutal, far more so than I was expecting from the tone of the rest of the book. 

The Otherlife - Julia Gray

"I always get away with it when I try stuff like this. Partly it

comes down to sort of assuming that I'm going to. I've got loads of confidence. And Loki got away with everything. Well, almost everything.

When troubled, quiet Ben begins at the ruthlessly competitive Cottesmore House, school to the richest, most privileged boys, he is befriended by Hobie: the wealthy class bully, product of monstrous indulgence and intense parental ambition.

Hobie is drawn to Ben because he can see the Otherlife: a violent, mythic place where gods and monsters roam. Ben has unnerving visions of Thor and Odin, and of the giant beasts that will destroy them, as well as Loki, god of mischief. Hobie is desperate to be a part of it.

Years later, Ben discovers his beloved tutor Jason is dead. And he can’t help wondering if Hobie – wild, restless, dangerous Hobie, had something to do with it…"

A surprisingly great book which has many element which I enjoy such as magic realism linking to Norse Mythology, something I absolutely love. Such a myth nerd. 

I half expected, from the blurb, of this to be a tale of jumping between worlds and being chased by an individual uncannily like Loki. But it's not and I was slightly disappointed by the fact that the Norse Gods didn't appear as often as I expected nor did Ben, one of the main characters, flit between worlds.

However what we do get, a dark academia-esque murder mystery, was very fun to read. The writing was also beautifully done, with subtle humour and realistic dialogue. As someone who has lived in England, I found the English culture that was very prevalent amusing and wonderful to read. 

The tale is told between two perspective: the diary entries of Hobie in 2008, and present time from Ben's point of view. At first, I wasn't sure where this story was going. There was one mention of the Gods in Ben's POV, then we changed to Hobie's perspective and that had no Gods in it whatsoever in the beginning. But slowly, slowly, the story built and I found myself reading faster and faster to find out the ending, to discover the truth of what happened to those boys at Duvalle Hall and how it all went so very
wrong.

Hobie is awful, but it was also incredibly interesting seeing his perspective? He's a bully, he's spoiled and he bullies his little sister into having an eating disorder. However, you can also see that he's falling apart and the cruelness is how he copes with the anger and pressure he is under. So I disliked him as a person, but seeing from his perspective was so interesting and I loved reading the POV of both boys. 

Ben on the other hand is a quiet metal head loner. He speaks old Norse, tattooed himself at 12 and is surprisingly kind and gentle towards others. Both characters felt well fleshed out, realistic and I could relate to both of them. 

The 'Otherlife' as Ben calls it is softly woven into the main story line, a kind of off-to-the-side extra that made me wonder if it was all in Ben's head or if he really was seeing Asgard and the Gods of Norse mythology. The ending of the book ties everything in nicely, giving the readers the final explanation of everything that had occurred.

This book is good but not in a nice way. It features a lot of horrible events from horrible characters and it shows a really dark side to parents/parenting who drive their children towards ambition so hard that they destroy them. It's also very much about undiagnosed mental illness and people making mistake after mistake until it destroys them.

However, I did find the book to be a little emotionally flat. I wasn't that deeply involved. However, I think that might have just been from the shortness of the book, only 225 pages on my kindle edition, rather than any lack of characterisation. I also didn't like the shoehorned romance element between Ben and Zara. There was no chemistry, no history and they felt like polar opposite personalities. 

Age Rating 14+. Bullying, eating disorders, broken marriages, academic pressure, drug addiction, death, broken family. 

Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

"When Tess Durbeyfield is driven by family poverty to claim kinship with the wealthy D'Urbervilles and seek a portion of their family fortune, meeting her 'cousin' Alec proves to be her downfall. A very different man, Angel Clare, seems to offer her love and salvation, but Tess must choose whether to reveal her past or remain silent in the hope of a peaceful future."

I adore Hardy's writing. His prose and writing style is understatedly sublime, and there where many stunning passages about nature, religion and the human condition that left me breathless. 

However I take exception to Hardy's characterisation, plot and the widely accepted reading of this book.

In my humble opinion, I believe this book has been fundamentally misunderstood by English Literature curriculums everywhere. They often say that Alec represents Tess's debasement, Satan, and Angel her salvation, making many biblical allusions to Original sin and Tess being Eve. I don't see that at all. Alec does not seduce Tess, she never gives into temptation. He rapes her forcefully even though she refused his advances repeatedly. Tess is never debased other than on the eyes of society. 

Angel, the man supposed to be her salvation and so oh so subtly named, is an idiot. He doesn't love Tess for Tess, he barely knows her. Rather he loves the idea of her that he has conjured up for her, the biblical virginal Mary figure of his imagining. (I am sorry but what kind of pervert refers to a women they have just met as virginal? Even in their own thoughts?)His concept of a purer, less worldly milkmaid is so false and his romanticisation of the lower working classes was bordering of fetishist. This clash between his Christian idealised pastoral concept with the reality of the more pagan, more earthy workers was telling.  

I also found the emphasis on Tess's copying of Angel's ideas, attitudes, even speech and movement horrifying. Maybe a link between the easy acceptance of religious doctrine and how it abolishes free thought? Her acceptance of Angel's abandonment is also judged by Hardy as foolhardy. She should have pushed harder, but her own values have so demonised her in her own mind that she now views herself as unworthy of .. well pretty much everything. Hardy having Angel admit to having sex a few lines prior to Tess's confession of rape further highlighted the hypocrisy. Angel gave into temptation, if we carry on with the biblical allegory, he sinned and sinned willingly. Tess however, a women forcibly raped, someone who never gave into Alec, is seen as more "dirty", more sinful? I call BULLSHIT. 

I can understand the biblical allusions that have been read into the book but I found, while reading, this book to be, rather, a subtle critic of religion. Tess, through her and her societies religious beliefs is demonised for something completely out of her control, something she should be pitied for. Hardy makes a point of showing that the farm workers, ostensibly more "pagan" didn't hold Tess as accountable as the otherwise more civilised, read Christian, upper classes. 

Both Alec and Angel represent a dominating power, a wish to mould Tess in their own image. To own her completely, both physically and morally. Tess is a blank slate for them to project anything they want onto. Alec at least was able to see his own hypocrisy, he immediately drops his new biblical image after realising that he still lusts after Tess. Angel is not so honest with himself.

Tess's eventual murder of Alec felt more induced by shame and a feeling of entrapment, unnecessary shame as Hardy takes point in assuring us. Her violence could be read, not to stem from a debauchment of the soul but rather a very Christian shame that has been forced on her by Angel. 

Sorry for the very long rant. I have no idea if Hardy wished his book to be read in this way, but this is how I interpreted it. 

Age Rating 15+. Some serious topics are covered like rape, poverty, abandonment and death of a child.