Reviews

Cuddy by Benjamin Myers

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daja57's review against another edition

5.0

The work of this author is enriched by the most marvellous descriptions and suffused by his extraordinary empathy with ordinary people.

The book, inspired by St Cuthbert, aka Cuddy, the patron saint of Durham Cathedral, is divided into a prologue, an intermission, and four parts:

The prologue is mostly written as a poem, purportedly intoned by Cuddy as he dies.
Book One, written in prose and poetry interspersed by quotations from books about Lindisfarne and St Cuthbert, tells the story of a young woman, servant and cook to the haliwerfolk (the people of the holy man), a group of monks who are taking St Cuthbert's body from place to place around the north of England, having fled Lindisfarne from the marauding Vikings, seeking a place to bury Cuddy and to build a shrine. She has visions of the cathedral to come. She starts a relationship with another slave/servant, a boy with wide eyes who looks after the horses.
Book Two, written in prose, is set in 1346 and written from the point of view of a brewster, married to an archer, who begins an adulterous relationship with a stonemason at Durham Cathedral, which is observed by a predatory homosexual monk.
The Interlude is set in 1650 and written as a short play about the Scottish soldiers who were imprisoned in Durham Cathedral .
Book Three is almost a ghost story. Set in 1827, this is the diary of an Oxford professor who is summoned to Durham to witness the exhuming of Cuddy's remains (his body is said to be imperishable; the exhumers want to check). He meets a mysterious young boy, with owl-like eyes, and has visions of the haliwerfolk.
Book Four, set in 2019, in written from the perspective of a young labourer (with big eyes) whose mother is dying of cancer, was the most moving of all.
Each of the stories had its strengths. To be honest, I found the variety of styles in Book One distracted from my enjoyment of the story; I think I understand what the author is trying to do, working towards the rhythms of early English, perhaps, but it didn't work for me. The playlet in the Interlude left me cold. This probably says more about my inability to enjoy work outside the limits of my narrow prose comfort zone than about the work. Experimental writing should be encouraged, indeed cherished.

I enjoyed the late mediaeval infidelity, with its ever-present threat of what would happen if the archer found out. The ghost story narrated by the pompous professor was fun. But the final section tore out my heart.

alexampersand's review against another edition

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3.0

Hard to know exactly how to feel about the book as a whole, because it seems to be made up of 4 quite disparate stories. So let's start with each of those:

The first (Saint Cuddy) I found a little disconcerting to be just told in little snapshots, but I got into the flow enough to follow it, although it still didn't hold an awful lot of interest for me.

The second book (The Mason's Mark) was probably the hardest for me to read. Just straight pages with no paragraph breaks were very hard for me to focus and follow any sort of thread or characters for the first half of the book. And then when I eventually did start following what was happening, it seemed to just... finish. Ended up feeling quite unsatisfied by the end.

The intermission felt a little like something of nothing.

Book 3 (The Corpse in the Cathedral) was where things started getting more interesting - I really enjoyed this one a lot; I thought the characterisation was interesting, and I enjoyed the almost spooky nature of the story.

Book 4 (Daft Lad) was again a really enjoyable little read, and I found myself quite emotional reading about the relationship between Michael and his mother, and between Michael and Evie. I found it really quite touching.

So overall, a mixed bag that definitely improved as it went on for me. However, as one body of work I think I would have liked a stronger thread between them all (other than simply the existence of St Cuddy throughout). Maybe there were deeper ties that I just missed out on, but for me it sort of fell short.

amigo_reads's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

courtsd's review against another edition

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challenging inspiring reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Slow start but once you get into the different narrations, I found it really fascinating.

jmoxley's review against another edition

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hopeful mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

An unusually structured book exploring the influence of the cult of St Cuthbert on Durham and northern England with particular reference to Durham cathedral.

The book considers of four loosely interwoven short stories spanning the period from the dark ages to to present day.

Although I found some aspects of the book irritating it made me want to visit Durham so to that extent it succeeded.