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3.78 AVERAGE
3.78 AVERAGE
What a great achievement for a first novel.
Daniel lives with his Daddy and sister Cathy in a house that they build in a copse. They are very self-sufficient and have great respect for nature around them. Problem is that building a house on land that they do not own places them outside the law and because the landowner, Price, is involved in heaps of dirty business himself, the problem is sorted outside the law as well.
Price acts like a feodal overlord. Interesting detail is that the land used to belong to the children's mother.
The characters are very distinct and there are some gender issues in the younger generation.
Daniel is aware that he is not a regular man, but is never really forced to choose or examine, because the lack of contact with boys the same age.
Cathy is very much aware that she's turning into a woman and of the fact that women are prey and she'll be at a disadvantage because of her softening body. She will work hard to counter this.
On the other hand there are the parents the boar and the whore. Mother was likely a prostitute. Daddy is both uber manly with his stature and strength, a man providing for his family with his bare hands, settling scores for others, but also powerless, living on land that he doesn't own. Are his children his?
To the children he is the gentle giant, to others a famous price fighter. There is a very intime scene where the children are cutting Daddy's hair and beard.
Then there's also Vivien who provides the very feminine note with her pronounced hips and cosy home.
I loved the language of the book. The dialect is present and adds character, but is not obtrusive. I found especially the beginning overly lyrical with lots of similes. It didn't particularly bother me that the narrator is a well-versed 14-year old boy with a minimum of formal schooling.
Through the language you can smell the rotting leaves and feel the raindrops fall from the trees with a gust of wind.
One of the last scenes reminded me of Jane Eyre:
Spoiler
Daniel thinks everything is settled at last with him owning the land, butdisaster strikes, he runs and regains consciousness out in the
fields that he ran to. Like jane thinking she finally would be happy with a husband and having her hopes smashed running away stranding in the moors.
This was a really gorgeous book- incredible descriptions and emotion packed into every page.
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
father figures, fighting and feminism, all in the forest. what more could i ask for?
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Elmet is a beautifully poetic book that revels in its slow place and building up of scene, setting, time and place. The imagery throughout is almost tangible, the places springing to life around you, but once you start actually thinking about what has been put in front of you aspects just don't seem to add up. I admit for a start to being somewhat confused as to when this book is set; it reads as though it is set in some far distant past but there are references to modern inventions like the motor car, a truck and the Job Centre that would seem to set it in the present day. The depictions of landowners and landless labourers would fit perfectly into a depiction of a feudalistic setting, but that doesn't seem to be the case here. The depictions of the landowners throwing tenants off properties and refusing to care for properties didn't seem to fit with the modern times, nor indeed did the labourers working cash in hand for a pittance.
There is an undeniable sense of dark foreboding that builds steadily throughout the novel, and when you don't look too closely it all seems to build to an almost inevitable conclusion. The narrator as an uneducated fourteen year old boy, taken out of school and living on the land also doesn't quite stand up to close scrutiny. The language used is so poetic and advanced, the imagery so precise and flowery that the tone doesn't meet the reality that is trying to be portrayed. It makes for great reading at times, don't get me wrong, but it's out of place when compared to the level of education the narrator is supposed to have had. Take an example:
These boys were just so handsome. They were so much more handsome than me and Daddy, we could not even be compared. We were almost distinct breeds, adapted to different environments, clinging to opposite sides of the cliff. It was as if Dad and I had sprouted from a clot of mud and splintered roots and they had oozed from pure minerals in crystalline sequence.
This is the same boy who calls his father 'daddy' at fourteen.
At the heart of the story, this is a battle between the rich and the poor and the power of family love. It drew me in and I certainly felt immersed in the tale, despite some of the jarring inconsistencies. The character set up is interesting with 'daddy' being a giant of a man, unbeaten in the boxing ring who made money through legal and illegal fights but now lives a quiet life in a home he built by hand. His love for his children is evident in near everything he does. Daniel is a rather effeminate young man with long hair and a love for making home and caring for the family, whilst his sister follows in their father's footsteps with ready fists and a talent for hunting. The boundaries of normal gender stereotypes are challenged, although never actively due to the isolation that they live in. The 'bad guys' are rather more stereotyped, with little motivation beyond greed and power and there was perhaps a trick missed in not making them complex and multi-dimensional characters.
So whilst this is undoubtedly beautifully written there are some significant issues with the book as a whole. It is a measure of the writing that other than my confusion as to the period it was set in, most of these didn't occur to me until after the last page. As seems to be the fashion of the times, the ending disappointed me rather. The book is left on a loose strand, but more importantly the violence and brutality of the final chapters didn't quite seem to fit with the gentle yet foreboding tone of the book as a whole. I'd probably still recommend it, but with some concerns. But the writing style alone is reason enough to pick it up and give it a try.
There is an undeniable sense of dark foreboding that builds steadily throughout the novel, and when you don't look too closely it all seems to build to an almost inevitable conclusion. The narrator as an uneducated fourteen year old boy, taken out of school and living on the land also doesn't quite stand up to close scrutiny. The language used is so poetic and advanced, the imagery so precise and flowery that the tone doesn't meet the reality that is trying to be portrayed. It makes for great reading at times, don't get me wrong, but it's out of place when compared to the level of education the narrator is supposed to have had. Take an example:
These boys were just so handsome. They were so much more handsome than me and Daddy, we could not even be compared. We were almost distinct breeds, adapted to different environments, clinging to opposite sides of the cliff. It was as if Dad and I had sprouted from a clot of mud and splintered roots and they had oozed from pure minerals in crystalline sequence.
This is the same boy who calls his father 'daddy' at fourteen.
At the heart of the story, this is a battle between the rich and the poor and the power of family love. It drew me in and I certainly felt immersed in the tale, despite some of the jarring inconsistencies. The character set up is interesting with 'daddy' being a giant of a man, unbeaten in the boxing ring who made money through legal and illegal fights but now lives a quiet life in a home he built by hand. His love for his children is evident in near everything he does. Daniel is a rather effeminate young man with long hair and a love for making home and caring for the family, whilst his sister follows in their father's footsteps with ready fists and a talent for hunting. The boundaries of normal gender stereotypes are challenged, although never actively due to the isolation that they live in. The 'bad guys' are rather more stereotyped, with little motivation beyond greed and power and there was perhaps a trick missed in not making them complex and multi-dimensional characters.
So whilst this is undoubtedly beautifully written there are some significant issues with the book as a whole. It is a measure of the writing that other than my confusion as to the period it was set in, most of these didn't occur to me until after the last page. As seems to be the fashion of the times, the ending disappointed me rather. The book is left on a loose strand, but more importantly the violence and brutality of the final chapters didn't quite seem to fit with the gentle yet foreboding tone of the book as a whole. I'd probably still recommend it, but with some concerns. But the writing style alone is reason enough to pick it up and give it a try.
dark
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Minor: Animal death, Sexual assault, Violence
A mesmerizing book in its way. Mozley keeps the reader always on-slant, just out of the frame so that the story shifts and reshapes itself while you watch. The characters are hard to pin down - the daughter strong and unyielding as a boy, the son gentle and nurturing as a girl; the mother slippery as the shadow of a fish; the father granite-like, but not quite good and not quite bad. At times it feels like the setting is decades ago in the rural American South (it's actually rural Yorkshire), at times it feels apocalyptic. Standing back from it, the story isn't that complicated, but Mozley creates a dance with veils and shadows that is memorable, if not ultimately satisfying. I sure hope there's a sequel in the works.
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes