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A review by hayesstw
Rose by Martin Cruz Smith
3.0
I've read several books by [a:Martin Cruz Smith|8258|Martin Cruz Smith|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1252590168p2/8258.jpg], all whodunits featuring detective Arkady Renko, mostly set in Moscow in the late 20th or early 21st century. This one is different, as it is set in 19th-century England, in Lancashire, in the mining town of Wigan, to be precise.
Some of the Renko books felt a bit surreal to me, but no more so than Bulgakov's [b:The master and Margarita|76103|The Master and Margarita (Modern Plays)|Edward Kemp|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328732397s/76103.jpg|42061234], but this one felt a bit more jarring. I've been to Moscow, and I've never been to Wigan, but somehow the Wigan setting seemed less authentic than the Moscow ones, not so much the place itself, as the people in it. The story was interesting enough, and made me want to read on to see what happened, but it somehow felt inauthentic, as if it was set in some alternative universe, like [a:Philip Pullman|3618|Philip Pullman|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1396622492p2/3618.jpg]'s [b:His dark materials|18116|His Dark Materials (His Dark Materials #1-3)|Philip Pullman|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1432839709s/18116.jpg|1943518].
The descriptions of coal mining were authentic, but it was the events and conversations on the surface that seemed out of place. A coal miner in Lancashire in 1872 likening something to a volcano? How many of them would have seen a volcano, or even a picture of one?
A zealous Evangelical clergyman speaking of Low Mass, or any kind of "Mass" at all? Such a thing would have been anathema to any Church of England Evangelical in that period. It's a bit like Pullman's use of terms like "Magisterium", which clearly means something different in an alternative universe.
One is left wondering whether the surrealism is intended or not. The protagonist too is a bit surreal, an Indiana Jones-like character, but some of the other things in the book give the impression that it is intended to be a historical novel, authentic in time and place. It feels like 20th-century characters transported into a 19th-centry setting.
Some of the Renko books felt a bit surreal to me, but no more so than Bulgakov's [b:The master and Margarita|76103|The Master and Margarita (Modern Plays)|Edward Kemp|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328732397s/76103.jpg|42061234], but this one felt a bit more jarring. I've been to Moscow, and I've never been to Wigan, but somehow the Wigan setting seemed less authentic than the Moscow ones, not so much the place itself, as the people in it. The story was interesting enough, and made me want to read on to see what happened, but it somehow felt inauthentic, as if it was set in some alternative universe, like [a:Philip Pullman|3618|Philip Pullman|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1396622492p2/3618.jpg]'s [b:His dark materials|18116|His Dark Materials (His Dark Materials #1-3)|Philip Pullman|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1432839709s/18116.jpg|1943518].
The descriptions of coal mining were authentic, but it was the events and conversations on the surface that seemed out of place. A coal miner in Lancashire in 1872 likening something to a volcano? How many of them would have seen a volcano, or even a picture of one?
A zealous Evangelical clergyman speaking of Low Mass, or any kind of "Mass" at all? Such a thing would have been anathema to any Church of England Evangelical in that period. It's a bit like Pullman's use of terms like "Magisterium", which clearly means something different in an alternative universe.
One is left wondering whether the surrealism is intended or not. The protagonist too is a bit surreal, an Indiana Jones-like character, but some of the other things in the book give the impression that it is intended to be a historical novel, authentic in time and place. It feels like 20th-century characters transported into a 19th-centry setting.