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A review by mackle13
The Last Dickens by Matthew Pearl
2.0
I loved Pearl's [b:The Poe Shadow|9533|The Poe Shadow|Matthew Pearl|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166028018s/9533.jpg|1437022] and enjoyed [b:The Dante Club|18402|The Dante Club|Matthew Pearl|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166912978s/18402.jpg|2164481], but I just couldn't get into this one.
Part of me wonders if it's not the subject matter. I adore Poe, but I've never been much of a fan of Dickens - but I don't honestly think that that was it. I think this one just wasn't as suspensful because of the topic of the mystery.
Anyway, it switches perspective a few times. In the 'modern day' perspective, we follow James Osgood and his bookkeeper, Rebecca, as they travel from Boston to London in search of anything which might give them a clu as to how 'The Mystery of Edwin Drood' was to end, after Dickens died after writing the 6th (of twelve) installments. Investigation and misadventure happen, and it's all very slow, really.
As this is going on, we sometimes flip to India, where Dickens' son, Frank, is an officer tracking down an opium thief. Opium plays an important role in the story of Drood, and in the story of the time period of our mystery - but, mostly, I feel like these sections could've been done away with, as I didn't feel they added anything to the overall story.
Lastly, we go deeper into the past and watch Dickens' last American tour unfold. It was interesting to see how authors were treated much as movie or rock stars are today, and it was interesting to see the tidbits of Dickens' personality, gleaned, we're told, through correspondence and friend's accounts of the man. But the character never felt fully fleshed out for all the research involved in it. I do think this part may be due to my bias - I don't care about Dickens as an author, which makes me less interested in him as a person. But I also felt the drama of it all was never more than a vaguely interesting historical footnote.
Back to our heroes - Osgood and Rebecca. Once again these are solvers of mystery who never really seem to solve anything, at leat not with outsiders generally coming along and pointing them in the right direction. Essentially, at the end, the villian monologues and reveals all in a last bid attempt to get Rebecca to go back to England with him, since he's gone all smitten on her. Considering other elements of the story, this was patently absurd, but, ah well.
I would've liked Rebecca to have been more part of unravelling the mystery. The few times Osgood did seem to get a clue, she dutifully asked "but how?" so he could weave out the story, but rarely seemed to come up with anything herself.
Anyway - as I said earlier, I think there wasn't really enough on the line. In Dante' Club, they were trying to stop a murderer. In Poe Shadow, we are trying to unravel the mystery of Poe's death, and save him from a slanderous biography. In Last Dickens, we're looking for the ending of a story. Yes, it was very important for the publishers, who might go under if they don't find something to offer the people - but as a reader, the stakes weren't high enough to be really interesting.
It did pick up towards the end, after going very slowly for most of it, but then it kinda petered out again.
Perhaps because we know the ending was never found, so the ending, not only a foregone conclusion, couldn't really be entirely satisfying. Though there was a bit of romance (also a mostly foregone conclusion less than half-way through the book), but I do like a bit of an happily ever-after, I suppose. So, maybe, 2 1/2 stars, if I'm feeling generous.
Part of me wonders if it's not the subject matter. I adore Poe, but I've never been much of a fan of Dickens - but I don't honestly think that that was it. I think this one just wasn't as suspensful because of the topic of the mystery.
Anyway, it switches perspective a few times. In the 'modern day' perspective, we follow James Osgood and his bookkeeper, Rebecca, as they travel from Boston to London in search of anything which might give them a clu as to how 'The Mystery of Edwin Drood' was to end, after Dickens died after writing the 6th (of twelve) installments. Investigation and misadventure happen, and it's all very slow, really.
As this is going on, we sometimes flip to India, where Dickens' son, Frank, is an officer tracking down an opium thief. Opium plays an important role in the story of Drood, and in the story of the time period of our mystery - but, mostly, I feel like these sections could've been done away with, as I didn't feel they added anything to the overall story.
Lastly, we go deeper into the past and watch Dickens' last American tour unfold. It was interesting to see how authors were treated much as movie or rock stars are today, and it was interesting to see the tidbits of Dickens' personality, gleaned, we're told, through correspondence and friend's accounts of the man. But the character never felt fully fleshed out for all the research involved in it. I do think this part may be due to my bias - I don't care about Dickens as an author, which makes me less interested in him as a person. But I also felt the drama of it all was never more than a vaguely interesting historical footnote.
Back to our heroes - Osgood and Rebecca. Once again these are solvers of mystery who never really seem to solve anything, at leat not with outsiders generally coming along and pointing them in the right direction. Essentially, at the end, the villian monologues and reveals all in a last bid attempt to get Rebecca to go back to England with him, since he's gone all smitten on her. Considering other elements of the story, this was patently absurd, but, ah well.
I would've liked Rebecca to have been more part of unravelling the mystery. The few times Osgood did seem to get a clue, she dutifully asked "but how?" so he could weave out the story, but rarely seemed to come up with anything herself.
Anyway - as I said earlier, I think there wasn't really enough on the line. In Dante' Club, they were trying to stop a murderer. In Poe Shadow, we are trying to unravel the mystery of Poe's death, and save him from a slanderous biography. In Last Dickens, we're looking for the ending of a story. Yes, it was very important for the publishers, who might go under if they don't find something to offer the people - but as a reader, the stakes weren't high enough to be really interesting.
It did pick up towards the end, after going very slowly for most of it, but then it kinda petered out again.
Perhaps because we know the ending was never found, so the ending, not only a foregone conclusion, couldn't really be entirely satisfying. Though there was a bit of romance (also a mostly foregone conclusion less than half-way through the book), but I do like a bit of an happily ever-after, I suppose. So, maybe, 2 1/2 stars, if I'm feeling generous.