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ujames1978 's review for:
The Moonstone
by Wilkie Collins
Having thoroughly enjoyed "The Woman In White" in defiance of the seemingly endless tropes, cliches, convenient plot contrivances and cheesy, romance-novel levels of melodrama, I immediately picked up this book by the same author in the hopes that I would enjoy it just as much.
However, the first thing that really struck me about the story was the deeply off-putting racism and dismissal of Hinduism as 'Primitive Hocus Pocus.' But even when I played the 'It Was A Different Time' card upon myself and put my initial disgust to one side, baring in mind that Collins' satirised the closed-minded bigotry of certain types of people by having such horrible characters tell part of the story, the novel was still a crushing disappointment and a genuine chore to get through. And while I originally put my total boredom, disinterest and lack of engagement with the story down to the fact that 'Finding A Diamond' just isn't an interesting mystery, a discussion with my partner Teresa reminded me that in a mystery such as this, (or any genre of fiction for that matter,) the McGuffin itself is utterly irrelevant.
Take "The Maltese Falcon" for example. Like the 'Moonstone' of this story, it's merely an expensive lump of material that other people are willing to kill for. But the difference between that story and this is that in "The Maltese Falcon," I actually care about the characters.
And similarly, in "The Woman In White" as well, the only reason why I gave a flying fig about the mysteries was that I was invested in the characters, particularly the star-crossed lovers. As a matter of fact, it was only when they were forced to part in true melodramatic fashion because of class and other societal constraints that I became engaged with the story. In comparison to this interminable and rambling slog, I actually cared about what happened the characters long enough to remember their names and something about them beyond 'Has A Deformed Shoulder' or 'Has An Absurd Obsession With "Robinson Crusoe." And above all, in "The Woman In White," the characters actually 'DO' something instead of just endlessly discussing, deducing and explaining.
Indeed, towards the end of "The Woman In White," the ostensible protagonist Walter points out that if he'd been rich enough to pursue the case through the courts instead of investigating by himself, the events that actually make the story engaging would never have happened. And lo and behold, when a family is wealthy enough to hire a private investigator, (as they are in this novel,) all of the interesting potential of the story is killed stone dead.
As Alfred Hitchcock once famously put it, the reason why the protagonist doesn't just go to the police is that it would be boring.
And finally, to top it all off by adding insult to injury, (not stating anything about the solution/ending itself so as to avoid spoiling anything,) the solution to the mystery of who stole the diamond and why they took it is 'SO' absurd and 'SO' ridiculous that I honestly didn't know whether to laugh or feel offended!
After all, having apparently written this book for the sole purpose of 'Nerding-Out' over this exciting new science which (like most 'Science' concocted in the 1800's was laughable quackery, even back then,) the fact that the author devotes entire chapters to explaining the 'Science' behind the solution for the apparent purpose of convincing sceptics of its value in real life made me go from simply feeling disengaged to actively hating this book. Because seriously, if the solution had been that the savage, Hindu Barbarians had used their 'Primitive Hocus Pocus' to put a spell on one of the characters and have them steal the diamond for them, then it honestly would have been no less insulting or absurd.
However, the first thing that really struck me about the story was the deeply off-putting racism and dismissal of Hinduism as 'Primitive Hocus Pocus.' But even when I played the 'It Was A Different Time' card upon myself and put my initial disgust to one side, baring in mind that Collins' satirised the closed-minded bigotry of certain types of people by having such horrible characters tell part of the story, the novel was still a crushing disappointment and a genuine chore to get through. And while I originally put my total boredom, disinterest and lack of engagement with the story down to the fact that 'Finding A Diamond' just isn't an interesting mystery, a discussion with my partner Teresa reminded me that in a mystery such as this, (or any genre of fiction for that matter,) the McGuffin itself is utterly irrelevant.
Take "The Maltese Falcon" for example. Like the 'Moonstone' of this story, it's merely an expensive lump of material that other people are willing to kill for. But the difference between that story and this is that in "The Maltese Falcon," I actually care about the characters.
And similarly, in "The Woman In White" as well, the only reason why I gave a flying fig about the mysteries was that I was invested in the characters, particularly the star-crossed lovers. As a matter of fact, it was only when they were forced to part in true melodramatic fashion because of class and other societal constraints that I became engaged with the story. In comparison to this interminable and rambling slog, I actually cared about what happened the characters long enough to remember their names and something about them beyond 'Has A Deformed Shoulder' or 'Has An Absurd Obsession With "Robinson Crusoe." And above all, in "The Woman In White," the characters actually 'DO' something instead of just endlessly discussing, deducing and explaining.
Indeed, towards the end of "The Woman In White," the ostensible protagonist Walter points out that if he'd been rich enough to pursue the case through the courts instead of investigating by himself, the events that actually make the story engaging would never have happened. And lo and behold, when a family is wealthy enough to hire a private investigator, (as they are in this novel,) all of the interesting potential of the story is killed stone dead.
As Alfred Hitchcock once famously put it, the reason why the protagonist doesn't just go to the police is that it would be boring.
And finally, to top it all off by adding insult to injury, (not stating anything about the solution/ending itself so as to avoid spoiling anything,) the solution to the mystery of who stole the diamond and why they took it is 'SO' absurd and 'SO' ridiculous that I honestly didn't know whether to laugh or feel offended!
After all, having apparently written this book for the sole purpose of 'Nerding-Out' over this exciting new science which (like most 'Science' concocted in the 1800's was laughable quackery, even back then,) the fact that the author devotes entire chapters to explaining the 'Science' behind the solution for the apparent purpose of convincing sceptics of its value in real life made me go from simply feeling disengaged to actively hating this book. Because seriously, if the solution had been that the savage, Hindu Barbarians had used their 'Primitive Hocus Pocus' to put a spell on one of the characters and have them steal the diamond for them, then it honestly would have been no less insulting or absurd.