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A review by stephilica
Titus Awakes: The Lost Book of Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake, Maeve Gilmore
There is no central antagonist to the plot like there is in Steerpike from the main two Gormenghast books or even in Cheeta from Titus Alone. Rather, it is mostly episodic, where Titus runs into several different colorful characters. The plot’s real antagonist is Titus himself; this is an intensely character-driven book. The first half is intensely depressing, as Titus abandons every single person who helps him, becoming more self-loathing as he does so. The second half is the reciprocal; Titus gives back to society by becoming a caregiver, and then retreats to hermetical contemplation before setting out on his final journey. Dotted throughout these major arcs are satirical encounters that feel like Maeve Gilmore has a personal vendetta against Communists (far be it from me to blame her).
The key to Titus’ character is his realization of agency. First he laments how he abandons everyone but he ‘cannot help it.’ But after he meets the Poet (who is obviously Mervyn Peake even if you Google nothing), Titus wants to change that. He needs a goal beyond ‘wandering.’ And to do that, he needs to understand himself better than ‘someone who wanders.’ So where is he to go to do that? To understand himself, he goes back to his beginning—not Gormenghast, though the prose echoes that with “not a road, not a track but will lead you home”—but to the Ur-Home: his journey ends when he finds Mervyn Peake happy and well. There is a therapeutic aspect to this (Maeve writes Titus finding her marriage during its most sunlit days) but it is also fitting for the character. He had no father, as Sepulchrave died when he was an infant, but Titus has found a guiding figure, which is what he most sorely needed.
The key to Titus’ character is his realization of agency. First he laments how he abandons everyone but he ‘cannot help it.’ But after he meets the Poet (who is obviously Mervyn Peake even if you Google nothing), Titus wants to change that. He needs a goal beyond ‘wandering.’ And to do that, he needs to understand himself better than ‘someone who wanders.’ So where is he to go to do that? To understand himself, he goes back to his beginning—not Gormenghast, though the prose echoes that with “not a road, not a track but will lead you home”—but to the Ur-Home: his journey ends when he finds Mervyn Peake happy and well. There is a therapeutic aspect to this (Maeve writes Titus finding her marriage during its most sunlit days) but it is also fitting for the character. He had no father, as Sepulchrave died when he was an infant, but Titus has found a guiding figure, which is what he most sorely needed.