Scan barcode
A review by cryo_guy
Beast by Paul Kingsnorth
2.0
I started reading this book while reading a few others, but for a 150-some page book I found myself struggling to finish it.
First off, I really loved Kingsnorth's first book in this trilogy of books that "delve into the mythical and actual landscapes of England across two thousand years of time, linked by their related protagonists and by other coincidences and connections." You can check out my review, if you'd like; it's full of praise. I suppose I should also mention that I really like the cover art of this book, like The Wake's.
Spoilers follow.
Beast, unlike The Wake, was completely uncaptivating to me. The first 60 pages detail a man isolated on an English moor, who breaks his leg, and then improvises a routine to heal from the injury. Astoundingly boring. Then after page 60 he starts thinking about more than how much water he needs to drink, how much chocolate he wants to eat, and how many times he takes a walk. He ruminates on actually interesting topics like embodiment (perhaps the most interesting paragraph in the book), his fear of things that grow (weird because isn't he supposed to be returning to nature in some rejection of civilization thing?), and his hatred for Christianity (a continuing, although much much less powerful [and infrequent] theme from The Wake). He sees ominous elements in ordinary things and starts seeing a large black animal that might be hunting him. This may speak to a civilization-nature divide but Edward Buckmaster doesn't really seem that into nature. It seems more like he needs an escape from whatever he left. Other times he has giggle fits and relishes his newly discovered freedom of a completely isolated existence.
Then he wants to track the animal. He makes a plan. He drinks some water. He drinks some more water. Then he says eh whatever. He freaks out about seeing the animal again. HE SAW IT. IT'S REAL.
At 107 we get our first page break. Pages are missing, capitalization starts to drop out commas drop out. THIS MAN MUST BE GOING CRAZY. It turns out, HE IS.
He's had some weird dreams, but dreams are just dreams right? Now he starts having waking dreams. The narration of reality effortlessly slides into dream narration. However is the reader to untangle this web of ambiguous narration? In some ways, this even cheapens the narrative twist which relies on an unreliable narrator in The Wake.
The waking dreams are less revealing for Mr. Buckmaster's past and more revealing for his current insanity. I respect the attempts to recreate the descent into madness, but I must confess I did not find it appealing or intriguing, let alone "shocking or exhilarating." And these attempts, looking at the full-blown "shadow language" of The Wake, pale in comparison.
We get a few details about a potential family, and potential circumstances that could have led to his departure, but nothing resolute. (My theory is he started having symptoms and his family tried to persuade him to stay but he was conflicted and it caused a lot of familial strife then someone got into an argument with his daughter and he went out and murdered the guy and ran off after that--I admit a highly sensationalized reading). From my perspective, the thing most assured of from the course of his hallucinations is his insanity, wherever it came from. The Beast is a big cat which has mystifying eyes (what a clever notion. Too bad it doesn't go anywhere). It is hunting him, maybe. My one consolation from this section is that Odin shows up.
And then the book ends. He pets the cat. Could the Beast be his mental illness? Could it represent his desire to go home? Or maybe his desire to return to nature? I don't know. I'm not sure what the Beast really even means.
I can't really recommend this book to anyone except those who have read The Wake. The prose is fine, the attempt to narratively show the main character break down is not terrible, but everything else about the book is pretty boring. The descriptions of landscapes are simply not as vivid as those of the Wake. The ruminations of various existential and philosophical issues are simply not as interesting or developed as in The Wake (Even with the adjustment for historical context). I tried to give Beast the benefit of the doubt, but for being so short it spends an exorbitant amount of time on Edward's perceptions of his surroundings, and his philosophical insights are at worst naïve and trite, at best, underdeveloped. I'm not saying that a guy who goes loony enough to isolate himself in a British swamp should be a philosophical powerhouse, but I think it could have been more interesting; Or, even, more tied to The Wake (In some ways this was the most underutilized opportunity to make the book better). It would have been great to have the character evolve into a whole meditation on the Buccmaster lineage. To some extent that must be implied, but I would have liked something more explicit. Anything more explicit.
So I hate to give this book a bad review because I loved The Wake and the prose is fine, but I didn't particularly enjoy reading it, not even when it stopped being Hermit in the Fens and became Crazy Hermit in the Fens. There is the possibility that the third book of this series will shed some light on the book, but until then Beast will remain on my bookshelf looking nice with its nice cover art, unpraised by me.
First off, I really loved Kingsnorth's first book in this trilogy of books that "delve into the mythical and actual landscapes of England across two thousand years of time, linked by their related protagonists and by other coincidences and connections." You can check out my review, if you'd like; it's full of praise. I suppose I should also mention that I really like the cover art of this book, like The Wake's.
Spoilers follow.
Beast, unlike The Wake, was completely uncaptivating to me. The first 60 pages detail a man isolated on an English moor, who breaks his leg, and then improvises a routine to heal from the injury. Astoundingly boring. Then after page 60 he starts thinking about more than how much water he needs to drink, how much chocolate he wants to eat, and how many times he takes a walk. He ruminates on actually interesting topics like embodiment (perhaps the most interesting paragraph in the book), his fear of things that grow (weird because isn't he supposed to be returning to nature in some rejection of civilization thing?), and his hatred for Christianity (a continuing, although much much less powerful [and infrequent] theme from The Wake). He sees ominous elements in ordinary things and starts seeing a large black animal that might be hunting him. This may speak to a civilization-nature divide but Edward Buckmaster doesn't really seem that into nature. It seems more like he needs an escape from whatever he left. Other times he has giggle fits and relishes his newly discovered freedom of a completely isolated existence.
Then he wants to track the animal. He makes a plan. He drinks some water. He drinks some more water. Then he says eh whatever. He freaks out about seeing the animal again. HE SAW IT. IT'S REAL.
At 107 we get our first page break. Pages are missing, capitalization starts to drop out commas drop out. THIS MAN MUST BE GOING CRAZY. It turns out, HE IS.
He's had some weird dreams, but dreams are just dreams right? Now he starts having waking dreams. The narration of reality effortlessly slides into dream narration. However is the reader to untangle this web of ambiguous narration? In some ways, this even cheapens the narrative twist which relies on an unreliable narrator in The Wake.
The waking dreams are less revealing for Mr. Buckmaster's past and more revealing for his current insanity. I respect the attempts to recreate the descent into madness, but I must confess I did not find it appealing or intriguing, let alone "shocking or exhilarating." And these attempts, looking at the full-blown "shadow language" of The Wake, pale in comparison.
We get a few details about a potential family, and potential circumstances that could have led to his departure, but nothing resolute. (My theory is he started having symptoms and his family tried to persuade him to stay but he was conflicted and it caused a lot of familial strife then someone got into an argument with his daughter and he went out and murdered the guy and ran off after that--I admit a highly sensationalized reading). From my perspective, the thing most assured of from the course of his hallucinations is his insanity, wherever it came from. The Beast is a big cat which has mystifying eyes (what a clever notion. Too bad it doesn't go anywhere). It is hunting him, maybe. My one consolation from this section is that Odin shows up.
And then the book ends. He pets the cat. Could the Beast be his mental illness? Could it represent his desire to go home? Or maybe his desire to return to nature? I don't know. I'm not sure what the Beast really even means.
I can't really recommend this book to anyone except those who have read The Wake. The prose is fine, the attempt to narratively show the main character break down is not terrible, but everything else about the book is pretty boring. The descriptions of landscapes are simply not as vivid as those of the Wake. The ruminations of various existential and philosophical issues are simply not as interesting or developed as in The Wake (Even with the adjustment for historical context). I tried to give Beast the benefit of the doubt, but for being so short it spends an exorbitant amount of time on Edward's perceptions of his surroundings, and his philosophical insights are at worst naïve and trite, at best, underdeveloped. I'm not saying that a guy who goes loony enough to isolate himself in a British swamp should be a philosophical powerhouse, but I think it could have been more interesting; Or, even, more tied to The Wake (In some ways this was the most underutilized opportunity to make the book better). It would have been great to have the character evolve into a whole meditation on the Buccmaster lineage. To some extent that must be implied, but I would have liked something more explicit. Anything more explicit.
So I hate to give this book a bad review because I loved The Wake and the prose is fine, but I didn't particularly enjoy reading it, not even when it stopped being Hermit in the Fens and became Crazy Hermit in the Fens. There is the possibility that the third book of this series will shed some light on the book, but until then Beast will remain on my bookshelf looking nice with its nice cover art, unpraised by me.