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theogb451 's review for:
Titus Groan
by Mervyn Peake
Reading again after 30 years, having originally thought it quite disappointing, it is now probably 3.5 stars if we're honest but I'm falling closer to 3: a book to admire but not really one to love (for me). Peake's flowery prose style just becomes too much for me too often, with everything over-described to the point where it feels like he is simply using words to imply something they don't even mean.
Add to that the fact that almost every conversation between two characters is incredibly irritating to read: none of these characters ever listen to each other and almost all of them feel the need to say everything twice. While there is obviously a 'realism' to that and, of course, I understand there is an intentional grotesqueness to each of them, that doesn't mean I can enjoy it.
Principally this book suffers in a few key points:
- The pacing is mostly quite slow. There are a couple of spectacularly thrilling sections but between and around them, not huge amounts happen.
- The characters are almost entirely unlikeable at the start. By the end a few have earned your liking but not without reservation.
- The misogyny is, no doubt, unconscious but it really stands out to me now in a way I'd never have noticed on my first read in my late teens. Almost every female character is negatively portrayed or simply given no agency. Principally they are written as stupid or, even if they show some intelligence, they are negatively portrayed in terms of their looks and/or character.
- Steerpike as a hinge of the story, which I'll come to below
There are also quite negative senses given to fatness, although all the characters are stupendously over-characterised e.g. Slagg is seemingly a midget while Swelter gigantic as well as overweight. And the word 'g*psy' is used frequently as an offhand (and seemingly affectionate) way to describe Fuschia, which is obviously a little off-putting now.
One thing I was surprised it lacked was a definitive statement on class. In my memory I thought maybe teenage me hadn't realised there was a treatise on pulling down the rich due to Steerpike pulling himself out of the kitchens to effectively stagger the Groans...but actually that's not really the case. Steerpike thinks only of himself and attaining power. That he shakes the foundations is merely a side-effect of that desire. Moreover, he's incredibly intelligent and plots...but everyone else in the book is so dull-headed that there's little to really take away from this. There are moments towards the end of a sense that Prunesquallor and the Countess have their eye on him but nothing more, he never has to match wits with anyone so there's no tenseness from seeing him worm his way through this structure, it's simply that he's the first person with any imagination and wit to even try. I'd like to be on his side as he tries to pull down these rich classes but, again, you simply can't like him enough and his methods lack any thought for others.
Add to that the fact that almost every conversation between two characters is incredibly irritating to read: none of these characters ever listen to each other and almost all of them feel the need to say everything twice. While there is obviously a 'realism' to that and, of course, I understand there is an intentional grotesqueness to each of them, that doesn't mean I can enjoy it.
Principally this book suffers in a few key points:
- The pacing is mostly quite slow. There are a couple of spectacularly thrilling sections but between and around them, not huge amounts happen.
- The characters are almost entirely unlikeable at the start. By the end a few have earned your liking but not without reservation.
- The misogyny is, no doubt, unconscious but it really stands out to me now in a way I'd never have noticed on my first read in my late teens. Almost every female character is negatively portrayed or simply given no agency. Principally they are written as stupid or, even if they show some intelligence, they are negatively portrayed in terms of their looks and/or character.
- Steerpike as a hinge of the story, which I'll come to below
There are also quite negative senses given to fatness, although all the characters are stupendously over-characterised e.g. Slagg is seemingly a midget while Swelter gigantic as well as overweight. And the word 'g*psy' is used frequently as an offhand (and seemingly affectionate) way to describe Fuschia, which is obviously a little off-putting now.
One thing I was surprised it lacked was a definitive statement on class. In my memory I thought maybe teenage me hadn't realised there was a treatise on pulling down the rich due to Steerpike pulling himself out of the kitchens to effectively stagger the Groans...but actually that's not really the case. Steerpike thinks only of himself and attaining power. That he shakes the foundations is merely a side-effect of that desire. Moreover, he's incredibly intelligent and plots...but everyone else in the book is so dull-headed that there's little to really take away from this. There are moments towards the end of a sense that Prunesquallor and the Countess have their eye on him but nothing more, he never has to match wits with anyone so there's no tenseness from seeing him worm his way through this structure, it's simply that he's the first person with any imagination and wit to even try. I'd like to be on his side as he tries to pull down these rich classes but, again, you simply can't like him enough and his methods lack any thought for others.