84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake

Date Finished: 13/06/2011
My Rating: 3/5

271 chapters. 953 pages. 41 days. At the end of all that, I get to say (or, in fact, shout from the rooftops) that I'VE MANAGED TO READ THE GORMENGHAST TRILOGY AND IT DIDN'T DEFEAT ME!

It was this book that toppled my last Big Read challenge. On the list itself is just Gormenghast, the second book of the trilogy, however when I started reading it for my last attempt I soon realised that I probably needed to have read the first book to make any sense of it. It was this first book, Titus Groan, that I just couldn't get through.

Several years later and I went straight in with Titus Groan and, armed with dedication, determination, a hell of a lot of commitment and a good sprinkle of stubborn-ness, I made it through all three books. What I discovered is that despite having this time read the first book, Gormenghast was still as difficult and confusing to read as I'd found it the last time round. Ah well, I struggled on. I probably could have justified not reading the third book, 'Titus Alone', however, for the sake of completeness I decided to read that one too. It felt very different to numbers 1 and 2, but this is probably due to the fact that it was originally printed from a typescript from Peake's notebooks and the version I read was a further revised version, taking into account editors notes and Peake's own corrections. It did feel somewhat unpolished.

I found the whole saga hard work, and not just because the font is teenie-tiny! Peake overloads the reader with description. Honestly, he'll take a whole chapter to describe how heavy the air is, and I found it hard to maintain concentration. I'd be reading for a little while, and then realise that I wasn't really taking anything in, worry that I'd missed the one bit that was important, and have to go back and read the last couple of paragraphs again. Hey, maybe that means I've actually read Gormenghast twice. Peake himself alludes to it at one point, and this just jumped out of the page at me, writing "Tiresome in the extreme for all those present, it would be hardly less tedious for the reader to be obliged to suffer the long catalogue of Breakfast ritual,...". Yeah, too late, mister!! I'm quite convinced he could have told the entire trilogy in half the number of pages.

My other problem with this book is that very little seemed to happen for any purpose. For me, whole chunks could have been taken out, and it would have had little effect on the overall direction of the story. It is mentioned throughout the book how important the rituals and ceremony is for Gormenghast, but it never really explains why, and what would happen if this stops. I know it's fantasy, and maybe you don't need to know, but it might have helped.

There are several characters who, along with their story lines, neither helped nor advanced the book in any way. Having said that, there were some characters that I really enjoyed reading about, and was happy when a chapter started with something about them. Without spoiling the book for anyone who wants to read it, Peake disposes of a few characters in a way that I really didn't think they deserved. In fact, there is one particular case where I don't think it was necessary at all for the character to fall from the windowsill and drown, and that bit (for anyone who knows which character I'm talking about) really annoyed me, and was one of the (many) times that a shout of 'this book is so frustrating!' could be heard from our living room.

To give the book its due, there were pockets of the trilogy that were very exciting. For example, chapter 58 (FIFTY EIGHT!!) of Gormenghast, was a complete page turner. Sad that I'd had to read 647 pages of the trilogy to get to that, but it definitely was a good chapter. Unfortunately however, for the most of it, it wasn't exactly exciting. I couldn't read it in bed, because I'd get through a couple of paragraphs and then wake up several hours later with the book stuck to my face. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't need a book to be thoroughly exciting for me to like it, but I do like some progression over time. I like things to, you know, happen.

I moaned a lot about Gormenghast to friends and on Twitter, and several people couldn't understand why I didn't just give it up, and so here is my answer to that. Partly because I refuse to be defeated by a book (which is lucky, seeing as Ulysses is now on the horizon!), and secondly I've set myself a challenge, and it would be a sad thing to have given up before I got even a quarter of the way through. But the third and final reason? This may be a shocker, but I really enjoyed it. Just because something is hard work, doesn't mean that it's not enjoyable. Characters like Fuchsia, Irma Prunesquallor and Steerpike put a smile on my face each time I read about them. It may be a trudge to get through, but all that description gives a real picture in your head of what the castle and it's corridors and forgotten rooms were like. Ok, the sense of pride I got from finishing it may have bumped my rating up by an extra 1/2 mark, but this book is worth a read if only for descriptions such as "He lifted his catapult from beside him and raising it to his mouth he pursed his thin, merciless lips and kissed it as a withered spinster might kiss a spaniel's nose". Anyway, I've ordered the old BBC adaptation on LoveFilm, so it obviously didn't put me off too much.

So, who should read this book? Fantasy fans with a high level of commitment, definitely. Determination is a pre-requisite, as it's a hefty volume, but you'll be proud of yourself when you get to the end.

Next Book: Holes, Louis Sachar