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| Darkmans | 
 enlarge | Author: Nicola Barker
Publisher: HarperPerennial
Category: Book
List Price: £8.99
Buy Used: £1.35
You Save: £7.64 (85%)
New (28) from £3.26
Avg. Customer Rating:  22 reviews
Sales Rank: 11434
Media: Paperback
Pages: 848
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.1 x 2.1
ISBN: 0007193637
EAN: 9780007193639
ASIN: 0007193637
Publication Date: March 3, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 17 more reviews...
 Magnificent September 28, 2008
I'm not going to go into long plot explanations - others have done it already far better than I could. I just want to say that this is a magnificent novel. I've not read any Nicola Barker before, and I was just blown away by the sheer audacity and exuberance of her prose. Yes, this book is long, but within a few pages I was completely gripped, barely able to put it down as it built up an exquisite dramatic tension. Barker develops, layer by layer, scene by scene, an almost anarchic assortment of characters, throws them together and shows us the unpredictable results. It's an almost cinematic approach to novel-writing, and makes for a demanding read - you work hard to piece together the clues scattered in her narrative - but it's totally engaging and thoroughly rewarding.
Not for a long time have I come across a writer with such a playful feel for language. Her observations, too, are startlingly fresh and apt. Yes, the novel does rely heavily on coincidence, but then so did Thomas Hardy. I don't think her aim is to be 'realistic'. We're drawn into a more magical and mysterious version of the 'real' world, and leave the novel both entranced and enriched by the experience.
Stunning August 29, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
There is a huge amount that is exceptionally good in here, as some other reviewers have stated. However, it certainly is not just humour and history: the book is very poetic and has an extraordinarily poignant and, I think, topical ending. A truly brilliant achievement that is way up there with "Wide Open".
 Big, but not clever... August 26, 2008
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
Prior to reading Darkmans, I knew of Barker by reputation - and by the awards she has recieved and/or been nominated for - but was not familiar with her actual works. If Darkmans is anything to go by, I'd been lucky until now, and certainly won't be seeking to get any better acquainted with this particular author. By its rear-cover blurb, intriguing cover design and faintly irritating title, Darkmans looked and sounded intriguing - and the sheer level of critical praise that's apparantly been heaped upon it made it a must-read...
...But both the blurb and the acclaim must be for a different book. Darkmans is appalling. The plot is virtually non-existent, and what little of it is in evidence is unravelled sporadically and nonsensically via a neverending slew of dull, lifeless exchanges between some of the most laughably implausible and unlikeable characters ever committed to print. Which would be forgivable if Barker's prose and dialogue was anywhere near as clever as she thinks it is - but it's not. The dialogue is clumsy and inept (and bears precisely zero resemblance to actual human interaction) and the writing on the whole is crippled by a comically pointless reliance on parenthesis, equally inane use of spacing - mostly in order to interject monosyllabic thought processes - and a general misuse of grammar, punctuation and meaning that makes reading this book an experience of unparralleled frustration. It's odd that the author has gone to such lengths to remove any entertainment value from this novel, or indeed anything that would make this a pleasurable reading experience. The only use I can see for this book, is of a prime example of how not to write.
I must confess, I gave up on it about halfway through (making this one of only three or four books I have ever given up on), so maybe I'm missing some grand revelation or point that would have made sense of it all. Frankly, I don't care; this book has rendered me numb and disheartened...and perhaps a little bit angry.
 A large dose of life July 18, 2008
I was, not uniquely, I suspect, left a little miffed upon finishing this novel - don't worry, I'm not going to spill plot points all over this review though. This is why I have knocked one star off my rating - I am quite traditional in the sense that I like novels to have some overarcing development across their length, and this seems, essentially, plotless. At least not in the 800+ pages present; Darkmans runs in a different timeframe - like evolution, or continental drift.
Not that it feels slow, however. I found myself caught up in the intersecting lives of the vibrant characters, and Barker's elegant writing. It plays as a social drama, with a twist that many of the main characters may or may not be possessed by a 500 year old jester, and those who aren't often have their own mysterious agenda.
You will finish this novel with more questions than answers, but that, I hope, is the intention!
There's a good book in there somewhere July 16, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
A strange book - really a jumble that creates the illusion of being clever. The dialogue, where everyone's an expert and interested in any aspect of history, just doesn't ring true - try to picture watching it in a film and it becomes laughably unbelievable and the whole "overwritten" feel of it deliver a book that takes forever to get started, introduces far too many shallow characters (what on earth did the chap with the lost daughter and the girl cutting the ties off trees add to anything?). I did find it a page turner, however, because I wanted to find out more about John but ultimately Darkmans just left me with a load of loose ends. This really needed a decent editor getting to grips with it!
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