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| Darkmans | 
 enlarge | Author: Nicola Barker
Publisher: HarperPerennial
Category: Book
List Price: £8.99
Buy Used: £0.59
You Save: £8.40 (93%)
New (30) from £2.90
Avg. Customer Rating:  24 reviews
Sales Rank: 17284
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
Condition: Little River Books dispatch daily from South Wales. Customer satisfaction is our guarantee.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 19 more reviews...
 Dull (boring) October 17, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is one of the most boring books I've ever read. The constant (about 3 times in every paragraph) use of brackets is really off putting (the author constantly points out the obvious) and hugely irritating and pointless (she uses these to include information that has no need to be in brackets). I trawled through it hoping that something may happen in line with the back cover description to no avail (it didn't happen).
Many times throughout the book I had to put it down out of sheer frustration it made me so angry. I would have binned it long before the 800 and odd page finale if I wasn't on holiday with no book shops to hand. Don't buy it. The only positive point was one chapter in which a repressed, stuffy character is forced to join a dinner party with a group of middle class couples - this is the only part of the book that I enjoyed. So thats about 25 pages out of 800+ that I liked - not much bang for your buck.
what a drivel October 15, 2008
Shortlisted for Man Booker Prize?? Please! Makes you question the opinions of the Guardian and Observer reviewers. I wasted hours of my time, lost count of the use of SCOWL after about 30, "scowling" comes up on every other page - you call that good writing? The book is so frustrating it made me write my first review on the Internet ever.
 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
2 out of 5 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.
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