Product Description

/ Lead title From the award-winning author of 'Clear 'comes an epic novel of startling originality. / From the award-winning author of 'Clear' comes a highly visual tale about love, jealousy and history complete with a delightful entourage of unique and quirky characters. / Nicola Barker has won various awards for her writing including the John Llewellyn Rhys/Mail on Sunday Prize, the David Higham Prize, the MacMillan Silver Pen Award and the IMPAC Prize. She was also longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2005. / Nicola Barker was voted one of Granta's Best Young British Novelists of the decade. / Guaranteed review and feature coverage for this highly talented author.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16785 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 848 pages

Guardian
`A sprawling book, funny and frightening, strange and yet strangely unputdownable, this is one to loose yourself in'.

Scotland on Sunday
'...an ambitious, daring, delightful and compelling work...it is
fearfully gripping...'

Susan Mansfield
'Her books are experimental in style, endlessly inventive.'

Customer Reviews

Stunning
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...
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
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!