Ghostlines

by Nick Gadd. Scribe, 2008.

As an unpublished manuscript, Ghostlines won a Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, and it’s a strong debut. Philip Trudeau, an investigative journalist fallen on hard times, finds himself drawn into a mystery involving corruption in the art world. The dialogue is convincing, the Melbourne settings are well-done, and Gadd pulls together the strands of the mystery neatly at the end. There’s no shortage of novels featuring investigative journalists. English author Joe Kelly, whose mystery novels are set in and around East Anglia, is possibly the best of the bunch at the moment, but Gadd could rival him once he’s got a couple more books under his belt. Not everyone will swallow the supernatural side of the story, which was an unnecessary element of the plot in my view, but I would certainly read more from this author.

- John.

The casebook of Victor Frankenstein

by Peter Ackroyd. Random House, 2008.

So, Victor Frankenstein had now given us another account of his life and it is rather different to the version he gave to Robert Walton in Mary Shelley's book. Which are we to believe?

That may seem a strange question to ask, since up to now it has always been believed that Mary Shelley, at the age of nineteen, invented Victor Frankenstein as a character in the horror story she concocted one dark and stormy night in a villa on the shores of Lake Geneva. The poet, Percy Bysse Shelley (Mary's husband to be) was there, so too were Alfred, Lord Byron, his physician Dr Polidori, and Mary's step-sister, Claire Claremont. Two of the stories told that night eventually became books: Mary's Frankenstein and Polidori's The Vampire.

Peter Ackroyd, however, seems to have come across an autobiography written by Victor Frankenstein in which he tells us how he met and befriended Percy Bysse Shelley and, so, came to meet Mary, Byron and Polidori. So, who are we to believe?

Maybe reading Victor Frankenstein's "casebook", as Ackroyd calls it, will solve the mystery. Or maybe not, since Ackroyd is well known for re-inventing the lives of famous people - Dickens and Defoe, to name just two. Ackroyd's Victor Frankenstein, like Mary's, was born in Switzerland. He speaks (or writes) with almost the same voice and he, too, creates a monster. Some of the things he tells us about himself are the same as in Mary's book: his obsession with the source of life, his experiments with electricity, his horror when his creature comes to life, the murders, the false accusations, the confrontation with his creature and its demands - all these are re-told but there are startling differences.Victor Frankenstein's visit to Oxford on his tour of England becomes, in Ackroyd's book, a much longer stay which is of major importance in his life. Enrolled as an undergraduate at Oxford University, he meets 'Mad Shelley' and is able to provide us with a vivid account of the poet and his 'libertarian' friends and activities. Fact and fiction become ever more entangled in 'The Casebook' as Frankenstein follows Shelley to London, meets the poet's first wife, Harriet (a poor factory worker whom Shelley rescues from a life of drudgery in this account), and becomes familiar with various aspects of nineteenth century London life. He sees the low life of poverty, squalor and inequality, and the high life of theatres, intellectual debate and the power of money. He is taken to meetings of the radical libertarian Popular Reform League, attends a lecture by Humphrey Davey on electricity, and searches out 'sack-'em-up men' (resurrectionists) who supply him with cadavers for his experiments. He buys an old Thames-side warehouse in Limehouse Reach (an area of London docks for which Ackroyd seems to have a particular fancy in his books), and here he does his gruesome experimenting and, eventually, brings his monster to life.

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is sparing in his descriptions of what he actually does in his experiments and he passes swiftly over the moment when his creature comes horrifyingly to life. Ackroyd's man, however, tells us all in gory and terrible detail. All this is inventive, imaginative and entertaining, and Ackroyd is expert at re-creating the atmosphere of nineteenth century London. There are times, however, when he seems to be more intent on doing this, and on having fun playing games with fact and fiction, than in getting on with the story. And the story, in broad outline, is Mary Shelley's. Ackroyd has tinkered around with the chronology of events and with some of the characters, and he has inserted and invented biographical details of some real historical figures. Some might say this is plagiarism: others might call it post-modern trickiness. Whatever it is, The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein is an ingenious, light-hearted horror story, with a touch of Stevenson's Jekyll and Hyde about it for good measure. It has little of the thought-provoking psychological and social depths of Mary Shelley’s' masterpiece and it is unlikely ever to become as famous. But it does have a much more startling ending!

- Copyright Ann Skea

Book group wrap up: Medieval Mysteries

Recently we discussed Medieval Mysteries at our bookgroup. Members had read a variety of titles from this genre, and many had read more than one. Surprisingly it was not well liked. I believe they kept reading more in the hope that the next book would be better. Selected titles were easy to read, so did not take long to read, but also did not provide a lot of intellectual stimulation.

The main complaint was that authors spent too much effort detailing medieval life and not developing characters. It didn’t matter how good the background was, if the characters and plot were not up to scratch, the book was no good. Margaret Fraser was singled out for her atrocious language. Her dialogue was very contrived and did not reflect the language used at the time, and in the opinion of the reviewer, was not even a good parody of the language which would have been anglo-saxon, not English.

One author to get the best reviews, was Felicity Pulman, (spelt with one ‘l’) who writes for young adults. Her books had been read by at least three of the group and rated well, taking into account the audience they were written for. Quite by accident, the week after the discussion group, I spoke to Felicity Pulman, who was eager to hear what the group had to say about medieval mysteries. She took all comments very seriously and will keep them in mind when writing her next book – keep developing characters, make sure you have a worthy plot, the background is important, but keep it in the background and keep the language real as you are still writing for a modern audience.

I asked Felicity about her research. She has done extensive work into Arthurian legend, and the medieval era. She was very disappointed as she had recently broken her foot, which meant she had to delay a trip to England. She was keen to see the countryside in autumn, and wanted to walk in forests and other places she puts her characters. You may like to check out Felicity’s website at http://www.felicitypulman.com.au/ . She covers information about her books (which are published by Random house), biography, as well as about her research, medieval mumbo-jumbo and also provides links to writing sites and other authors of her ilk. Felicity has written the Shalott series, Guinevere Jones books and episodes for the television series in conjunction with Sophie Masson, and her most recent works the Janna Mysteries – all medieval based.




-Fran

The Coroner's lunch

By Colin Cotterill. Melbourne: Text Publishing, 2004.
Illustration by Petra Nevistic. Design by Chong.

A detective series set in Laos in the late 70s – Laos’ new Communist regime has just taken over. Most of the former ruling class and public servants have fled across the Mekong. Here is Colin Cotterill’s description of his book. He describes it best:
His entertaining website is here: http://www.colincotterill.com/

- Ines