and some books

The contemporary English novelist kick continues. I brought a couple back with me from London—The House of Doctor Dee by Peter Ackroyd and Arthur and George by Julian Barnes. Both draw on historical figures—the Elizabethan scholar/astrologer John Dee and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle respectively—and both are certainly interesting, but whereas Ackroyd’s novel is, finally, a strange and chilly piece of work, Barnes’s book is a page-turning delight.

I decided I’d give an Ackroyd novel a shot because I really enjoyed his London: A Biography, which I perused in anticipation of our trip. And Ackroyd’s encyclopedic knowledge of London and its history is everywhere evident in The House of Doctor Dee. But the narrative loses its momentum at times and the characterization is…thin, shall we say. That said, Ackroyd is an interesting fellow, and I’ll keep my eye on him.

Barnes’s novel is a masterful display of characterization. He takes historical figures, a well known historical figure in the case of Doyle, and makes them real in complex and believable ways. And the storytelling is equally superb. He takes what is little more than a historical footnote and uncovers its essential questions and its complexities in a compelling way. Meaning it’s an awfully fun book to read. Barnes is concerned with a practical sort of epistemology—he asks: how do you know? And then he demonstrates why it’s an important question by displaying the multifarious ways in which we construct the truth and the consequences that can follow from doing so irresponsibly. And it’s an awfully fun book to read. Best book of 2006 thus far for Tricky.

*I know that the formatting is...off, but Blogger is still a substandard piece o' crap. Get what you pay for eh?