What I'm Reading Now: Drood by Dan Simmons

In Drood, Dan Simmons speculates about the last years of Charles Dickens’ life, beginning with the Staplehurst rail crash in 1865. In the crash, the train Dickens was traveling in fell off of a bridge that was being repaired. While he was unharmed, he never full recovered from the trauma of the incident. Since the accident, the only novel he ever finished was the already in-progress, Our Mutual Friend, which he rescued from the crash. His final novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, was never completed before he died, and has since become the inspiration for this and many other novels.

Drood is narrated from the point-of-view of Dickens’ real-life friend, author, and opium-addict, Wilkie Collins. Dickens takes Collins into his confidence to tell him about a spectral figure named Drood (who had been traveling in a coffin) that he spotted in the aftermath of the train crash. According to Collins, Dickens becomes obsessed with Drood. He ventures with Dickens into London's seedy underground in an attempt to find him, and to figure out what he was doing at the crash site.

As a narrator, Collins is delightfully unreliable. The reader never knows whether what he says is an accurate account of events, or one of his drug-induced fantasies. It is known that the real Collins suffered from paranoid delusions due to opium use.

Now, I’m not much of a Dickens fan, ever since I had to read A Tale of Two Cities when I was a junior in high school. But the speculative nature of the book appealed to me. Simmons doesn’t quite have the Victorian style down, so it’s not as daunting to a contemporary reader. In addition, not having read much Dickens did not hinder my understanding of Drood.

At 784 pages, this could easily become a doorstopper of a book, and the pacing at times is quite leisurely. However, you get pulled right in by the tension between Dickens and Collins (who clearly envies his friend's success) as well as by the mystery and intrigue surrounding Drood. If you're looking for a book you can sink into and stay for a while, give this one a try.

Readalikes:

The Dickens work that inspired this novel is of course, The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Also of interest is the short ghost story, The Signal-Man which was likely inspired by the Staplehurst train crash, and is probably based on the Clayton Tunnel crash in 1861.

Wilkie Collins' most successful novel, The Woman in White, is considered to be one of the earliest mystery novels.

The Last Dickens by Matthew Pearl is a mystery about an American publisher who is waiting for the latest installment of The Mystery of Edwin Drood. After the man he sends to pick it up is murdered, he takes it upon himself to investigate the suspicious circumstances.

The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson

This is an ambitious work, combining history, romance, and suspense into an enveloping story, rich in detail and description. The narrator, a very unlikely protagonist, begins the story by crashing his car while under the influence, then being trapped inside while it burns around him. He is eventually rescued, although not expected to survive, due to the serious third-degree burns covering most of his body. Overnight, he has gone from being a well-paid and sought after porn star and producer to a grotesque monster, abandoned by all of his former "friends."

During his lengthy stay in the hospital, he receives a visit from a mysterious yet beautiful woman, Marianne, who claims to have known him in their previous lives. She regales him with the story of their past, in twelfth century Germany. As she is released from the hospital and continues her visits, he slowly falls in love with her. When, after months of being cared for in the burn unit, he is finally released, it is to Marianne's home that he goes for his re-entry into "normal" life.

While he settles in with Marianne, she becomes increasingly obsessed with creating her gargoyles, first spending a few days at a time creating them, but moving on to working until sheer exhaustion takes over. She claims that the gargoyles and "her masters" are hurrying her along. What will happen to our narrator when Marianne completes her final gargoyle and reaches the end of her story?

This is a story of love and loss, rebirth and renewal. Our narrator learns to open his heart to what had been previously closed. This book is both lovely and painful to read, and is so thick with storylines it seemed to take me forever to make it through...which was perfect, because it was one of those stories that I did not want to end.

A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

Winter in Wisconsin, 1907 is a stark, sometimes brutal sometimes beautiful season, words that can also be used to describe this novel. Catherine Land, a beautiful, but no longer young woman, has answered a newspaper ad for "a reliable wife." Ralph Truitt, aging, rich, and lonely has selected Catherine from dozens of replies, based on her description of herself as a simple and honest woman and the picture she sent, which is actually of her much plainer cousin India. Despite her obvious deceptions, Ralph goes forward with his plan to marry her.

The reader soon learns that both parties have ulterior motives in mind - Catherine to inherit Ralph's money and live in luxury with her much younger lover, and Ralph to use Catherine to bring his long-estranged son back home and quench his eternal loneliness. The novel quietly twists and turns along these plot lines while each of them realizes that fulfilling their deepest wishes may not be what brings them satisfaction after all.

Goolrick's writing is hypnotizing - his rich visual descriptions drew me in until I could hear, smell, feel and see through the character's eyes. The book quietly seethes with passion and teeters on madness, examining the human condition in all of its capablilities. While it is a book to be savored, it is suspenseful enough to keep the pages turning until the end. I highly recommend this book to fans of gothic or romantic novels, or anyone who is a lover of language. Some readalike suggestions are:

Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier

My Antonia by Willa Cather

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

The House at Riverton by Kate Morton

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe

Do you like a little history with your fiction? Or a little fiction with your history? This book might just work for you.

Connie Goodwin has just completed her qualifying exam to enter the dissertation program at Harvard. Rather than spend the summer doing research for her PhD, she moves up to Marblehead, Massachusetts to clean up her grandmother's long-abandoned house. The house turns out to be straight out of the last century, with no electricity, no phone, and rudimentary running water. It's also full of antiques, strange substances in glass jars, and old books, one of which hides a key with a mysterious parchment on it.

Soon Connie is too busy researching the name on the parchment - Deliverance Dane - to devote much time to her studies, much to her advisor's displeasure. She discovers that Deliverance was tried for being a witch during the Salem Witch Trials, and has possibly left behind a book detailing all of her "spells." Throw in a brewing romance, and Connie has her hands full for the summer. When her new friend, Sam, becomes seriously ill, it is up to Connie to discover the whereabouts of Deliverance's book in order to help Sam recover - can she do it in time to save him?

This book has a little bit of everything - history, romance, suspense, magic, etc. I especially enjoyed the historical details of life in the colonies during different eras. If you enjoy reading about Deliverance Dane, give The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff a try, another book that features both contemporary and historical family stories. This book is great for beach reading or settling in for a long day on a lounge chair or hammock. Enjoy!

Moloka'i by Alan Brennert

Moloka'i is the poignant tale of a young girl who is diagnosed with leprosy in the late 1800's, and sent to the leper colony on the island of Moloka'i, in the Hawaiian islands. Rachel Kalama is the baby of her close knit family. Growing up in Honolulu, the world is her playground, until one day an odd wound is discovered on her leg - her mother is able to keep it covered up, and warns the children not to tell anyone about it. One day, Rachel and her sister Sarah get into a knock-down, drag 'em out fight, and Sarah calls Rachel a "dirty leper" during the midst of it. The health inspector is waiting for Rachel when she gets home. She is removed from her family and taken to a hospital for testing, ultimately ending up at the leper colony on Moloka'i, far removed from friends and family.

Due to the extreme toll leprosy seemed to take on the Hawaiian natives and the lack of knowledge of communicable diseases, the Moloka'i settlement was created so that lepers would not be spreading their illness to others. What was not taken into account was the effect this isolation had on the patients' emotional and mental well-being. Despite the fact Rachel's uncle and girlfriend were already living on the island, Rachel had to move into a boarding school for girls, run by nuns. Here, Rachel grows into a young woman, forging relationships with both other patients and nuns that will span a lifetime. The book follows the course of her life - her loves, her losses, her triumphs and her defeats. Despite being banished to a remote island due to her illness, Rachel manages to live a full and satisfying life.

I do not want to give too much away, as I want you to fall in love with Rachel yourself, as I did. She is a strong and incorrigible spirit who fights for what and who she believes in. Despite being handed the equivalent of a death sentence when banished to Moloka'i, Rachel chooses life and love over death and misery. She refuses to be defined by her illness. Not only was Rachel's tale inspiring, the story of Moloka'i - a real place - was also intriguing. This book is a fine work of historical fiction, mixing just the right amount of fact with fiction, and I look forward to reading Brennert's latest, Honolulu.