The Deptford Review
Feb. 27th, 2008 09:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluegargantuaHi,
So, I’ve come to appreciate![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
anselm23’s book recommendations. Sometimes it’s the kind of stuff I go for, sometimes it’s far afield, but it’s often pretty good and certainly expands my horizons some.
Which is why I just finished up a trilogy by Robertson Davies. The Deptford Trilogy is composed of three novels Fifth Business, The Manticore and World of Wonders.
As a trilogy, it’s pretty good. As individual books, it’s a little choppier.
The Fifth Business introduces us to Dunstan Ramsey, a retired history teacher who taught at a private boy’s school in Canada. The book is his rather long letter to his former boss where he complains about the short shrift he’s been given in the newspaper article describing his retirement. He then goes on to give an account of his life, beginning in the small Canadian town of Deptford where he has an unusual relationship with two other men who will have a profound impact on him (and vice versa) -- Boyd Staunton and Paul Dempster.
As Dunstan spins out his memoir, we get a chance to see that while he was certainly a minor figure in the world at large, he played very significant roles that aren’t obvious at first. We also get a great series of side commentary on the world of saints and saint historians. It’s a pretty solid read and I liked it quite a bit.
The Manticore picks up where Fifth Business left off and introduces us to David Staunton, Boyd Staunton’s son and let’s us sit in on his psychiatrist sessions. He’s had a terrible shock and he’s come to Switzerland to sort out his life and put some Jungian meaning to it all. There were a number of elements in this book I really liked, but overall, this was a pretty weak book. I think the big problem is that the trilogy really deals with Dunstan, Boyd, and Paul and while Boyd is deliberately a mystery, having his son stand in for him, doesn’t really help.
World of Wonders is probably the strongest of the three books and a wonderful conclusion to the whole thing. Paul Dempster gets a chance to tell his side of things and it’s a story that wanders far afield from the others into a world of carnivals and vaudeville and stage magic, but the last 50-odd pages slam everything home with lots of surprising reveals.
Frankly, I’d read the first and third book and maybe skip out on the second altogether. It’s made me interested enough that I’m thinking about checking into his Cornish trilogy as well, but I’ve got a fair amount of plays by and analysis of Jonson in the hopper, so we’ll put it on hold for now. But the first and last books are certainly worth a look.
later
Tom
(Confidential toanselm23: Really, you want to squeeze in that last book if you haven’t, you’ll feel better about everything afterwards. Last five pages? Killer.)
So, I’ve come to appreciate
anselm23’s book recommendations. Sometimes it’s the kind of stuff I go for, sometimes it’s far afield, but it’s often pretty good and certainly expands my horizons some.Which is why I just finished up a trilogy by Robertson Davies. The Deptford Trilogy is composed of three novels Fifth Business, The Manticore and World of Wonders.
As a trilogy, it’s pretty good. As individual books, it’s a little choppier.
The Fifth Business introduces us to Dunstan Ramsey, a retired history teacher who taught at a private boy’s school in Canada. The book is his rather long letter to his former boss where he complains about the short shrift he’s been given in the newspaper article describing his retirement. He then goes on to give an account of his life, beginning in the small Canadian town of Deptford where he has an unusual relationship with two other men who will have a profound impact on him (and vice versa) -- Boyd Staunton and Paul Dempster.
As Dunstan spins out his memoir, we get a chance to see that while he was certainly a minor figure in the world at large, he played very significant roles that aren’t obvious at first. We also get a great series of side commentary on the world of saints and saint historians. It’s a pretty solid read and I liked it quite a bit.
The Manticore picks up where Fifth Business left off and introduces us to David Staunton, Boyd Staunton’s son and let’s us sit in on his psychiatrist sessions. He’s had a terrible shock and he’s come to Switzerland to sort out his life and put some Jungian meaning to it all. There were a number of elements in this book I really liked, but overall, this was a pretty weak book. I think the big problem is that the trilogy really deals with Dunstan, Boyd, and Paul and while Boyd is deliberately a mystery, having his son stand in for him, doesn’t really help.
World of Wonders is probably the strongest of the three books and a wonderful conclusion to the whole thing. Paul Dempster gets a chance to tell his side of things and it’s a story that wanders far afield from the others into a world of carnivals and vaudeville and stage magic, but the last 50-odd pages slam everything home with lots of surprising reveals.
Frankly, I’d read the first and third book and maybe skip out on the second altogether. It’s made me interested enough that I’m thinking about checking into his Cornish trilogy as well, but I’ve got a fair amount of plays by and analysis of Jonson in the hopper, so we’ll put it on hold for now. But the first and last books are certainly worth a look.
later
Tom
(Confidential to
anselm23: Really, you want to squeeze in that last book if you haven’t, you’ll feel better about everything afterwards. Last five pages? Killer.)
