I seem to be on a bit of a reading binge at the moment. After finishing the last one I went straight into this one and read it over a Late Friday, most of Saturday and early Sunday. The reading fitted in neatly between doing the laundry, getting my passport photographs done and getting the weekly shop done.
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The Resurrectionist - James Bradley
I remember buying this one for the title. It intrigued me. The small amount that I do know about resurrectionism made me wonder how you could use it in a novel and how the main character's life would be affected by it. Unfortunately for me the blurb on the back (which partly peaked my interest in this novel) is a bit misleading. In the story our Gabriel does end up working with Lucan but I do not feel that it is because he is "drawn" to him, or that it is Lucan who introduces Gabrield to the "sinister and mysterious underworld of Georgian London". Gabriel does, however, make a journey that will change his lie forever, in more ways than one. Another thing that I want to mention is that my edition of the book had a little "Richard and Judy's Summer Read" sticker on it. Let me tell you right now that for me this book is not a light summer read! "Summer read" suggest to me something more uplifting and light in subject matter and/or characters than this one gives you. There is some seriously gory stuff in it and it is not a nice and fluffy beach read. The first two pages had me almost put it down and at times during reading it I have wondered if I really wanted to know more about the business of resurrectionism. The company that Gabriel keeps is not of the fine-Georgian-gentleman kind and his world is a harsh place to live.
I am not sure how I feel about this one... I managed to get through it really quickly and I really wanted to know how Gabriel's life was going to develop. The chapters are short and at times divided into smaller paragraphs which moves the story along nicely. The one thing that I do not like about the way it is written is that mr Bradley seems to think it necessary to tell part of the story in flashbacks instead of just keeping it linear. Most of it is told as it happens but at times something happens and we fast forward to a few months/weeks or years later to then in the next chapter catch up on what has happened. I do not really see why he does this? It makes more sense to keep the story line flowing from past to present, moving forward. I am not sure if Bradley does it to try and keep me interested in the story (make me wander if he is going to tell me what happened) or because he wants to try and trick me into having my own ideas of what may have happened in the mean time and then find out how wrong or right I am. Either way it does not really work for me.The story would not have lost anything by just telling it chronologically. There would have been enough power and tension in the chronological narrative to work with and I would have been less annoyed at him for one.
So what is the story about; Gabriel a young man is sent to study with an anatomist mr Poll. No prizes for guessing that this is where the gruesomeness of the book comes from. They deal with bodies gotten from the fresh graves of the citizens of London. It is dark, secretive and heavy work mostly carried out under cover of darkness of in the very late or very early hours of the day. In the first few pages of the book Bradley describes how the bodies arrive and how they clean them up ready for the master to do his work. Is description is really realistic and gives you a very good idea of ow it might have been for Gabriel to do this work and how it wold affect him. It also show how quickly you get used to even the seemingly most gruesome tasks. Gabriel is supposed to be studying to be a anatomist as well but he does not seem to do much studying and instead, through one of the people he works with, discovers a whole new side of London he finds much more fascinating than becoming an anatomist. As you might expect this discovery leads him into a life of drink, irresponsible behaviour and conflict with his boss. He causes problems for his boss and there are people around him who do not take kindly to this and who have long memories! There are people around him who try and keep him on the straight an narrow but Gabriel has lost his heart to a pretty girl, his money to the gambling dens. He seems to want to get out of the life he is in but in trying to do so he only gets sucked in further to the world of corpse collecting.
Very often it feels that Gabriel is fighting not only the world but himself as well. He does not want to do the work that he does, he does not want to take the opium that he does, he wishes he did not love the girl as much as he does, he does not want to work for Lucan and submit to his will... but he does. All he wants is to be free, somewhere else but where he is. That to him seems to be the answer to his happiness. If only he could be free of all that holds him down - work, love, friends, enemies, debts, death. In a way the life that Gabriel has chosen for himself has broken his spirit, has broken his will. Even when he manages to make a new life for himself he is not free of what he has seen and done before. In the end maybe the only thing he does learn is that no-one is free of his or her past. However much he tries to break free of his past it always seems to find him.
I can see that the title of the book is very apt. In one way it applies to Gabriel who is resurrected several times. At first he goes from innocent boy to working in the anatomist's morgue. Then he goes from obedient servant to his master to loose cannon, driven by pleasure, addiction and lust. His next phase is working for Lucan, getting involved in the nastier side of grave robbing even graduating to murder later on. Then he dies.... only to be reborn years later in Australia. In a way this last part really only emphasises what we already know: Man cannot escape his past! Gabriel has changed his life around, changed his name as well as his habits. He seems sober, more balance. But this might just be because he consciously keeps himself away from people and society. He likes being alone and finds comfort in it. He draws birds and teaches the local children and women to draw. That is all he seems to want from life. He finds it hard to take a bird's life.. strange how it is so much harder for him than taking a human life now? He admires the birds, thinks they are surely truly free and perhaps, therefore happier and luckier than he is.
I cannot deny that the mood in the book is very dark and there is a lot of death and decay in it - human and moral. The message that it seems to want to give is that man can remake his life although he cannot escape who he is. Gabriel went to the Colonies (Australia) where just about every man's ancestor was a convict and he manages to build a new life for himself but his past comes to find him even in this new world. He might be safe from those who mean him harm in England but in this new world he manages to find trouble just as easily.
Although I understand why this last part was written (Gabriel is reborn as Thomas) it does sometimes feel like it was stuck at the end to try and resolve some outstanding issue.. however, which one? I already get the fact the he is reborn when he goes to the colonies as a convict and that his past still catches up with him. And what the thing with the girl is all about is beyond me? he is damaged goods and he is no good at saying the right thing at the right time.. and..? Apart from history repeating itself the whole last part does not really serve any purpose... not sure it is worth it just to have the crawling out of the grave scene for.
Title: The Resurrectionist
Author: James Bradley
333 pages
Faber and Faber
ISBN nr 978-0-571-23276-5
Books to be read: 70
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