Rustication

Charles Palliser
Rustication

W. W. Norton, 2013

Rustication is written in the form of a diary that a seventeen year old protagonist of the novel Richard Shenstone had written for a several weeks. He was expelled from the university and forced to return home to his mother and sister. However, not much left of home: in the four months that Richard was studying, his father died of a heart attack, and Richard had not even been invited to the funeral, his mother and sister Effie had lost their means of livelihood and moved to a dilapidated house in the south of England.

Richard arrives before Christmas of 1863, alone, without a cart that will come later, but his mother and sister do not welcome the return of the young man. In the novel, with each diary entry the amount of mysteries and oddities is growing exponentially and they are all important elements of the puzzle, and it is not possible to mention them all.

Richard hides the events that occurred to him at the university, and his mother and sister hide the events that took place during his absence. Richard notes that Effie, a little older than him, goes somewhere by nights, and his mother turns a blind eye to it. The mother is holding a secret of her husband's death: why now is the family forced to live in poverty, without any support? Richard gradually reveals secrets about himself to his family and learns the secrets of his relatives.

What a puzzling story this Rustication - and a first-class mystery, and a disturbing neo-Victorian novel. From the first chapter and almost to the very end Palliser throws and throws the puzzles to the reader. Avalanche of oddities rushes at you without stopping. Everyone has something to hide, and the farther the worse. Small sins overshadow the big sins, and that’s what almost all the characters are trying to hide.

Palliser's novel has combined the classic mystery and neo-noir. There are mysterious letters, maniac, murder, family secrets: something will be false clues, but something will work in the final. In any case, the author has played a fair game. At the same time, Palliser significantly updated the classic detective story. Sex, violence, cruelty – that is all here. Noose is tightening around the narrator’s throat, and we sympathize with him, despite his weaknesses and sins. Respectable ladies, earles, teachers, young brides and students - the author turns the established images upside down. Every character is a fallen creature.

Palliser updated the language of Victorian prose as well. There are almost no tedious passages, but the dirty letters are here in full. In addition to that, there are also fragments of the diary, that Richard encrypted (they are written in Greek), where he describes his sexual fantasies. These letters do not shock.

It is an exciting novel, with an amicable confusing plot, presenting a new look at the XIX century England.

The Last Summer of the Camperdowns

Elizabeth Kelly
The Last Summer of Camperdowns

Liveright, 2013

Riddle Camperdown tells the story of the summer of 1972, which Riddle spent with her parents in a family house on the shore of the Atlantic. At the time 12-year-old, Riddle expects the usual summer holiday entertainment, from horseback riding to games with her numerous dogs. But this summer she will have to be on the public: her father Godfrey Camperdown, nicknamed Camp, puts forward his candidacy for Congress.

Strange things begin to happen after one visit of Riddle and her mother to a neighboring farm, where his neighbor Gin lives, in search of the missing dog Vera. While Greer, the girl’s mother, and Gin discuss the Devlins, a rich family, which will yet play a role in the novel, Riddle is looking for a dog in the barn. But instead of a dog Riddle accidentally overhears the strange sounds similar to the sounds of a struggle, some sniffles and the word "why?". Riddle flees in terror from the barn, finds the dog, and then runs home in tears, but does not tell her mother about the causes of her disturbance. Soon the barn where Gin was holding the horses has been burned down. Riddle is actually in panic, because there are rumors that the youngest son of magnate Michael Devlin Charlie is missing. After leaving the house Charlie hasn’t called for five days, and Devlin Sr. is already panicking, involving the police. Camp is sure that Charlie just is having fun somewhere, being pampered with money. Police and family members are hoping for the best so far, not considering the options of kidnapping and murder. Riddle quickly puts two and two together, but she tells nothing about what she’s heard.

Family house at the ocean, horses and children, the shadow of the past - this postcard we've seen already. However, the same view can be described differently, depending on the skill of the artist.
When the book is broken down into individual components, then everything seems familiar, even banal. Love triangle, which stretches from the past; child-narrator, precocious smart and intelligent; secret from the past, which dates back to World War II; a mysterious villain; an eccentric family - the familiar and the accustomed ingredients, the usual components of a decent family drama.
The familiar is not always disappointing, not every novel can be a new word in the literature. Kelly’s sensual prose is one of the most powerful features of the book. On the one hand, the narrator is a 12-year-old girl, on the other the story is told from the present, and thus Riddle in decades could comprehend the events of that summer.

The girl's parents are not less than full-blooded characters: it is a pleasure to read family squabbles, which, although they sometimes cause a laugh, but it's a bitter laugh.
The novel offers an intrigue on two levels. At the domestic level when there is some mystery in a relationship between Greer and the two men. Who betrayed who in their youth? Why had she married one and not the other? Is it all that obviously?

The second intrigue, mainly associated with the missing boy and Riddle’s silence. Part of the secret is known to us, yet something we can guess, but the finale is still impressive. The final part is somewhat crumpled up, although the events at the end are flying with the bullet speed (literally). Connection of the past and present in The Last Summer of Camperdowns does not feel false. Past mistakes, lies, fear, it’s all real here.

A clever novel from the author, whose previous works I’d like to read.