Quincunx

Charles Palliser

3/29/2003

Johnnie Mellamphy is a young boy being raised by his mother and his nanny. They are very protective of him, not letting him stray from his home ground. Even a trip up to the road to see the stagecoaches from London drive by at the turnpike is a treat for him. As he grows older, he knows secrets are being kept from him. But his mother refuses to tell. She refuses him to talk to any stranger. She refuses to show the necklace or paper she has hidden away.

Meanwhile, in London, men are trying to find the Mellamphy family. The mother has taken her son into hiding. She has a claim of inheritance that these powerful men want to disprove.

This is a novel described as written in a Dickensian style, set in the mid 1900's England. It is deeply researched, very long, and (in my opinion) boring. I couldn't get past the first 200 pages or so, about 1/5 of the book. I couldn't care for the characters. Too often the strange plot descriptions and twists reminded me of the parts of Dickens' writing that puts me off. Mrs. Mellamphy is riduculous for someone who has successfully hidden away for a number of years. The sinister characters are too evil. All too often I could hear the "bad guy laugh" you can hear in the movies before the good guy prevails. It kept putting me off.

I chose this book because it was selected in one of my reading groups. A couple people have or will finish it. More won't. I have yet to hear much positive about it from them. At best, all praise was with reservations. If you don't want to wade through deep prose for over 900 pages, don't bother with this. But if you like Dickens' work, you might find this palatable.

Most of the reviews at disagree with me. Over 60 reviews there average out around four stars. I say - walk past this to something else on the shelf.