When I saw that illustration I thought that this was by the illustrator of that alphabet book with all the dead children so I snapped it up. As i just discovered, that alphabet book is called the Gashlycrumb Tinies and it's by Edward GOREY. He died in 2000 and so is most definitely not the author of this book which was written in the mid 2010s.
Back to that statement about this being in Poundland being a damned shame... Poundland's basic business model is buying remaindered stock for any non food items and things that you would reasonably expect to pay more than a pound for. That means that this book certainly didn't sell as many copies as it deserves to.
This might be a children's or Young Adult book, but it's one of the best things I've read this year. I've had so much fun reading this book.
The storyline is kind of traditional - strange family, strange house, in comes a stranger and things start to unravel. The most sympathetic member of the family faces a quandary regarding his loyalties... etc.
What makes this almost entirely unique is the plot details. The reason the family is so strange, the setting, and the characters set this book apart from pretty much anything else I've ever read. I genuinely can't think of anything that this would compare directly to. Think Dickens trying to write Gormenghast with Neil Gaiman and Lemony Snickett with a dash of Roald Dahl and indeed the aforementioned Edward Gorey and you'd be somewhere in the ballpark.
Heap House is the home of the Iremonger family. It's set in the middle of huge rubbish heaps imported from neighboring London. All the upstairs Iremongers have names almost but not quite like ordinary names. Our hero is Clod Iremonger (short for Clodius), he has cousins called Moorcus and Timmus who also feature heavily in the story. Our heroine is Lucy Pennant, a new servant in the house. All the servants are distant relatives too poor to live in the main house. Once indentured they lose their London names and just become known as Iremonger. Lucy doesn't want to lose her name
Everyone who lives in the house has a birth object that they cannot be parted from. Clod's birth object is a bathplug, Timmus carries around a tap etc. Clod has an almost unique abilty to hear all the birth objects talking. They all shout out names. His bath plug, for example, always shouts James henry Hayward.
The drama starts in the story when his great aunt Rosamud's door handle goes missing. Clod and Lucy meet and form a forbidden friendship. Events quickly spiral out of control. Items are moving by themselves. Huge angry creatures are forming from the rubbish and a storm is gathering over the heaps.
There's a very blatant anti-capitalist metaphor at the heart of the story which adds whole layers of meaning to the proceedings.
The mock Victorian setting is brilliantly created and helped along by the mordantly funny illustrations that introduce every chapter. I didn't realise that this was part 1 of a trilogy when I bought it. I'm very happy that it is because that means I have two more books in which to experience this world in. I've already ordered both of them.
This is still available in the usual outlets, although in paperback with not such a great looking cover.
It may be aimed at the younger generation but it entertained this adult enormously. an easy 9/10
By the way - here's the Edward Gorey thing if you've never seen it before
Animated Gashlycrumb Tinies Alphabet - Narrated by TDC - YouTube
No comments:
Post a Comment