Trespass

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After a particularly severe episode, he awakens to discover that a man he fought with at work has been found brutally stabbed in the sewer. As Clark has devilishly constructed it, the evidence against William couldn't be more damning. Murderous fantasies in his diary don't look good. At this crisis point, William's feverish story merges with the tale of a sewer scavenger named Long Arm Tom and his rat-catching dog. Regularly violating the laws of Parliament and nature to search the sewers, Tom may hold the clue to William's salvation, but he has no reason to give it up, and William's not convinced he deserves salvation anyhow.

Trespass by Clare Clark - Fantastic Fiction Trespass by Clare Clark - Fantastic Fiction

Tess’s fingers tightened around the phone. Tess’s father and Delphine had been divorced for ten years. There was only one reason she would call Tess now. Don’t say it, Tess pleaded silently. Please, Delphine, please, whatever it is you are about to say, don’t let it be that. Clark also seems to equate a dark, Gothic story with description upon description of bad smells, human feces (don't forget consistency and color), urine, chamber pots, and any other grotesque flavor of 18th Century London she could imagine. This book is shitty. No, honestly, it's shitty. Any book titled "The Great Stink" better deliver, and this one does in the shittiest possible way. As a teenager, Tess falls into environmental activism - and the arms of an older, charismatic protester. She has never been happier. When he suddenly disappears, leaving her pregnant and alone, she is shattered. Slowly, though, she rebuilds a life for herself and her daughter Mia. "We're all we need," she sings to Mia as they dance around the kitchen. "Me and you, us two." The descriptions of London streets, the vendors, smells, lights, poverty existing with the majesty of the newly built dome of St Paul's etc are wonderful to read about. What a long way the beautiful city of London has come.

Forgotten the title or the author of a book? Our BookSleuth is specially designed for you. Visit BookSleuth The argument ran that this tendency has in some cases become so extreme that one would wonder if the protagonist is even a functional human being. I am not going to argue that protagonists be perfect, but I agree with the blog author's argument that all too often main characters are *uninterestingly* flawed. The flaw (or flaws) neither helps develop the story in a useful way and/or it is too extreme for words. William, an emotionally scarred veteran of the Crimean War, throws himself into this work, hoping to quiet the memories of that ghastly military adventure. He reminds himself again and again that a successful engineer is "regular in his habits, steady, disciplined, methodical in his problem-solving." William is ordinarily a paragon of those virtues, but when the pressure of maintaining that regulated life becomes too much for him, he slinks deep into the sewer to slash his arms and thighs with a knife. The main character, William May is a deeply troubled individual grappling with a psychological issue of enormous dimensions. The first half of the book is an extended description of his PTSD from the Crimean War and his attempts to grapple with the syndrome via "cutting". Clare Clark is the author of six highly acclaimed historical novels, including The Great Stink, Savage Lands (both longlisted for the Orange Prize) and The Nature of Monsters. Born in 1967, she graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge with a double first in History, and now lives in London with her husband and two children. * * * * *

Clare Clark Edinburgh Gliterary Lunch with Laura Barnett and Clare Clark

As with Monsters, Clark's tale plots the development of a person's humanity. In the case of William, a person who's lost his and must find a way to regain it or go mad. In the case of Tom, a person who knows there's a void in his life but doesn't know what it is or how to fill it. Condition: Like New. Publisher: Harvest/Harcourt, NY, 2006. First Softcover Edition, First Printing. FINE softcover book in pictorial/illustrated wraps, as issued. Not remainder marked. Not a book club edition. Not an ex-library copy. Other problems with this book: unlikeable characters (the annoying heroine feels sorry enough for herself so we don't have to), overwrought descriptions, and a few more I might find if I ever bother to read the second half of the book (fat chance!) The book is told from Eliza's point of view and it's primarily her "monsters" that are confronted and dealt with. She begins the novel a not-very-kind or sympathetic person but the horrors she and Mary suffer break down that sociopathy and she grows more empathic and sympathetic as the novel progresses. I've been more aware of the question of authorial voice vs. character voice since reading James Wood's How Fiction Works and I think Clark is remarkably successful in keeping Eliza's thoughts and observations Eliza's alone without injecting too much or too blatant an author's point of view. There are only occasions where I think Eliza writes or says something wholly out of character for an ill-educated girl from an English village.For awhile, the book became more interesting as Eliza described her awe of sprawling, untamed London, met the other members of her new household, and wondered who her secretive new master could be. It is rare - not impossible - but rare to discover after reading just the one book that you may have found another favourite author to add to your coterie. That happened with Clare Clark, author of The Great Stink, as well as other novels in the historical genre that I have yet to get my hands on and sink my teeth into. Tess looked at the letter for a long time. With each sentence she felt Sylvie’s hands on her shoulders, turning her against herself. When it was time to fetch Mia from school, she tore the letter into small pieces and put them in the bin. Later that night she took them out again and burned them in the kitchen sink. Mia couldn’t read and she couldn’t reach the bin but Tess couldn’t shake the fear that she would find the torn-up words and put them together. That somehow the words would find her.