Frankly, these kinds of thrillers are not really my bag, but after, on the trot, reading about Robespierre, then the English Civil Wars, and then a 180-year satire on Russia’s middle-classes by Nikolai Gogol (Them: ‘You really
Well, I was disappointed, though relatively mildly. For one thing Down Cemetery Road was not a ‘new release’ but ‘re-release’. Herron wrote and published it in 2003. Furthermore, it was his first novel and, er, I suspect he was still finding his literary sea legs, for there is something ‘curate’s egg’ about the novel.
I feel obliged to add this: many of us who read and possibly write reviews to post here also try our hand at writing fiction, and I am one such.
And many might agree with me that it ain’t half as straightforward and ‘easy’ as we perhaps thought it would be. That is worth bearing in mind.
It would explain that, to stab guess at the figures, more than half of those who plan ‘to write a novel’ don’t ever.
It would explain that, to stab guess at the figures, more than half of those who plan ‘to write a novel’ don’t ever.
Of those, more than half get no further than the second chapter before it all peters out and they knock it on the head. And of those who do eventually finish ‘my novel’ less than half care to try again.
Then there is the – wholly subjective, of course – question of ‘literary worth’ where one man’s meat is another man’s poison: we might all like different works and it is also a question of standards – what we personally like, rate as good, bad or mediocre and what we expect will vary a great deal.
I mention all that to try to put some of my comments on Herron’s ‘first novel’ into context. You see, all other things being equal, Herron not only did finish his ‘first novel’ but then wrote around another 18/19 novels. And that is no mean achievement.
Furthermore, for all my gripes about Down Cemetery Road, I understand Herron most certainly did find his ‘literary sea legs’ and that the work got better and better, and although I was not entirely bowled over by this ‘first novel’, there is more than enough in it to encourage me to read some of his subsequent work.
Before I move on to outline my thoughts on Down Cemetery Road, I should reiterate my warning that pretty much all literary judgments are subjective, and so mine are, too. And although I have ‘finished a novel’ and written quite a few short stories, I most certainly do not see myself as in any way qualified to pontificate and trust I will not come across as though I am or, worse, think I am.
After puzzling prologue which does, though, make sense by the end fo the work, Down Cemetery Road gets of to an encouraging start with a middle-class. This set-piece, with its laconic and sardonic authorial observations as well as some very sharp and funny dialogue, does to some extent set a tone.
But to my mind rather than go on to work as a pillar of the novel, that tone does over become more than a little overworked, not so say often more than a little forced. Thus it becomes less and less engaging.
Although the ‘plot’ and its machinations is an imaginative one, I remained unconvinced by the ‘heroine’s’ motivation. It does not quite ring true and also seemed more than a little forced, a necessary plot device. On the other hand, the – I assume – unlikely set-up of a shadowy secret government which more or less acts as a death squad did work for me however far-fetched it might seem.
Those two points might sum up one of the many difficulties a writer faces and which present her or him with problems which she or he must solve. This is where the fact that every reader will have a different set of values and expectations might well work in a writer’s favour.
The ‘heroine’s’ motivation to track down a young girl she has never met might well satisfy and convince some, but as it did not at all convince me.
One potential theme is that our heroine is childless and doesn’t want children although her husband does. There might have been a suggestion that, in fact, subconsciously she did want children, perhaps the man who was her husband put her off, and that was at the root with her quasi obsession to find a girl she had never met.
Yet if that was intended, Herron makes no attempt to develop that possible theme.
One aspect of writing I have never much liked is the ‘god-like’ ability of the author to ‘know’ each characters thoughts and private emotions. Granted that is the conventional approach and in that sense Herron is more mainstream. But, frankly, I don’t like it and am sometimes even irritated by it.
I also became more than a little irritated by the non-stop account of what the characters felt – yes, that can be presented as a corollary of ‘the author knowing the characters thoughts’ – but I still don’t like it.
I read recently that the – highly successful – writer Stephen King suggested there are two kinds of writers: those who set out with a ground-plan for their work to which they more or less stick. And those, and King says he is one, he simply take off to see there the story might take them. I have no idea how Herron approached Down Cemetery Road, but I suspect it was more of the second approach.
Then there is the – wholly subjective, of course – question of ‘literary worth’ where one man’s meat is another man’s poison: we might all like different works and it is also a question of standards – what we personally like, rate as good, bad or mediocre and what we expect will vary a great deal.
I mention all that to try to put some of my comments on Herron’s ‘first novel’ into context. You see, all other things being equal, Herron not only did finish his ‘first novel’ but then wrote around another 18/19 novels. And that is no mean achievement.
Furthermore, for all my gripes about Down Cemetery Road, I understand Herron most certainly did find his ‘literary sea legs’ and that the work got better and better, and although I was not entirely bowled over by this ‘first novel’, there is more than enough in it to encourage me to read some of his subsequent work.
Before I move on to outline my thoughts on Down Cemetery Road, I should reiterate my warning that pretty much all literary judgments are subjective, and so mine are, too. And although I have ‘finished a novel’ and written quite a few short stories, I most certainly do not see myself as in any way qualified to pontificate and trust I will not come across as though I am or, worse, think I am.
After puzzling prologue which does, though, make sense by the end fo the work, Down Cemetery Road gets of to an encouraging start with a middle-class. This set-piece, with its laconic and sardonic authorial observations as well as some very sharp and funny dialogue, does to some extent set a tone.
But to my mind rather than go on to work as a pillar of the novel, that tone does over become more than a little overworked, not so say often more than a little forced. Thus it becomes less and less engaging.
Although the ‘plot’ and its machinations is an imaginative one, I remained unconvinced by the ‘heroine’s’ motivation. It does not quite ring true and also seemed more than a little forced, a necessary plot device. On the other hand, the – I assume – unlikely set-up of a shadowy secret government which more or less acts as a death squad did work for me however far-fetched it might seem.
Those two points might sum up one of the many difficulties a writer faces and which present her or him with problems which she or he must solve. This is where the fact that every reader will have a different set of values and expectations might well work in a writer’s favour.
The ‘heroine’s’ motivation to track down a young girl she has never met might well satisfy and convince some, but as it did not at all convince me.
One potential theme is that our heroine is childless and doesn’t want children although her husband does. There might have been a suggestion that, in fact, subconsciously she did want children, perhaps the man who was her husband put her off, and that was at the root with her quasi obsession to find a girl she had never met.
Yet if that was intended, Herron makes no attempt to develop that possible theme.
One aspect of writing I have never much liked is the ‘god-like’ ability of the author to ‘know’ each characters thoughts and private emotions. Granted that is the conventional approach and in that sense Herron is more mainstream. But, frankly, I don’t like it and am sometimes even irritated by it.
I also became more than a little irritated by the non-stop account of what the characters felt – yes, that can be presented as a corollary of ‘the author knowing the characters thoughts’ – but I still don’t like it.
I read recently that the – highly successful – writer Stephen King suggested there are two kinds of writers: those who set out with a ground-plan for their work to which they more or less stick. And those, and King says he is one, he simply take off to see there the story might take them. I have no idea how Herron approached Down Cemetery Road, but I suspect it was more of the second approach.
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