Darkmans

December 3, 2007
There isn't much plot to Barker's Man Booker-shortlisted novel (after Clear and Behindlings), but a cast of eccentric characters, a torrent of inventive prose and an irresistible synthesis of wickedly humorous and unsettlingly supernatural elements more than compensate for the loose itinerary. The novel is set in a contemporaneous British district bisected by the arrival of the Channel Tunnel's international passenger station, a sore point for one of the central characters, cranky 61-year-old Daniel Beede, distraught at the loss of local landmarks. Beede is estranged from his prescription drug-dealing son Kane, though they share a flat, where Gaffar, a muscular Kurdish refugee with a rabid fear of salad greens, takes up residence. Beede is friends with Elen, a podiatrist, and with Isidore, Elen's paranoid and narcoleptic husband; their young son Fleet is a spooky prodigy who, in one of this intricate tale's several instances of mind-bending nuttiness, may actually be Isidore's ancestor from nine generations ago. This improbable premise is supported by the boy's propensity for quoting bits of the biography of King Edward IV's court jester, one John Scogin, the dark man who haunts the book. Despite the story's plotless sprawl, any reader open to the appeal of an ambitious author's kaleidoscopic imagination will relish this bravura accomplishment.

November 12, 2007
There isn't much plot to Barker's Man Booker-shortlisted novel (after Clear and Behindlings), but a cast of eccentric characters, a torrent of inventive prose and an irresistible synthesis of wickedly humorous and unsettlingly supernatural elements more than compensate for the loose itinerary. The novel is set in a contemporaneous British district bisected by the arrival of the Channel Tunnel's international passenger station, a sore point for one of the central characters, cranky 61-year-old Daniel Beede, distraught at the loss of local landmarks. Beede is estranged from his prescription drug-dealing son Kane, though they share a flat, where Gaffar, a muscular Kurdish refugee with a rabid fear of salad greens, takes up residence. Beede is friends with Elen, a podiatrist, and with Isidore, Elen's paranoid and narcoleptic husband; their young son Fleet is a spooky prodigy who, in one of this intricate tale's several instances of mind-bending nuttiness, may actually be Isidore's ancestor from nine generations ago. This improbable premise is supported by the boy's propensity for quoting bits of the biography of King Edward IV's court jester, one John Scogin, the dark man who haunts the book. Despite the story's plotless sprawl, any reader open to the appeal of an ambitious author's kaleidoscopic imagination will relish this bravura accomplishment.

Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from December 1, 2007
Ata daunting 800-plus pages, this epic comedy, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, demands total immersion. Andthose willing to take the plunge will be rewardedby its ferocious humor andexuberant wordplay.At the center ofthe sprawling, larger-than-lifetaleis thecontentious relationship between Beede, long embittered by his failed attempt to save a local historic building, and his son, Kane, a drug dealer who sees himself as a healer, his knowledge born of his long stint caring for his dying mother. Trapped by their past relationship, they cannot see what is perfectly obvious to their many friends?that they share the same sensitive and caring nature. Barker spins this theme into ever wider circles, finally showing how not only people but also towns and nations are imprisoned by the past, illustrating her pointsthrough the malign spirit of ajester known as the Darkmans, whovariously inhabits the characters, forcing them into pranks both hilarious and malicious. In addition tocreating vibrant, fully realized characters?a Kurdish refugee who is terrifed of salad, a deeply profane teenager with a pure spirit, an ethereal five-year-old who speaks in Old English?Barker digresses in endlessly entertaining fashion on architecture, chiropody, gardening, and animals, among other topics. This will not endear her to readers who require more momentum in their plots. It will, however, make her must reading foranyone interested in language, for she fairly revels in high-energy verbal gymnastics, and it is a feat to behold.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)