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vsbedford's review against another edition
2.0
Look, I haven't read any Thomas Hardy (would that have helped?) and was charmed into requesting this novel by the interesting cover. I feel a bit duped, to be honest, because this novel weighs heavily in the hand and plods along slowly, slowly until the conclusion. An opportunity wasted? Perhaps, but I found both the writing and the subject matter deeply boring.
I received an ecopy from the publishers and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I received an ecopy from the publishers and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
qofdnz's review against another edition
3.0
I found this slightly hard going as the style of writing left me without context at times and required some guess work as to meaning. Maybe it's not helped in that I disliked Hardy's writing and you cannot disassociate the man from his work.
gem_zeroshelfcontrol's review against another edition
3.0
I received this book from NetGalley and the publisher, in return for an honest review. This review is based entirely on my own thoughts and feelings.
Overall rating : 3*
Writing skill : 4*
Plot: 3*
Characters: 2*
I must admit that I requested this book knowing absolutely nothing about the story or any of the characters. I haven't read anything by Thomas Hardy, nor do I know anything about his life. So this was a strange one for me. Having read a few of the 'classics' and knowing the typical writing style I thought Wilkins did a great job of making it feel like it was a true historical fiction, rather than one written in 2016. But I got lost along the way and I didn't have a clear understanding of the narrative. It was written in the perspective of one of the maids, Nellie, but she was often narrating situations she wasn't there for, which I found bizarre and hard to follow. The characters were not described in a way that I could picture any of them clearly and they were very forgettable (except Alex and his teeth). If you really love Hardy and/or historical fictions you'll probably favour this much more strongly for me. In hindsight Ill stop requesting books that are not my cup of tea.
Overall rating : 3*
Writing skill : 4*
Plot: 3*
Characters: 2*
I must admit that I requested this book knowing absolutely nothing about the story or any of the characters. I haven't read anything by Thomas Hardy, nor do I know anything about his life. So this was a strange one for me. Having read a few of the 'classics' and knowing the typical writing style I thought Wilkins did a great job of making it feel like it was a true historical fiction, rather than one written in 2016. But I got lost along the way and I didn't have a clear understanding of the narrative. It was written in the perspective of one of the maids, Nellie, but she was often narrating situations she wasn't there for, which I found bizarre and hard to follow. The characters were not described in a way that I could picture any of them clearly and they were very forgettable (except Alex and his teeth). If you really love Hardy and/or historical fictions you'll probably favour this much more strongly for me. In hindsight Ill stop requesting books that are not my cup of tea.
whatthelog's review
2.0
‘Max Gate’ is a novel by Damien Wilkins, published by Aardvark Bureau. It is a first-person account of the days before and after author Thomas Hardy’s death, punctuated by various memories of the author and his first wife, Emma.
I really liked the main themes of the novel: practicality versus romanticism, and the idea of the myth of the author versus the author as a living, breathing man. Unlike some of the other reviews I’ve read, I loved the fact that the reader only encounters Hardy through memories – it creates great ambiguity about who exactly he is, and who, in some sense, he belongs to. The family? The nation? No one?
The novel was split into three main parts. Each part has various montages of the animals and scenery surrounding Max Gate which separate the various memories. I thought this was done very well. The novel was also full of lovely little moments, mainly about Hardy and his love for animals and nature. Wilkins has obviously done a great deal of research, and it shows.
I did have some quibbles with the novel, however. I think it would have benefitted from being written in third person. We experience the novel through servant-girl Nell’s eyes, but she has very little to do with the main events, and often is not actually present in the conversations she reports (or, if she is, we have no idea why). An interesting first-person perspective would perhaps have been Florence, Hardy’s current wife, who is portrayed as an extremely slippery and interesting character. There is some hint at Nell as an unreliable narrator in the third part of the novel, but it could have been taken much further than it was. There was also some inconsistency with the use of vernacular – I’m a bit of a nit-pick about that sort of thing, so it did bother me.
The quality of the writing itself also improved as the novel went on – I was particularly impressed with a section in part 2, in which Nell remembers a picnic, which then leads into a story about Hardy and his first wife. I thought that this was possibly the best-written part of the novel, as the flow between between memory and story and poetry is seamless.
Overall, I think this is a charming novel that will appeal to those who are intrigued by literature and authors, and who are in the mood for a gentle and meandering read.
‘Max Gate’ will be published in the UK on June 6 2016.
I really liked the main themes of the novel: practicality versus romanticism, and the idea of the myth of the author versus the author as a living, breathing man. Unlike some of the other reviews I’ve read, I loved the fact that the reader only encounters Hardy through memories – it creates great ambiguity about who exactly he is, and who, in some sense, he belongs to. The family? The nation? No one?
The novel was split into three main parts. Each part has various montages of the animals and scenery surrounding Max Gate which separate the various memories. I thought this was done very well. The novel was also full of lovely little moments, mainly about Hardy and his love for animals and nature. Wilkins has obviously done a great deal of research, and it shows.
I did have some quibbles with the novel, however. I think it would have benefitted from being written in third person. We experience the novel through servant-girl Nell’s eyes, but she has very little to do with the main events, and often is not actually present in the conversations she reports (or, if she is, we have no idea why). An interesting first-person perspective would perhaps have been Florence, Hardy’s current wife, who is portrayed as an extremely slippery and interesting character. There is some hint at Nell as an unreliable narrator in the third part of the novel, but it could have been taken much further than it was. There was also some inconsistency with the use of vernacular – I’m a bit of a nit-pick about that sort of thing, so it did bother me.
The quality of the writing itself also improved as the novel went on – I was particularly impressed with a section in part 2, in which Nell remembers a picnic, which then leads into a story about Hardy and his first wife. I thought that this was possibly the best-written part of the novel, as the flow between between memory and story and poetry is seamless.
Overall, I think this is a charming novel that will appeal to those who are intrigued by literature and authors, and who are in the mood for a gentle and meandering read.
‘Max Gate’ will be published in the UK on June 6 2016.
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