Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake

Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is a story where evil is lurking around every corner in what seems to be a society shouldered with tradition which has torn apart basic human interaction. Peake’s characters all seem to be very feeble in an individual light which is quite comical in some respects and they only seem to be able to function as a collective. Every minute detail has to be described; albeit in a poetic form, especially when it comes to outside scenes bathed in light. Peake’s narrative makes it difficult to place his scenes in perspective when he attempts to describe his characters’ past exploits. For the large part of the tale, absolutely nothing happens. At the end of the book Peake seems to spell out the obvious developments of his protagonist, but he seems to have abandoned all his other characters. I just hope that these characters are also carried into the third book since the reader has spent so much time on them.

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