great atmosphere but boring
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I came to this book via Iain Sinclair who I came to via JG Ballard. The book was first as I expected: a creepy look at the Hawksmoor's churches with the satanic undertones suggested in Sinclair's Lud Heat. The atmosphere is superb, both in the 18th century parts and '50's parts. There's a clever parallel between Dyer and Hawksmoor suggesting the lingering of unresolved evil. However this book bored me a great deal. It takes ages to get going. It's a short book at just over 200 pages but should have been condensed to a short story. In the end I was glad to have finished it. It does, however, change the way you walk past London churches...
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incredibly good
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Peter Ackroyd doesn't write 'easy' books (when I say 'easy' books I'm thinking of Bernard Cornwell, George MacDonald Fraser and so on, who have their merits too off course). You really have to concentrate on any book by Ackroyd, but they're well worth the effort.
'Hawksmoor' is no exception: the convoluted plot switches back and forth between 1711 and present times, and the language requires an effort too (it's a near perfect imitation of 18th century english) but if you make that effort you'll be ampy rewarded because this is a sublime book, one to read and re-read.
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I wandr'd the Dark Streets of London...
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This book was given to me not long after it was published nearly twenty years ago. This does not mean that I am a slow reader, merely that I am easily distracted by other pieces of fiction that come my way. It would be extremely harsh of me to say that my intuition to leave Peter Ackroyd's Hawksmoor was justified but literary stylistics over a plot that should have absorbed me left me feeling cheated at the novels conclusion.
For all the literary accolades that this book was afforded, in hindsight they seem misplaced. Yes, it is a credit to the skill of Peter Ackroyd that he can maintain a dual narrative in which the same actions are replayed over a two hundred year period (1700's/1980's) and he can use the vernacular, idioms and syntax of the two separate centuries over alternating chapters, but this does not make him a 'virtuoso writer'.
In the classic canon of gothic literature (Poe, Shelly, Hogg, Stevenson...) and modern (King, Herbert, Barker...) one consistent feature of terrorising your audience is the authors taut psychological control over the information which is administered gradually. What prevents Hawksmoor from being a great read as opposed to the `I-cannot-get-sleep-until-I finish-the-last-chapter' tension elicited by Stephen Kings' better horrors is the structural weakness of alternating actions between centuries. By the time we come round to the actions of Sir Nicolas Hawksmoor or Detective Hawksmoor, my interest has waned; that, in a gothic genre, is fatal.
The other cardinal rule of the gothic is that we are fascinated by the central character. Here, we do have character that is truly intriguing , morally repugnant and spiritually suspect in the form of Sir Nic. whose architecture is incredibly sinister (even in daylight.) However, human sacrifices aside, he does not have the power to really chill you. Detective Hawksmoor (the other central protagonist) is simply two-dimensional.
Hawksmoor on the whole is a missed opportunity because the central metaphysical premise to the novel is very powerful and could have evoked more potently the deep-rooted human anxieties of predestination. Hawksmoor, like present day London, can , in turns thrill with the dark history of its past whilst you meander in the pedestrian banality of its present.
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A literary time machine
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This book is a gem. It won both the Whitbread Novel Award and the Guardian Fiction Prize.
Set in 17th century London, the novel centres around Dyer, a non-fictitious architect of the period. Admittedly, more interesting to those who have some knowledge of the metropolis, Ackroyd takes us back in time with the assistance of his use of Olde English. Far from being an obstacle and a chore to read, it creates realism, bringing the characters long since gone to life. The text and plot haunts the reader with chilling atmospheres and the history of an architect whose works many pass on a daily basis often without a second thought.
The contrast of opinions illustrates that you may either adore or dislike the novel but do not be put off by judging it as a difficult by simply reading the opening pages. Rather, give Ackroyd the chance to take you to a previous world with the help of his literary time machine.
A classic which deserves its place in my list of top ten all time favourites.
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A tiresome read
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A predictable plot that trundles along before coming to a blessed end. The endless "echoes" between the ages, presumably meant to be ingenious, are merely tiresome. The conceit of changing writing style reaches a nadir when it breaks into a stage play.
This struck me as a book that might have been written specifically to be discussed by A-level English students. I was very disappointed after reading positive reviews.
If only the book had suffered the same fate as many of the characters.
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