The Queen of Gothic Strikes Again!

As a fan of all things dark and dreary, I have, within the last few years, become quite a fan of Daphne du Maurier. The woman could write quite a tale, that's for sure. Did you know, she wrote the short story that Alfred Hitchcock used to make his movie, The Birds? I didn't know that either!! See...reading this blog IS educational!! So, with a need to read more by this author, I choose to read Jamaica Inn by du Maurier (304 pgs, Avon 1936) as a selection for the What's in a Name Challenge.

It was a cold grey day in late November. The weather had changed overnight, when a backing wind brought a granite sky and a mizzling rain with it, and although it was now only a little after two o'clock in the afternoon, the pallour of a winter evening seemed to have closed upon the hills, cloaking them in mist.

How's that for setting the mood right off the bat??

When Mary Yellan's mother was on her death bed, she begged Mary to make her a promise. Mary's mother said that when she died, she wanted Mary to leave their little farm and go live with her aunt Patience. Trying to look out for her daughter, Mary's mom was afraid that life would be too hard for a young girl on a farm by herself and wanted her to have an easier life. Little did she know the fate of things to come.

With all her belongs packed into a small trunk, Mary set out for Jamaica Inn, which was owned by her Aunt Patience and her Uncle Joss. Mary had only met Patience once, but remembered her mother's sister as a vivacious and carefree woman. But when she told the coach driver where she was going, he tried to talk her out of it. He said no one went to Jamaica Inn, especially a young woman. It was an evil place. However, Mary had promised her dying mother, and good or bad she had to keep that promise.

But when Mary arrived on that cold, rainy night, she found that Aunt Patience was no longer the young vivacious woman she used to be. She was older, thinner, and perpetually frightened. She was a shell of the woman she used to be. And the man she married, Joss Meryln was a huge, hulking man with a mean streak a mile long and an evil glint in his eye. Joss told Mary she was to help out around the Inn and as long as she minded her own business, everything would be fine.

But Jamaica Inn was no travelers Inn. It was old, crumbling and falling apart. No one every stayed there. Mary couldn't figure out how the Merlyn's made any living off of it.....until the night when she was woken from her sleep by all the wagons. As she peered out the window (when she wasn't supposed to do), she saw a bunch of men unloading boxes into the storage rooms in the Inn. As she snuck downstairs to get a better look, she overheard her uncle threaten a man who wanted "out".

But just when Mary was trying to figure out a way to get her Aunt Patience away from this place, a strange man stopped at the Inn. He was dark, rugged and handsome.....and was Joss Merlyn's younger brother, Jem. He seemed like he wanted to help Mary, but could she really trust someone with the last name of Merlyn??

I read the story Rebecca a couple of years ago, and while I really enjoyed it, I wasn't "wowed" by it. I finally realized I just had too many high expectations for such a famous book. Not so with Jamaica Inn. I knew nothing about this one. In fact, I hadn't even heard of it before I started looking for books to fit into the challenge. From page one, du Maurier ran with the "eerie, dark" Gothic setting and told a brilliant story. Mary was a smart, strong, independent young woman in a time when those qualities were not usually used to describe a woman. Jem was the proverbial "bad boy". A handsome horse thief that was fun and likable, du Maurier created a great anti-hero in Jem. Will he do the right thing in the end.....or will he be just another Merlyn?? I guess you will have to read the book to find out!!

For a book that was written over 70 years ago, Jamaica Inn was incredibly readable and highly entertaining. I enjoyed it immensely. A great Gothic tale of thieves, murder, and even a little romance. Definitely worth reading and highly recommended.

4.5/5

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Questions from Weekly Geeks:

Bookfool: What did you think of Jamaica Inn? Did the concept of shipwrecking surprise you or did you already know about wrecks off the Cornish Coast? How many du Maurier books have you read and where does this one fit in, as far as favorites, if you've read several?

I really liked this book. I also thought it was cool that Jamaica Inn is a real place on the Cornish Coast. I had not heard of "wreckers" before reading this book. It was a concept that surprised me, and again, I like the idea that du Maurier used a real historical event and created a story around it. So far, I've read 3 du Maurier books: Rebecca, My Cousin Rachel, and Jamaica Inn. While I enjoyed all 3, my favorite was probably My Cousin Rachel, followed very closely by Jamaica Inn. Rebecca was a great book too. A Classic. But I think I liked the others just a wee bit better.

Nymeth: I'm very curious about Jamaica Inn (the Tori Amos songs helps, I confess). Was this your first Daphne du Maurier? If so, do you plan on reading her again? If not, how does it compare to her other books? Would you recommend the book for the RIP challenge? Did the ending surprise you or could you see it coming?

The Tori Amos song is actually about this book!! That girl is definitely a reader! And no, it's not my first du Maurier book. But I will definitely try to read more of her works. She's impressed me alot. As far the RIP challenge goes, although no ghosts, it's clearly a dark Gothic novel and I think it would fit just fine. There WAS a surprise in the ending, but I had kind of figured it out long before Mary did. But du Maurier actually dropped a lot of decent hints about it....so I guess it wasn't all that much of a surprise!!

Armageddon Has Arrived.....and It Is Hilarious!

As I stated in my Sunday Salon post, I knew I needed to read Terry Pratchett!! I just knew it. I've heard endless reviews on his writing, but I've just never taken the time. So...to ease my way into the world of Pratchett, I decided to start of with his collaboration with Neil Gaiman: Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnus Nutter, Witch (368 pgs, Ace Trade). It's also a selection I'm using for the What's in a Name Challenge and the TBR Challenge.

God does not play dice with the universe; He plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players [i.e. everybody], to being involved in an obscure and complex variant of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time.

The end of the world is coming.....what are you going to do? For angel Aziraphale and demon Crowley, that is the question. After spending centuries on Earth, they've become friends....sort of. And they actually LIKE it here. They don't want a war between the "sides". So when the Antichrist is born, the two of them take it upon themselves to "watch" him to see if they can stop him from becoming evil. If they work together, maybe they can keep him from choosing between Good and Evil, and postpone Armageddon. Sounds like a good plan, doesn't it??

But due to a mix up at birth, the son of the American Diplomat is not really the Antichrist. He's just a normal 11-year-old boy. The real Antichrist is named Adam, and he lives in Lower Tadfield, England. Raised by normal English parents, he has friends and a dog (the Hell-Hound has become a normal, little dog that likes to terrorize cats). He doesn't even realize the power he possesses. Can this seemingly normal little boy actually become the purveyor of the end of the world??

All of this has been prophecized by Agnes Nutter, a witch in the seventeenth century. She was the only true prophet that ever lived. She even wrote a book, called The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch. Unfortunately, the book didn't sell very well. In fact, it didn't sell at all. Not that it mattered to Agnes; she just wanted the author copy anyway. And that copy is now in the hands of one of her descendants, Anathema Device, a witch of her accord, who is also trying to stop the end of the world.

There are also the four horseman of the Apocalypse, who have assembled to usher in the end of the world. However, they aren't horseman, but bikers. REAL Hell's Angels to be exact. War, Famine, Death and Pollution (Pestilence had to retire after the discovery of Penicillin). Now the race is on to find the real Antichrist, and depending on your side, either save or end the world!

A satirical look at Armageddon, this book is also kind of parody of the movie, The Omen. When Warlock (the boy everyone THINKS is the Antichrist) is young, his Nanny buys him a tricycle. But she can never get him to ride it in the house! The irony and wit in this book astounds me! A. Crowley (ie Crawley) was the serpent in the Garden of Eden; The tempter. Aleister Crowley, in real life, was the famous Satanist or occultist. Which makes this line even funnier:

"Crowley always found [Satanists] embarrassing. You couldn't actually be rude
to them, but you couldn't help feeling about them the same way that, say, a
Vietnam veteran would feel about someone who wears combat gear to Neighborhood
Watch meetings."

What Pratchett and Gaiman have done with this book is take a horrible, scary, evil happening and make it humorous. But in the midst of all the fun, they make some really valid points:

"There had been times, over the past millennium, when Crowley had felt like
sending a message back Below saying, Look, we may as well give up right now, we
may as well shut down Dis and Pandemonium and everywhere and move up here,
there's nothing we can do to them [humans] that they don't do themselves and
they do things we've never even thought of, often involving electrodes."

But in the end, they leave it up the wisdom of an 11-year-old kid, who just happens to be the Antichrist. And I guess this says something for the whole nature vs. nurture debate.

'

"I don't see what's so triffic about creating people as people and then gettin'
upset 'cos they act like people," said Adam severely. "Anyway, if you stopped
tellin' people it's all sorted out after they're dead, they might try sorting it
all out while they're alive."

I realize I'm kind of all over the place with this review. That's because the book is kind of all over the place. It's not the easiest book to review, that's for sure. But I'll tell you this: This is one fantastic book!! If I didn't already have a total crush on Neil Gaiman, I'd fall in love all over after reading this one. Of course, now I'm totally enamoured with Pratchett too. The end of the world doesn't have to be all doom and gloom. It can be positively hilarious!! Gaiman and Pratchett just proved it!! 4.5/5

What's In a Name Challenge

OK. So I finally caved and joined ANOTHER reading challenge. So sue me. I have been seeing this one all over the place and I just wanted to join in the fun!!

Hosted by Annie, of Words by Annie, the challenge is another one that encompasses all of 2008. Here are the Rules:

Dates: January 1, 2008 through December 31, 2008

The Challenge: Choose one book from each of the following categories.

1. A book with a color in its title
2. A book with an animal in its title.
3. A book with a first name in its title.

4. A book with a place in its title.

5. A book with a weather event in its title.

6. A book with a plant in its title.

--You may overlap books with other challenges, but please don't use the same book for more than one category. (For example, you can use The Red Pony for either a "color" book or an "animal" book, but not for both.)

See? This is going to be fun!!

My List:

• COLOR - Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• ANIMAL - All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
• FIRST NAME - Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett (if that is stretching it too much, I can always go with Emma by Jane Austin!)
• PLACE - Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier
• WEATHER - The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle, Book 1) by Patrick Rothfuss
• PLANT - Moonlight and Vines by Charles de Lint

Anyone else??