[book_talk] book review: Terry Pratchett
- From: "Bonnie L. Sherrell" <blslarner@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Science Fiction list" <blind-sf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Blind Chit Chat" <Blind-Chit-Chat@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Books for the Blind" <Books4theblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Blind Book Lovers Cafe" <bblc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Book Talk" <book_talk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 07 Apr 2013 23:14:46 -0800
_Dodger_ by Terry Pratchett
Dodger is lucky by the standards of the day. He enjoys his chosen work as a
tosher, one of those who combs the sewers of London for whatever treasures can
be found there. Usually it's coins dropped from someone's pocket or hand that
have rolled down storm drains. On occasions it's more--a ring, or perhaps a
gold tooth that washed down from one of the new-fangled rigs created by Thomas
Crapper. It's strange what can end up in the tunnels of the sewers. He does
fairly well, and usually makes it up to old Solomon Cohen with whom he boards in
the rookeries of the Seven Dials district.
Then one night he hears the shriek of a damaged wheel from a carriage, followed
by the more piercing and fearful shriek of a young woman who is doing her best
to get free from said carriage and the two men who have been holding her
prisoner and who intend to do her further damage. Dodger ascends from his drain
right into the fray, and soon lays the two fellows low, rescuing the girl and
sending the two ruffians and their squealing conveyance off into the night.
Dodger is not allowed to escape anonymously, however, for the struggle was seen
by two men from better parts of town, one a writer and reporter for one of the
London newspapers, and the other a man named Mayhew, who with his wife is doing
a survey of the lives of those who live in want and deprivation in London's
slums. Mr. Dickens, who tells Dodger to call him Charlie, congratulates the
youth for his courage, and Mayhew takes the young woman, who is clearly in a bad
way, back to his own home for the night and for what medical care he can acquire
for her, for it is plain that her captors had beaten her badly.
She will not tell them her name, so Mrs. Mayhew christens her Simplicity. What
little they can learn of her circumstances is not particularly hopeful. She'd
been wooed by a European noble and married him, only to learn that her husband
was not precisely as princely in personality as his titles proclaimed him. His
father was dismayed by his son's unannounced choice as a wife, and on learning
she was pregnant made her life so uncomfortable that she fled to England, from
whence her mother had come, in search for a life free of her husband and his
father's influences. But on orders from her father-in-law she had been taken
prisoner, and now she's lost the child she bore.
With Solomon's advice and the aid of Charlie and others, Dodger finds himself
rising rapidly in the world, going from second-hand clothing from a shonky shop
to properly tailored garments first intended for Sir Robert Peel within a
remarkably short period of time. But how to see to it that he and Simplicity
are able to find lives free from the fear of discovery and assassination is the
question, one that Dodger must answer swiftly.
A remarkable romp through the London of the early days of the reign of Queen
Victoria done with the humor and humanity for which Pratchett is famous. A
wonderful story that I purchased in ebook format, and I do believe I saw it
mentioned on Audible as being available there, too. In spite of his early-onset
Alzheimer's, it appears that Sir Terry is intent on making certain that his
imagination is exercised and the world entertained and enlightened to the best
of his abilities. With wonderful appearances from several notables from the
period, this fantasy is mostly faithful to the era in which the story is set.
Bonnie L. Sherrell
Teacher at Large
"Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very
wise cannot see all ends." LOTR
"Don't go where I can't follow."
Other related posts:
