The Somnambulist
by Jonathan Barnes
(William Morrow) $23.95.
The title character in The Somnambulist is a golem, and the
book is a supernatural thriller set in Victorian London. Golems and
supernatural Victorian thrillers are so played out, after countless
unimaginative repetitions of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier
& Clay and Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell,
respectively, that I started reading The Somnambulist with the
full intent to abandon it the minute it showed signs of laziness or
obviousness. I wound up setting the book down, a day later, having read
and enjoyed it in its entirety.
That said, it’s not an insult to say that there’s nothing new here.
Barnes sets the stage with well-worn characters: the down-on-his-luck
stage magician, the circus freak, the evil mastermind with a plan to
rule the world. And the plot, something to do with a utopian community
and the corpse of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, evokes the best of Lovecraft
without churning out the same old sad fan-fiction tropes. Some
third-act brilliance involving two perverse demon hit men who speak in
heavy cockney slang provides a refreshing breeze of dark humor at just
the point where the book begins to sag.
Watching the same old characters do some new tricks is enough to
make The Somnambulist an old-fashioned adventure novel that
quickly fades from memory but leaves a lingering feeling of being
supremely entertained.