Book Review: Owen King's The Curator is an extraordinary story of revolution and corruption
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JUNE 11: Owen King attends Shorts: Call Me Crazy during the 2022 Tribeca Festival at Village East Cinema on June 11, 2022 in New York City. (Photo by Arturo Holmes/Getty Images for Tribeca Festival )
- The Curator
- Owen King
- Hodder & Stoughton, €23.50
At the heart of this fantasy novel with elements of horror is the mystery of the protagonist Dora’s brother, Ambrose, who has died from cholera.
Dora had worked as a maid at the unnamed city’s university during a time in the recent past, again unspecified but suggestive of the Victorian era.
Following a revolution, Dora is installed as the curator at the city’s National Museum of the Worker in keeping with the lowly taking over the roles of the privileged, most of whom have absconded.
The museum is full of waxworks of different kinds of workers including miners and nurses.
Ambrose, whose dying words to his sister were enigmatic, had been secretly involved in experiments at the Society for Psykical Research close to the museum.
He once told Dora that there were other worlds. She had asked him what kind of research he carried out.
He told her that he and his colleagues were “trying to save the world....and maybe not just this world either”. But he died before he could disclose what exactly his work involved.
In this sometimes overly busy novel, which ventures into the occult and the supernatural, Dora starts to uncover weird conspiracies.
When Ambrose said he was helping to save the world, Dora wondered what it was to be saved from.
But certainly, in the microcosm of the city, there is plenty that needs fixing. Dora reflects that with all the poor domestic servants being promoted, their so-called superiors will have to tidy up their own messes.
The story of a potter called Joven, commissioned to produce a large amount of tableware for the currency minister’s three homes, underscores the corruption that was rife in the city before the uprising.
Minister Westhover reneged on the agreement saying he was only going to pay a small portion of the original agreed fee for the commission.
Joven, who printed a pamphlet setting out his grievances against the minister, attempts to take him on but the sly politician, using his influence in the courts, frustrates Joven’s efforts at legal recompense, sues him for defamation, and wins damages.
Later, after an altercation, the minister shoots Joven dead. No charges are filed. It’s an example of the kind of oppression and corruption rife in the city.
Dora is an unusual woman if we are to believe that she lives in Victorian times. She is sexually liberated, enjoying trysts, often at her instigation, with her lover, Robert.
He is a former student at the university who takes on the role of lieutenant in the volunteer civil defence.
Dora is also courageous and tries to live unrestrained by the limits imposed by society on her gender. She is refreshingly confident — and literate.
This novel of revolution and counter-revolution is reminiscent of Dickens with its highly descriptive language that captures the essence of people and places.
The city’s river, “the mighty Fair — jutted from the body of the country like a hangnail from its thumb”.
In the world conjured up in the novel, cats are revered as religious figures. The press is full of cat stories — “a distraction to keep reporters busy, worrying everyone about cats instead of human beings” as one character opines.
Nothing is what it seems on the surface. Dora’s quest for the truth behind a mystery that she has concealed for a long time unravels a major conspiracy and brings her to the edge of worlds.
This intricately plotted sprawling tale is dense in both the writing and the array of characters. It requires a lot of concentration on the part of the reader. But stick with it to see what unfolds in this extraordinary story.
