The Clamour King
Wed, 2011-07-06 16:57
#1
The Clamour King
I'd be interested to hear whether anyone else has read this novel by David Muirhead. It was published in 2008 and although there are some reviews and an interview with the author on the web, it doesn't ever seem to have been reviewed in the mainstream media. I think it's truly remarkable, almost impossible to categorise and certainly deserves to be better known. The only other book it reminded me of was Lord of the Flies. It's about a young boy whose mesmerising beauty causes mayhem in an English boarding school, but even that doesn't begin to describe what it's about. I gather it is substantially based on actual events.
celticman
No I've not read it. I can't seem to locate it in my library search. I read an interview with the author and it does seem fascinating. What's your interest in the story?
Florian
It appealed on a personal level because to some extent it echoed a lot of my own experience at a boys boarding school.
Aside from that, I found the characterisation unusually vivid and true to life. Writing dialogue for young children is extremely difficult but the author has done this extraordinarily well: the acid banter, the casual insults are all entirely believable. More than this, it is an evocative and disturbing story, tragic and yet strangely inspirational.
I've been told that the novel was singled out as one to watch by The Bookseller prior to publication which makes the fact that it subsequently never even blipped on the literary radar seem strange. I can imagine that some people, including those in libraries and the book trade, are uncomfortable with some of the taboo content and the ambivalence in the story and yet it is precisely the latter which provides the tension and singles it out as a remarkable novel. It works on so many levels. The characters may act as independent agents but there is the constant eerie feeling that their roles are preordained, just as kids are constrained in the regimented and predictable world of a boarding school; like characters in a set piece but trying to live and find a reality beyond that. The author's use of the school play - The Bacchae - as a kind of echo chamber works perfectly.
Florian
I've read quite a few of your posts SundaysChild (excellent and thought provoking they undoubtedly are) and judging by that I'm sure you'll find the novel an interesting read. I hope you'll be able to get hold of a copy. Have a read of the interview with David Muirhead on the web.
Florian
The author’s use of classical mythology in The Clamour King is one of its special features; and a whole new topic in itself – i.e. the use of mythology in modern writing generally. American Gods by Neil Gaimon comes immediately to mind but the whole genre of “gothic” novels is steeped in mythology, some invented but virtually all of it traceable back to some ancient source, even vampires. On the whole the study of Greek, Roman and Scandinavian mythology is confined to the rarefied atmosphere of universities but it is interesting that it so widely permeates popular modern culture, appealing to gum chewing teens, who presumably wouldn’t be caught dead with a copy of a play by Euripedes, just as much as to tweedy professors. There’s a fair sprinkling of its use in the posts of stories and poems on this website.
Any thoughts, anyone?