Bellman & Black

‘'In the few minutes since the boys had left the place, rooks had come. They circled above the oak, fifteen or twenty of them. More were arriving from all directions. They stretched across the sky, loose skeins of dark marks, converging on this place. One by one they descended to alight in the branches of the tree. Ordinarily such a congregation would be accompanied by the noise of strong chatter as the birds flung sound at each other like gravel. This gathering was different: it took place in intent and purposeful silence. Every bird on every branch was looking at his direction.''

First things first. This novel is the very definition, the epitome of the Victorian Gothic story. It is the child of a contemporary Dickens, a dark masterpiece by one of the finest writers of our times. Diane Setterfield has a knack for the haunting, the mysterious. Bellman & Black is a book that requires you to think and try to explain. It doesn't give you tailor-made answers. It demands to be read with an open mind, to accept the impossible and investigate. That's what brains are for, anyway...

William Bellman is an intelligent, hard-working young man with a bright future ahead of him. He has been blessed with perception and immense organizing skills and with a beautiful family. But soon, Fate strikes and strikes again. A black-clad man seems to follow him in the darkest moments and William becomes convinced that a bargain should be made. This is how Bellman & Black, a truly macabre and fascinating endeavour, is created. But William cannot understand that the past is a prison no one can escape.

‘'They used to put the dead out on stone platforms for their bones to be picked clean by the rooks. Did you know that? Long time ago. Before our crosses and spires and prayer books.''

In my opinion, this is the darkest book by Diane Setterfield. I've read and adored all three, each one so different and so complex but they all have one thing in common: a sharply accurate perception of the human soul and the external forces that shape and define a great number of the choices we make. In Bellman & Black, the themes are many, all profound and relevant.

Death is our greatest fear, whoever states the opposite is a lying fool who thinks we're idiots. William starts seeing and breathing Death and decides to exorcise it by setting up an enterprise of mourning and ceremonies. He wants to honour it by providing the very best of services in an attempt to rescue the only treasure that matters. His child. And then, his aim becomes an obsession. Where are the boundaries - if there are any, that is. Where does one begin to understand that he is actually a victim of a strange desire? On the other hand, how can a human being, even one as gifted as William, battle against forces that are so much stronger than us?

What about the past? How can a good life that aims in helping others atone for an act of violence? How can we escape the whims of Fate that haunts our steps? Can there be a second chance to make up for the horrible fault of a child? We often talk about revenge against each other. What can we do when Nature is set on taking revenge against us? These are only a few of the questions that this book poses on the reader. And if we read books, we do so because we want to think and question. If we approach books as we approach the items in a supermarket, then novels like this are not for us.

‘'The tree still stands. Even now you can go and see it - yes, right now, in your time - but you will not see a single rook alight in its branches. They still know what happened. Rooks are made of thought and memory. They know everything and they do not forget.''

Setterfield creates a foreboding atmosphere, honouring the vast British tradition of Gothic Literature and elevating it to new standards. Visions, nightmares. Churches and graveyards. And the crows, the rooks, the ravens are always at the heart of the action. They define the course of the characters. They observe. And they punish. There are chapters with outstanding trivia on crows, with Huginn and Munnin, Odin's spies, as the sovereigns of the species that is greatly loved and feared in British culture. Apart from the natural (or supernatural) world, the writer takes us into the secrets of the textile industry with brilliant information on the craft of the colours and the life inside the workshops of the Victorian era. And, obviously, our next stop is the industry of Death, the business of mourning, from the organizing of a burial to the fashion and the window display reserved for those who stay behind. Waiting for their turn...

In outstanding prose, beautiful dialogue, shuttering imagery and in the company of a very memorable main character, Setterfield creates a dark tale, a Death fairy tale of the fears, misfortunes, and choices that set our course in life. How much of it is our own doing? How many of our ‘'choices'' are actually dictated by a severe hand of a power we cannot defeat? Read this Gothic work of Art and draw your own conclusions.

‘'All stories must come to an end. This one. Everyone's. Your own. The rook is a great lover of stories. He has been harvesting them for as long as there have been stories to harvest, which means for as long as there have been gods and men and rooks. And he has a good long memory for them.''

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I wish I could think out and organize details the way the main character does, however I'm glad I'm not this obsessive. I like the rhythm and flow of the sentences, but the plot is drawn out waaay too long!

This is fucking ridiculous, boring and pointless.

There was potential. Interesting atmosphere, nice writing. Then it went on, in detail, about the running of a mill. Then, an emporium. It went on, and on, and on.

They set up mysterious details. Some interesting bits to keep me wanting to read. But then it followed through on none of them, and when it did, it was an underwhelming yawn-fest.

If you want to read about a boring over-worked man running a company, this is the book for you. (though I admittedly question your taste a little)

I purchased this book on it's release day mostly out of love for the author's previous work, The Thirteenth Tale. I'd read the reviews of it before I clicked buy (I nabbed the kindle edition), and I'd seen that the reviews were wishy washy at best and all of the negative reviews had the same complaints, but I had loved the Thirteenth Tale so much and waited so long for another book from the author that I went against my better judgement and purchased it.

I only made it to page 85 before I gave up on it. Honestly, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the writing. It's just as it was in Thirteenth Tale, beautifully written and a dream to read. It's just that nothing was happening. People were dying left and right, but the author hadn't made you care about any of them. I was reading it when my husband came home from work yesterday, and in the time it took him to get out of his work clothes, grab a snack, and get comfy at his computer, two characters had bit the dust. Really?

It's very weird, because the beautiful writing keeps you reading and makes it almost a pleasure to be reading... well, nothing. Besides reading about the main character, William Bellman, work in a textiles mill, and people dropping like flies left and right, the plot didn't seem to be going anywhere at all. There were hints of some mysterious character starting to emerge when I quit, but after 85 pages of hardly any plot that was meandering nowhere, I'd had enough and couldn't bring myself to keep bothering. It wasn't spooky, there was no hauntingly written mystery as in Setterfield's last book, and there were no characters I particularly liked.

I returned the Kindle book to Amazon for a refund- I could buy at least two other books for the amount I spent on the brand new release of Bellman and Black. If you're buying Bellman and Black because you loved Thirteenth Tale, you're making a mistake. The pacing is completely different, there's little plot in evidence, and it lacks all the spooky wonder of Setterfield's previous work. Do yourself a favor, and check this out at the library before you buy it, just to make sure you actually want to spend your money. Some people have loved Bellman and Black, but for me the beautiful writing simply isn't enough to redeem it.

I received an advance copy this book in a GoodReads FirstReads giveaway.

Dora glitters, serenely exultant. It is what a rooking escapade does to a human. She looks as if she has gathered all the glory of the world into herself. To see it once is never to be without the feeling for the rest of your life.

I honestly did not have high hopes for Bellman & Black. Like The Thirteenth Tale, there were things that I liked and did not like about the story. But overall, I enjoyed it more than The Thirteenth Tale, perhaps because it is not all extremely sad.

The story starts with Will Bellman killing a rook with a slingshot, an act that he did not realize would have profound impact on his life. Then it skips to when he is grown and starts working at his uncle's mill. He is a carefree and genuinely happy guy, the kind that everyone likes. He meets a woman that he falls in love with, has beautiful children that he loves, and it seems like everything in his life is perfect. Then, things start going wrong... and the mysterious Black starts randomly appearing.

Bellman can't shake Black and begins to live his life as a busy workaholic so that he does not have to remember and grieve his misfortune. He becomes a boring and sad character. In the end, it seems that he had no redemption, except possibly through his daughter, Dora.

Dora in herself is a very interesting character. I enjoyed reading her parts and would have really enjoyed the story if there had been more development for her. The part of the book where Bellman is developing and building Bellman & Black is rather boring and almost made me give up reading. I continued on solely because the chapters are short and the read is actually rather quick. I'm glad that I didn't give up.

This story is rich in symbolism and irony, and there are cut-in chapters from the view of the rook. They connected nicely and didn't seem forced. The ending, especially, had a magical quality that left you wondering what really happened to Bellman, who Black really was, and what would happen to Dora. But it was filled with hope for Dora and for the rooks. I'm a sucker for endings that seep with symbolism.

Maybe that makes me a nerd, but I really enjoyed this book, mostly for its extremely gothic undertones and symbolism. I would recommend it to people who are also suckers for books soaked in literary irony.

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