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"Drood" di Dan Simmons

Quando qualcosa (che sia libro, film o qualsivoglia altra forma espressiva) viene pubblicizzato all'eccesso, come straordinaria rivelazione, c'è sempre il rischio che, sotto sotto, non rispetti le aspettative that create different trumpeted in those who approach it.

The speech does not apply to this book. At least in part.
While the novel pulses with life and its narrative style that is well suited to carry the story, on the other hand it just tends to be a bit 'tricky in some places, weighting an otherwise pleasant reading (it true that the style used must be shaped by the nineteenth century but in the long run, there is the risk of tire). But first things first.
If you want to read this story you should be aware that first of all it is a historical novel set in Victorian London, the second half of the nineteenth century. For all of the over eight hundred pages is the last rummage five years of the life of Charles Dickens, the Inimitable, by the look and grudging admiration at the same time, an obscured by gout, opiates and delusions more or less mesmeric Wilkie Collins, his contemporary writer / friend / rival . In addition it is also a thriller that makes changes funaboliche sull'limite horror and an attempt to answer the unfinished Dickens mystery, from which the novel takes its title.

Yet the horror is not only the mysterious character (Drood), and looking from the paranormal events surrounding him and a narrator increasingly prey to dark obsessions and memory lapses. The horror of this story, what As in many novels of the time literally pocket pages, comes from the detailed description of sights, sounds and smells of the most miserable slums and alleys of London, as well as the general living conditions of only a century and a half ago. In the fourth chapter Simmons launches into a description of the stench of London in the summer, its sewers, its waste, its cemeteries, to be creepy. I cite an example:

Tens of thousands of people slept under porches or balconies, hoping for rain. But when he finally arrived, was something of a hot shower that he was merely add another layer to the wet heat. July was deposited on the city that summer, as a heavy and umida coltre di carne putrefatta.

Questo è solo un passaggio, ma per tutto lo scorrere della trama la violenza climatica e sensoriale della città si farà sentire senza dare tregua.
E non è l'unico particolare ottimamente ricostruito dall'autore. Tra le righe sono incastonati tantissimi richiami alle piccole abitudini dell'epoca (in particolare della medio-alta borghesia) che rendono il tutto un lavoro estremamente minuzioso e suggestivo.


Così come il carattere vulcanico di Dickens, i cui ultimi cinque anni di vita vengono descritti in modo magistrale. Abitudini, vezzi, orgoglio. Debolezze, manie, insofferenze. e indifferenze La ricostruzione dell'Inimitabile (termine con cui, ci viene detto, liked to be called) is the result of an enormous amount of study, as evidenced by the bibliography by the author. And it shows.
Although always described in the third person and do not monopolize every scene, his presence is to fill every line spacing. Dickens at the end of a career, more and more sickly, struggling with the aftermath of the terrible accident of which he found himself leading in 1865, launched in the trial of a new art form that blends reading, acting and mesmerism. So full of life to be launched headlong into their physical self-destruction. The description is coming out in the round. Focused on both the genius of the character traits that on more petty and annoying.

The description of the various people who revolve around them (friends, lover, family members) can slip into even more of stepping back in time that Simmons gives us.

And the mystery behind Drood? On this
not want too much spoilers. Throughout the novel we are led to ask what happens if all of the macabre and paranormal is the result of creativity and madness, hallucinations opium or raccapricianti powers preserved for millennia. Or a mix of all these unhealthy ingredients. The figure of
Drood, imagine ageless horribly scarred and unable to cross any border, is disturbing and evil. Haunts the narrator with a strong pace, bringing those lege to question all the time on what might be its real essence.
When it is revealed, the explanation may seem obvious, but the reader must never forget that talk is Wilkie Collins: a writer, toxic, visionary. Obsessed by Dickens and his talent, human as well as literary. In the end, he is overflowing all over and leave those who have not ever read (like me) curious to submit yourself to a story.

E 'a reading that advice, rather than the plot around Drood (which is still nice) for the historical reconstruction of London and the biography of the two authors. Stretching wavering and nineteenth-century narrative also goes towards the end allowing themselves salti temporali sulle vite di Dickens e Collins od ottime digressioni critiche sul corpus letterario degli stessi (alcune analisi degli stili o dei romanzi, per quanto wilkiezzate, sono estremamente profonde) che tranciano di netto scene tese e cariche di aspettative, lasciando chi legge ancor più impossibilitato a chiudere il libro.
L'unica pecca è la commistione di generi così marcata. Se da un lato permette, finita la lettura, di cogliere ancor più sfumature riguardo agli avvenimenti, ai personaggi e all'animo umano, dall'altro rischia di fare dallontanre chi si aspetti una lettura rapida e lineare.  
Drood è come le viscere di Londra, puzza prima di essere affascinante. Ci si deve muovere come nei più bui cunicoli del sottosuolo, senza fretta e con estrema attenzione per i particolari. Altrimenti si rischia di cadere o di non cogliore i svariati, piacevolissimi, aspetti che ne costellano ogni tratto.