Poetic.

Let me first say, I know very little about poetry; no matter how much I wished I could read it, I’m too intimidated to do so. Having said this, I found this historically accurate but beautifully imaginative story of the Epping Forest in 1840 to be captivating. It follows the first internment of nature poet John Clare as he is falling into madness, as well as a young Alfred Tennyson before he achieved critical acclaim. The story of these two men, as well as of the people surrounding them, is a story of the inner battle we all must face: whether to accept one’s life as is or to strive for a more idealistic existence.

This was OK. The book itself was very well written, and the use of language was excellent. Some of the descriptions were very poetic (no surprise there really). The story itself left me cold though. The "main character" (according to the book's description) wasn't in most of the story at all. Nothing really happened, although I kept thinking the book was building to some big climax. I was left just thinking what's the point?

A surprisingly interesting novel based on actual events that saw poet John Clare lose his mind and spend time in a mental facility. Another poet, Alfred Tennyson, lived nearby and was swindled by the asylum's doctor. Fascinating historical fiction based on these true events. We see the patients consumed by mania through their eyes while John moves around the grounds observing the nature (he was a nature poet). The characters are brought vividly to life by the author. I did find the focus on nature a tad overdone.

„Byl to kluk z vesnice a věděl své. Myslel, že kraj světa je jen den cesty odtud, tam, kde se obloha, jež rodí mraky, na obzoru dotýká země. Myslel, že až tam dojde, najde hlubokou jámu, do které se zadívá a spatří všechna tajemství světa.“

Náhodně nalezený skvost. Foulds dechberoucně vmíchává básnický jazyk do prózy, která tím ale neztrácí na čtivosti nebo na ději. Propojuje historická fakta s vlastní fantazií a rozmazává hranice mezi duševní střízlivostí a šílenstvím. Líbí se mi pojetí kapitol jako ročních dob, ve kterých skvěle pracuje s popisem přírody. Autor vystihuje některé znaky tehdejší raně viktoriánské Anglie, například na začínajícím velkém přesunu anglické literatury od poezie k románu; a to především na odmítaném vesnickém, pozdně-romantickém básníkovi Johnu Clareovi, té doby chovancem ústavu, kde se celý příběh odehrává; nebo na viktoriánském poetovi Alfredu Tennysonovi, který sem dovezl svého bratra a sám ještě sklízí ostré hodnocení kritiků, protože jeho doba slávy má teprve přijít. Nejvíc mě na tom baví – možná je to jen tím, že obvykle nečtu historické romány současných autorů – ten způsob psaní, ze kterého jsem měla pocit, že čtu prózu, která snad nemohla vzniknout příliš dlouho po tom, co se vše událo, že čtu autora maximálně raného 20. století a vůbec ne prózu poprvé publikovanou až v roce 2009.

„Jak sám víte, vkus publika se přesunul k praktickým příručkám a k románům. Ale poezie přežije. Civilizace se bez poezie nikdy neobešla. Nebude přinášet zisky, ale přežije.“

This book has some nice visuals, but it was so boring. I really didnt understand the plot after 70+ pages, and was worried it was going to continue being musings from a man stuck in an insane asylum. So, I decided not to continue reading it.

Beautiful writing. Not much happens. Point of view constantly shifting to no real end.

Liked it and made me look up information about John Clare, Alfred Tennyson and Matthew Allen.

In everything that I read or heard about The Quickening Maze, the book was described as being about the poet John Clare's years in a Victorian insane asylum. This is true, I suppose, but John Clare's story line is only one of the many filaments twisted together to make the thread of this novel. It is also about Dr. Matthew Allen, the proprietor of the asylum; his teenaged daughter Hannah; another patient named Margaret, prone to religious delusions; and Alfred Tennyson, who takes up residence nearby when his brother enters the asylum. At first I spent some time trying to decide which one of these characters' stories was most important, but Foulds gives them all equal weight. The stories don't intersect much, either; Foulds seems comfortable simply allowing them to exist parallel to each other.

I wasn't surprised to learn that Adam Foulds is a poet. The best parts of The Quickening Maze are his short, sharp observations. Take, for example, his description of the patients in the asylum, "shuffling, drowsy as smoked bees." Or this: "the forest made its little eating sounds." There are many of these moments in the book, little phrases that make you stop and say, "Oh. Oh yes. That is what a forest sounds like--I had never thought of it that way!" It was a pleasure to read.

Dr. Allen was the most compelling character for me, and at moments I wished that Foulds had decided to make him a primary character--I could happily have read a novel just about his life. Foulds portrays him as brilliant and charismatic, but also impractical and unfocused. He gets bored easily and courts risk. Foulds does a wonderful job of showing how he has built his asylum with himself as its center, and the disintegration that begins when he withdraws his attention from it. We get little hints of his strange upbringing in the Sandemanian religious sect, and his contentious relationship with his brother. Watching Dr. Allen slowly destroy everything he's built gives the second half of the book a drive that the first half lacks.

The Quickening Maze is artfully constructed, and I'm glad I read it, but in the end it didn't grab hold of me as tightly as I thought it might.

An intense, brief and lyrical novel filled with a wealth of characters involved in life at an asylum. The prose is poetic in nature, short, sparse and visual and there's an over-riding sense of madness and hopelessness pervading both the characters and envoronment. A book to read for the love of reading and words. Shortlisted for the Booker prize 2009.