Trespass

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Adding to my dissatisfaction, I felt that all too many of the resolving elements were "deus ex machina" in character - random and accidental. That the story has a more or less "happy ending" is unsatisfying, and I believe that it was Clark's intention that the resolution "taste of ashes". Funder reveals how O’Shaughnessy Blair self-effacingly supported Orwell intellectually, emotionally, medically and financially ... why didn’t Orwell do the same for his wife in her equally serious time of need?’

The Great Stink by Clare Clark | Goodreads The Great Stink by Clare Clark | Goodreads

Overall the story is somewhat heavy and dark, but has a very satisfactory ending. Not a wrapped-up-with-a-bow-happily-ever-after type ending, but a realistic, pleasing ending nonetheless. I read the comments of other Goodreads followers only after I had got about halfway through the book, some I agree with, others, I can see their point of view as I don't enjoy everything that I read either! This book fell into the very enjoyable category which surprised me as it is totally out if my normal reading genre. Conversely, Long Arm Tom is a much more interesting character. He is deeply flawed, but flawed in a way that advances the story. Sidney Rose is likewise flawed, but much less well drawn and a late addition to the "cast". I wish the author had put May aside, referred to him indirectly, and focused more on Long-Arm Tom and Sidney Rose. May is a "McGuffin", not a main character. He is the reason for the story, but does not resolve it. It was eight years since Tess had left Sylvie’s house for the last time. There must have been cicadas that day, birdsong, the dis- tant shush of the sea, but Tess remembered only the silence and Sylvie standing at the gate, her face like the face of the wooden saint who proffered his bread in Quimper cathedral, sombre and unshakeable. She was still standing there when Tess turned the corner out of sight. I am not going to judge the veracity of Clark's account of the psychological dimensions of "cutting" and the hell it puts its sufferers through. These are not matters I dwell on because, frankly, I have enough stress in my own life that I don't feel the voyeuristic impulse to peep in on the sufferings of others. Anyone with May's condition has my sympathy and if I were to discover a friend had this condition, I would stand behind them and offer them what help I could.

Edinburgh Gliterary Lunch with Laura Barnett and Clare Clark

I really loved Clare Clark's writing. The following passage is about the main character William May and how he thinks about the sewers; As an arts journalist and theatre critic, Laura has written regularly for The Guardian, The Observer, The Daily Telegraph and Time Out London. She also writes non-fiction, short stories, and is a senior lecturer in creative writing at Manchester Metropolitan University, is a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Manchester Metropolitan University and has mentored for the Arts Emergency and Spread the Word. He closes his eyes. Sweat greases his scalp. His head throbs, his hand too. It usually only bothers him when it’s cold. He presses his thumb hard into the scarred skin, presses till the pain is in his shoulder, the base of his skull. He should never have come. It was stupid to think it would help, that it would make things clearer. Stupid and deluded. Clare Clark manages to successfully evoke the claustrophobic world of 18th century London and its society in this novel, which explores the monsters in all of us and what they make us do. Clark's prose is highly polished and rich, and I could lose myself amongst the dark, narrow, filthy alleys (laughingly called "streets") of ancient London. She has a good ear for the telling detail or metaphor that creates a vivid image in the reader's mind. Clark seems to be good at writing insufferable characters, and the main character Eliza is included in this. She came across as unlikable and dumb (despite being described by others as witty and clever), and I was put off by her fantasies of basically torturing and killing her unborn child, which she always refers to as her "worm." I know that she came to London for an abortion, but she certainly takes it a step further and there seems to be some sort of twisted relish to this.

Trespass - Clare Clark - Google Books Trespass - Clare Clark - Google Books

The main character, William May is a deeply troubled individual grappling with a psychological issue of enormous dimensions. The first half of the book is an extended description of his PTSD from the Crimean War and his attempts to grapple with the syndrome via "cutting". The Great Stink , The Nature of Monsters , Savage Lands , Beautiful Lies, We That Are Left, and In the Full Light of the Sun. There are a few problems with narrative focus: we hear too much about the engineer's stressed state, and we get more elaborately detailed paragraphs about the Thames effluvia than anyone really needs. Don't read it over breakfast, and you should be fine.The story is of Eliza Tally – young pregnant girl who is bundled off to an apothecaries’ shop in London to protect the father of her baby. But the apothecary is using pregnant girls for experiments to prove that it is the mother’s imaginations (intelligence, personality, experiences while pregnant) that create disfigured / disabled babies. Eliza must save herself and another girl from the situation.

Trespass by Clare Clark | Waterstones Trespass by Clare Clark | Waterstones

Complex, profound and devastatingly timely, this brilliant psychological suspense explores the twisted world of undercover operations, the most secretive part of the secret state where nothing is sacred and no one cares to count the cost. After a particularly severe episode, he awakens to discover that a man he fought with at work has been found brutally stabbed in the sewer. As Clark has devilishly constructed it, the evidence against William couldn't be more damning. Murderous fantasies in his diary don't look good. At this crisis point, William's feverish story merges with the tale of a sewer scavenger named Long Arm Tom and his rat-catching dog. Regularly violating the laws of Parliament and nature to search the sewers, Tom may hold the clue to William's salvation, but he has no reason to give it up, and William's not convinced he deserves salvation anyhow.I really enjoyed these characters,especially Long Arm Tom and his relationship with Lady, the dog. I thought the details were wonderful, the intrigue or mystery part of the story was well done and I liked the resolution of the story. All in all I was very pleased with this book and I'm looking forward to reading more from Clare Clark. It takes place in London, and most of the story takes place in Victorian sewers where engineers are trying to figure out how to flush out the sewage into the Thames to control disease and of course, the smell. Ugaz’s case is all too familiar in Peru, where powerful groups regularly use the courts to silence journalists by fabricating criminal allegations against them.’ Aside from that minor caveat, I would recommend this book. It can be read simply for the pleasure of the author' prose, characters and story; or one can read it for the pleasure of exploring the baser instincts of human beings and what they drive us to do.

Clare Clark Edinburgh Gliterary Lunch with Laura Barnett and Clare Clark

This novel presents the 18th century in it's full reality. London is a rough, dirty, dangerous town. The divide between rich and poor is well defined and unbreachable. Poverty is prevalent, vulgarity in all it's forms the norm. Clare Clarke doesn't hide behind graceful descriptions, the author gives us a real feel and chills in her writing, London once was a terrifying city to dwell in. It is surprising people survived to adult age, murders, disease and filth where everywhere. So I started skimming. And I kept skimming. (Oddly enough, the only overwhelmingly sexual scenes were in the opening.)

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Then why are we stopping? I told you, I’m desperate for the toilet.’ Tess nodded absently, staring out towards the sea.