The Ingenious Edgar Jones by Elizabeth Garner

July 30th, 2008

The Ingenious Edgar Jones
Elizabeth Garner
338 p.

Headline Review, 2008.
(First published 2007.)

Back cover blurb:

The skies of nineteenth-century Oxford are aflame the night of Edgar Jones’s birth. Whilst his father dreams of his son becoming a great scholar, his mother is quick to notice that Edgar has a different kind of cleverness. He is a born inventor, with a rebellious spirit that may be a blessing, or a curse.

Soon his abilities bring him to the attention of a maverick professor, a bone collector with plans for a museum that will for ever change the way mankind looks at the world. Finally Edgar has a chance to show his true talent as he embarks on an adventure fraught with terrible dangers, for himself and those who love him.

um. The adventure discussed in the back cover blurb? Does not happen. In fact, that blurb lies a whole lot. Neither of Edgar’s parents notice his intelligence, at least not at the same time. They do it in turns, and they are equally bad.They are not very good parents.

I wanted to like this book, or, I thought I’d like this book. It seemed like a sweet century-before-last-novel, with a cosy atmosphere and prettiness. This I didn’t get. Why? The story was full of wack. This is what happened: Edgar is born. Edgar works in a forge. Edgar invents a pot. Edgar works at a museum. Edgar works at a toy shop. Toy shop burns down and Edgar is thrown in jail. Edgar flies away. Somehow. Maybe I didn’t really pay attention at the end, but by then, I’d almost given up. The ending was very unsatisfactory. Edgar flew away from his prison, his father became a gargoyle, and his mother was going to move to London to live with a pimp. What is that about?!

Throughout the three-hundred-and-a-bit pages, I waited for the story to lift, for something to actually happen. Nothing did. There was a bit of pretty writing (Garner’s writing is really more than half-way decent), and a lack of plot. It was very sad. This book is, for me, the biggest letdown since Edward Trencom’s Nose.

Entry Filed under: English, Fiction, Historical