Darke

Beautifully written, thoughtful and erudite. This is well worth taking the time and trouble to read. It dwells on grief and coming to terms with loss but is also full of humour.

This was probably the strangest book I've read all year...but that's what attracted me to it. I was looking for something offbeat, and I certainly found it here. Beauty can be found in melancholy, but upon finishing this book I was glad to move on to something more uplifting.

James Darke is British and a retired literature teacher. He lost his wife to cancer months ago. While one can understand his navigating the waters of grief, he is behaving very strangely indeed. Darke hires someone to remove the golden knocker from his stately door, seal up the mail slot and install a pricey peephole from which he can observe life "out there" when needed. A final coat of unwelcoming and oppressive black paint, and the job is done. Mail is rerouted to a friend, emails won't be answered and phone calls won't be taken. The curtains are to be drawn at all times.

His name is a metaphor for his dour, cynical and judgemental personality. Everything must be neat and in its place. Food and furnishings must be of high quality. One must be clean and dressed to perfection. A steady diet of this man was at times weary to read through in its "Darkeness,"...pun intended. Thankfully, like a shard of light breaking through Darke would unexpectedly redeem himself with acts of love and shedding of tears.

In essence, this book is about a widower, father and grandfather who deeply grieves the loss of his wife, and struggles in his relationship with his daughter. He is a difficult man, but is not without redemption. It was a worthy and interesting read.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this advance reader copy in return for my honest review.

This is definitely the oddest book I've read in 2017, but that's what I was going for. There are days I want a strange, awkward, not-quite-there character and that's what I got, only better. DARKE follows a retired English Lit professor who becomes a hermit, removing himself from the world almost entirely. Personally, considering what happened to his wife, I felt his strangeness was a part of his grief and it made him real to me, a person with feelings and fears and quirks I didn't understand, but that's okay.

DARKE was well written and every page of melancholy was eclipsed with a twinge of beauty.