Drood

Dan Simmons’ Drood would have been an excellent 400-page mystery. Unfortunately it’s almost 800 pages. I think it must be Mrs.’ influence (she’s always telling me to be more succinct in my own writing) because I’ve found myself wishing several books I’ve read recently had better editing.

But first things first. Drood opens in 1865, shortly after a train accident in which Charles Dickens is a passenger. While trying to help other passengers at the scene, Dickens encounters Drood, a mysterious being with a grotesque appearance, who is also attending to accident victims, but leaving death in his wake. After returning to London, Dickens becomes obsessed with Drood and soon involves our narrator, Wilkie Collins. Over the next 700 pages or so, Collins, the real-life author and contemporary of Charles Dickens, describes the final years of Dickens' life, their friendship and eventual falling out, and their adventures into the London slums in search of Drood. At first, Wilkie is skeptical of the existence of Drood, but eventually finds himself in the middle of the mystery. Is Drood real or a figment of the imagination? And if he exists, is he a violent criminal with an underground army mesmerized into doing his bidding? Is Wilkie a pawn in a game between Dickens, Drood, and a London private investigator searching for Drood? These are the questions that face Mr. Collins, whose opium addiction makes it difficult for him to separate reality from fantasy. And it all leads to the death of Dickens, as he is working on his final, unfinished last novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

All of this made for an interesting tale. But back to complaint #1, Dan Simmons’ Drood is long. It felt even longer than the 771 pages. Simmons clearly did a ton of research for the book – on the lives, writing, and even love affairs (not with each other) of his two authors, as well as the time period and the London locations where the book is set. Which is great. But he obviously felt the need for us to know about all of this research by including everything he learned between the front and back covers. So again, the story was interesting. The execution? Not so much. And it’s hard to recommend a book that is twice as long as it needed to be. The big reveal (which I guessed long before the end) really isn't worth the amount of time it took to finish the book.

One semi-interesting note – in the beginning of the novel Wilkie Collins (who is writing for a future audience having stipulated that the book would not be published for 125 years after his death) writes, “my wager with you, Dear Reader, would be that you have neither read nor heard of any of my books or plays.” Which is amusing to me since the only reason I even picked up Drood was because I saw that Dan Simmons used Wilkie as his narrator, and I had previously enjoyed both The Woman in White and The Moonstone. Mrs. has actually read two additional Wilkie Collins novels (one of which was reviewed on this blog). So in our house at least, Wilkie Collins is more popular than Charles Dickens.

Next Up: That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo