:: book review - our mutual friend ::

I figured it would be smart to start off with a lit review, and one of a book I’m relatively familiar with. to my self, "self: your favorite book would be a good choice"; but then again, "self: your lousy writing skills would persuade people to never read it again" (and being a dickens – of course – that would be a catastrophe); and then I thought, "self: he’s amazing enough and nobody even reads this yet!" so I was comforted and have decided to write about 
our mutual friend, by charles dickens.

I won’t go off on dickens (although heaven knows I could); I’ll reserve that glorious job for later. 
I love OMF – first –  because of the character descriptions. dickens has an amazing talent in characterizing characters, giving them personality in a few lines. he represents them, often, by some repeated action: mr. chadband (bleak house), who says the equivalent of nothing for a paragraph (“why do we eat, my brethren? is it to keep ourselves satisfied? if it is, let us partake…”), or uriah heep (david copperfield), who is described as constantly rubbing his “clammy” hands and writhing. writhing. can’t you just see him and his red eyes? but back to OMF.
take his description of the veneerings, for example (and that name should give you a clue as to what’s coming). 

“Mr. and Mrs. Veneering were bran-new people in a bran-new house in a bran-new quarter of London. Everything about the Veneerings was spick and span new. All their furniture was new, all their friends were new, all their servants were new, their plate was new, their carriage was new, their harness was new, their horses were new, their pictures were new, they themselves were new, they were as newly married as was lawfully compatible with their having a bran-new baby, and if they had set up a great-grandfather, he would have come home in matting from the Pantechnicon, without a scratch upon him, French polished to the crown of his head.” {book 1, chapter 2}

       now, that’s not very deep; but isn’t it perfect for a couple like *coughcough* the veneerings? (by the way, apparently a pantechnicon was a furniture-moving van back before horseless carriages were considered a possibility. I believe it also refers to a warehouse that stored furniture.)
       it’s not just who he writes about that’s so compelling, either. he has a way of “demanding your heart” (as elizabeth mccracken put it); he is at times witty, sarcastic, wry, sweet, or touching, and sometimes a combination of any two. 

“Tippins, with a bewitching little scream, opines that we shall every one of us be murdered in our beds. Eugene eyes her as if some of us would be enough for him.” {book 2, chapter 16}

“The doctor came in, too, to see how it fared with Johnny. And he and Rokesmith stood together, looking down with compassion on him. ‘What is it, Johnny?’ Rokesmith was the questioner, and put an arm around the poor baby as he made a struggle. ‘Him!’ said the little fellow. ‘Those!’ The doctor was quick to understand children, and, taking [toys given to Johnny earlier]…softly placed them on [the bed] of his next neighbor, the mite with the broken leg. 
With a weary and yet a pleased smile, and with an action as if he stretched his little figure out to rest, the child heaved his body on the sustaining arm, and seeking Rokesmith’s face with his lips, said: ‘A kiss for the boofer [beautiful] lady.’ 
Having now bequeathed all he had to dispose of, and arranged his affairs in this world, Johnny, thus speaking, left it.” {book 2, chapter 10}

“’Two belated wanderers in the mazes of the law,’ said Eugene, attracted by the sound of footsteps, and glancing down as he spoke, ‘stray into the court. They examine the doorposts of number one, seeking the name they want. Not finding it at number one, they come to number two. On the hat of wanderer number two, the shorter one, I drop this pellet. Hitting him on the hat, I smoke serenely, and become absorbed in contemplation of the sky.’” {Book 2, chapter 6}

        OMF was dickens’s last completed work, and it shows his maturity as a writer – the depth and complexity of both the characters and the plotline is astounding. the multitude and diversity of characters is pretty surprising; he makes them all vibrant and most of them personable. here’s a quick summary of the story.
        he introduces (most of) the many characters in the first five chapters (I counted: 30, who show up more than once, and that’s not even all who end up playing a part), and he spends the rest of the book weaving their lives – at first seeming utterly separate – into a complex story with a remarkable pattern. lizzie hexam is the daughter of a man who scavenges the thames river for dead bodies and takes whatever valuables they died with. desperate for a future for her bright brother, charlie, lizzie sacrificially sends him away, only to have her father nearly drowned one night, under very mysterious circumstances; but he doesn’t care about his daughter and offers no protection when a creepy, angry young man becomes oddly interested in her and she can’t escape his attentions. 
        john harmon returns to england after the death of his father, but is murdered within two days of his arrival, his drowned body is put on display "for identification", and his fortune is given to his family's two oldest servants. 
        bella wilfer, a poor, beautiful girl with no heart and no scruples, is disappointed that her rich fiancé is dead: she wanted his money – and she is disturbed by her family's mysterious boarder. is he watching her? and who is the "julian handford" people have met, but have never been able to produce? 
        there’s a lawyer and his happy-go-lucky sidekick, an evil schoolteacher, a couple who both marry for the other's imaginary fortune, and an unscrupulous blackmailer; together, they make for a funny, bittersweet story that ends with a summary of love, life, and 'the voice of society' -- the best that I have ever read. 
       (after gushing like that, I feel like I should say, "it's really exciting, but if you want to find out who did the murder, you'll have to read the book yourself and find out." ...but I'm not going to. don't worry.)

and if that hasn’t persuaded you? …well, I did my best.