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emberology 's review for:
Little Hands Clapping
by Dan Rhodes
Based on the illustrations I've seen, Little Hands Clapping is very Edward Gorey-esque in spirit. Not particularly sick, just macabre and definitely not something that should be labelled as horror. Dark humour is a tricky thing, but for the most part Rhodes succeeds in making the museum a comical place without it seeming crass or tacky. The ridiculous reason the doctor had for doing what he did somehow made perfect sense in Rhodes's universe, where even the most respectable pillars of a small community can harbour dark secrets (the kind that are more than mere "I had an affair with the plumber" -sort). The premise reminded me of a couple of urban legends, like .
Some would say Rhodes pushed it a bit too far, some would probably need even more pushing, but I thought it was just enough for a surprisingly light-hearted feat like this. Then again, there were moments of seriousness that didn't exactly give a deadly blow to the story, but at least stunned it. It was like being at a wedding where someone tells you their cat died the day before. Awkard. There were hints that Rhodes wanted to say something profound about death, but the purpose of the novel just wasn't clear enough to say anything for sure.
Which brings me to the main problem I had. There are plenty of characters whose lives are saturated with death, but other than that the threads don't connect to the main story strongly enough, not to mention that the story about the Portuguese lovers is completely uninteresting. The narrative dashes to all kinds of directions and breaks the chronology, making the novel unfocused, bloated, and slightly ADHD. I would have been more than happy if there had been just the storyline with the curator and the doctor. The misinformed view on depression and suicide (cheer up, think happy thoughts, someone always has it worse than you) also bothered me a bit more than is perhaps necessary, because the story obviously relies more on fairy tale morality than reality.
That said, someone needs to make this into a stop-motion film, preferably something in the vein of Mary and Max (2009).
Spoiler
the one where a butcher makes people into minced meat (although it's slightly more disgusting, because at least the doctor ate the meat himself instead of offering it to others)Some would say Rhodes pushed it a bit too far, some would probably need even more pushing, but I thought it was just enough for a surprisingly light-hearted feat like this. Then again, there were moments of seriousness that didn't exactly give a deadly blow to the story, but at least stunned it. It was like being at a wedding where someone tells you their cat died the day before. Awkard. There were hints that Rhodes wanted to say something profound about death, but the purpose of the novel just wasn't clear enough to say anything for sure.
Which brings me to the main problem I had. There are plenty of characters whose lives are saturated with death, but other than that the threads don't connect to the main story strongly enough, not to mention that the story about the Portuguese lovers is completely uninteresting. The narrative dashes to all kinds of directions and breaks the chronology, making the novel unfocused, bloated, and slightly ADHD. I would have been more than happy if there had been just the storyline with the curator and the doctor. The misinformed view on depression and suicide (cheer up, think happy thoughts, someone always has it worse than you) also bothered me a bit more than is perhaps necessary, because the story obviously relies more on fairy tale morality than reality.
That said, someone needs to make this into a stop-motion film, preferably something in the vein of Mary and Max (2009).