<![CDATA[The Great Stink]]>

false <![CDATA[The Great Stink]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173844693m/335607.jpg 335607 6 It takes a world of confidence to name your debut novel The Great Stink, and to set it in a sewer. Not even a modern sewer--charmless though that may be--but the crumbling, cholera-laden, rat-infested, fungus-rich sewers of London in the mid-Victorian period, from which pockets of deadly gas frequently burbled to the surface. Clare Clark's unsavory but completely absorbing first novel is a Dantean tour of this reeking underworld and its denizens: both the scavengers--human and animal--and the reformers, who brave the tunnels in the service of public hygiene and social progress after the 1858 Act of Parliament that called for the rebuilding of the sewer system. The Great Stink juxtaposes two darknesses, both embodied in the filthy tunnels: the lawless desperation of the very poor, and the despair of madness. One of the junior engineers most useful in mapping the existing sewer is William May, a studious, methodical veteran of the Crimean War who manages to conceal from everyone but his wife the horrors he brought out of battle with him. The tunnels don't frighten William; they provide isolation and silence for the bloody rites that keep the Mr. Hyde in him at bay. It seems only a matter of time before William's self-destruction turns outward. Long Arm Tom, his counterpart among the poor, is a "tosher." He enters the tunnels illegally, scraping the sludge for coins or other booty, and trapping hundreds of rats for fighting against dogs at local taverns (all the rage for sporting gentlemen since dog fights have been outlawed). Kindness is a liability in Tom's world, but two acts of pity--one toward a dog, and one, more grudgingly, toward William--provide the resistance that changes the course of this otherwise relentlessly dire story. The very weak-stomached may need a cup of mint tea or a bowl of potpourri beside them as they wade through the sewer with Tom and William. Clark has spared readers none of the stink, nor the sharp pleasures of suspense. --Regina Marler 326078 2005 The Great Stink total:163|5:20|4:66|3:58|2:15|1:4| 163 572 323 38 4 1 false true Sat Dec 20 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Nov 28 09:53:31 -0800 2008 Sat Dec 20 14:59:17 -0800 2008 1 The Nature of Monsters, Clare Clark accomplishes two things with The Great Stink. One, is a powerful (and queasily wonderful) evocation of the sights, sounds and smells of a by-gone London. In this case, the city of the Victorian Age c. 1860. The greatest city in the world is d...more...]]> 2 1 false true Mon Jul 28 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Jun 18 15:21:42 -0700 2008 Mon Jul 28 19:13:43 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 1 false false Sun Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sat Apr 07 15:27:37 -0700 2007 Mon Apr 30 03:32:37 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Jan 14 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 20 12:51:31 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 20 12:51:31 -0800 2009
Of course it's always great to have a story set in a vivid and little-known environment, and the sewer system is a fantastic idea. I was a bit disappointed that the poetic and metaphorical possibilities of the sewer weren't...more...]]> 0 0 false false Thu Feb 05 09:36:41 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 05 09:36:41 -0800 2009 The critical establishment is awash in second-grade (and second-rate) puns! Maybe they just can't help themselves; in The Great Stink, her debut novel, Clark turns the London sewer system into a character that is as engaging as her humans. The book wears its influences (can we hear another Dickensia...

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William May, a veteran of the Crimean War, now lives with his wife and son in Lond...more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu May 18 00:00:00 -0700 2006 Sun Feb 24 13:56:48 -0800 2008 Sun Feb 24 14:04:36 -0800 2008
It takes place in London, and most of the story takes place in Victorian sewers where engineers are trying to...more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Apr 30 19:25:16 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 30 19:34:24 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2005 Fri Sep 11 15:38:49 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 11 15:38:49 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Fri Oct 09 11:46:45 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 09 11:46:49 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Thu Nov 19 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 03 16:39:12 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 03 16:39:12 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Jun 14 12:02:24 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 14 12:06:17 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Thu Apr 02 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Feb 25 05:49:02 -0800 2009 Fri Apr 03 14:27:01 -0700 2009 1

It was like a car crash with four protagonists - Polly & William, Lady & Tom - all of which I really want...more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Jun 12 14:46:08 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 12 14:47:39 -0700 2009 2 0 false false Wed Feb 18 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 13 21:32:49 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 18 11:58:02 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Thu Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2006 Sun Mar 09 10:15:22 -0700 2008 Thu Apr 03 16:10:03 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Aug 29 23:55:58 -0700 2008 Fri Aug 29 23:57:49 -0700 2008 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=335607