Observatory Mansions
By Edward Carey
Vintage/$14
Yes, the world of British fiction can be a strange and beautiful place. Seldom is this beauty more apparent than in the novel Observatory Mansions, by Norfolk, England-born playwright Edward Carey.
The novel outlines the psychotic endeavors and habits of the more-than-quirky Francis Orme, a man who earns a living pretending to be a statue at the local park and spends his free time collecting (read: stealing) objects that are loved by others. Francis lives in harmony with the six other residents of Observatory Mansions, also persons of questionable sanity, including a woman who believes she is a dog, a man who is perpetually sweating and crying and a woman whose reality exists solely inside of her television set. The inhabitants live peacefully in solitude until the arrival of newcomer Anna, whose honesty brings about a disastrous upheaval of hidden memories and desires for her fellow residents.
With the abandonment of the past, each person experiences a type of reality check and is thrust into a realization of the present. Carey adeptly explores the motivations of 'deranged" behavior while questioning the things that drive 'ordinary" behavior. And in observing the mishaps of this peculiar bunch, the reader can't help but wonder, 'What is normal, anyway?"
At first impression, Carey's writing style is reminiscent of James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, only a bit less visceral and with tons of morbid situational comedy. As the novel progresses, the impending fate of the mansion begins to reveal just how deeply the characters are weighed down by their warped perspectives. Despite all the changes the characters undergo, several of them either revert to their old lunacies or are completely done in by the freshness of reality, leaving the reader with a slight sense of human failure. It all works well, however, and Carey's detailed portrayal of this bizarre circus of humanity helps us to love the strange world we live in more fully.
—Emily Diaz
