A mystery-centric story has always, well, intrigued me. Any read that makes me question things, reflect on incidents and generally think about aspects of my own life will always go down well in terms of how I think and feel about it. The Curator by Owen King has certainly left me thinking; and while for many, being left with lingering thoughts is troublesome, for me it’s a sign of a well-written and thought-out book.
Set on an alternative version of Earth (I can’t and couldn’t help but think of “New Earth” in Doctor Who series 2!) in a time period long preceding our current one, the story sets us in an unknown, unnamed city, in an unknown country where revolution has changed the way things work and run – there’s a new ‘world order’ so to speak – the elite and the rich have absconded and the now liberated working and lower classes are the ones working to restore any semblance of normality.
The central character of The Curator, the protagonist, is a maid named Dora, struggling with questions surrounding what happened to her brother and his death. As with many family members who keep secrets from those closest to them (God knows I’ve kept and keep some from mine), he had kept a lot of his life to himself and had been involved in secret experiments at the Society for Psykical Research. Dora takes on the job of curator at the National Museum of the Worker, close to the Society building, and it’s there, as she collects and sets out numerous items from several professions – notably those of practical interest such as surgeons and builders – for the displays, that she finds herself more focused than ever on learning the truth about her sibling.
The writing is what really makes this book shine. King brilliantly weaves a tale of the city’s inhabitants, which in turn relays to the reader many aspects of its history. Tracing and detailing the history and path of objects and artifacts passed between the residents, which in this case include a propaganda leaflet and a white scarf among others, the way in which the revolution came about and what happened after is made considerably clear. Prior to the revolution, as it could be argued many of the class perhaps still do and are, those in established and wealthy positions ignore and are kept away from anything that would lay bare the income inequality between themselves and the ‘lower’ classes. However, using their status and taking into account what they like to do with their time, and are able to do, that inequality is plain for all to see, but they do little to nothing to balance things out.
As the revolution takes hold, the inequality and disconnect – at monetary and class level – is an issue that irks the provisional government. With the ‘old order’ having crumbled away to nothing, the revolution has made the city ripe with and for corruption, led residents to be more focused on themselves and there’s an air of evil that’s certainly stronger than it used to be. A revolution is always risky, with those who instigate it often finding themselves with a mountain to climb in terms of working and being able to maintain the new hold they’ve put on a people or a place. It’s no different here; the grip the revolutionaries have on the city is tenuous at best, not helped by the growing friction by members and those who played no part. What King creates by putting considerable focus on these characters and issues is a scene that’s so easy to picture, and surprisingly clear in its detail, but not overpoweringly so.
The focus on class and social status made me think about the works of Charles Dickens whose writing often heavily addressed such matters. King is no Dickens – no one is or ever will be – but he has an undeniable talent for creating work that blends fantasy, horror and a sense of realism, even in a world that’s very much removed from our own in several regards. As The Curator makes its way past the halfway point, and Dora gets closer to the answers she’s looking for, the story gets decidedly strange in a way that might put some readers off, but I urge them to stick with it. The introduction/mentions of occultism and dream logic – if you like a supernatural feel to your reads, you’ll love them – add a gothic-like twist to proceedings. In many instances, this shouldn’t work, but given the setting of the story and the changes happening in the city, these occasions and inclusions fit like a glove.
I can’t say (okay, write) much more about The Curator without giving the ending away, but I will note this: revolution can and does change things – history has proven this time and time again – but often it’s not just a government that needs to be toppled and changed; people and society as a whole need to be made to do so too. That’s the key thought that still lingers with me and likely will with others.
