2012; 353 pages. New Author? : No. Genres : Action-Intrigue; Historical
Fiction; British Literature; Humor. Overall Rating : 7*/10.
Sooner or later, you pay for every good deed you
do in life. Dodger just learned that the hard way.
He had just popped out of the
sewers when a pretty young girl jumped out of a passing carriage and tried to
run away. Two thugs followed her out of
the carriage, chased her down, and started beating the damsel.
Dodger may be young, but life
on the streets has toughened him, so he pounced on the assailants, drove them
off, and rescued the young lady. But
there are no secrets in the rookeries of London. Now powerful people are offering lots of
money for information about the escaped girl.
And for information about the
whereabouts of the brazen young lad who helped her flee.
What’s To Like...
Dodger is
one of the few Terry Pratchett novels that is not part of the Discworld series, nor even set there. The story takes place in Victorian-era
England and there’s not a single fantasy creature to be found. Dodger is the street name of the protagonist,
a 17-year-old tosher, which, if you’ve never
heard of that term (and I hadn’t)
means a person who scavenges in the underground sewers. It’s a historically real profession;
Wikipedia has a page about it here.
Terry Pratchett infuses the
text with a bunch of 19th-century English terms, some of which are
listed below, plus at least one example of Cockney rhyming slang, here involving the name “Richard”. One of the main side
characters, Solomon Cohen, is Jewish, so a number of Yiddish expressions also crop up. The characters are a nice blend of real and fictional people, and Pratchett lets you know which
are which in the "Author’s Acknowledgments" section in the back of the book. All of this, plus Pratchett’s writing skills, created a fantastic “feel” for the early 1800s London setting, both above ground and below.
The storyline is
straightforward. After being rescued by
our heroic street urchin, the damsel in distress is taken in by a well-to-do
family for safekeeping while recovering from her wounds. A second
fortuitous circumstance adds to Dodger being hailed as a hero in both high and
low social circles, and he is forced to learn the ways of fraternizing with
those of the upper class. At the same
time, Dodger has to contend with thugs of evil intent, while also learning how to
go about courting the rescued damsel.
Footnotes, always a Pratchett
delight, are occasionally used, albeit sparingly. The text is divided into 16 chapters,
something the author rarely resorts to. The
tone of the story is darker than Pratchett’s Discworld novels (at one point a miscarriage is alluded to); it
would have been awkward to try to fit this tale into that series. But the author’s trademark wit and attention
to details are still delightfully and abundantly present.
I liked the references to subjects like Boadicea,
Spinoza, angels, and metaphysics. The
inclusion of “The Lady of the Sewers”,
aka Cloacina, aka “the goddess of the sewers” was a clever touch. It was fun
to learn the differences between a snakesman, a
waterman, a tosher, and a mudlark. And I hope to never run afoul of Argos Panoptes.
Kewlest New Word ...
Firkytoodle (v.)
: to canoodle, cuddle, fondle amorously.
Others: Toshing (n.);
Bubele (n., Yiddish), Shonky Shop (n.);
Rookeries (n., plural), Schmutter (n.,
Yiddish); Growler
(n.); Percys (n., plural); Mogadored (v., British),
Hey-ho-rumbelow (n., phrase); Waterman (n.), and many more.
Ratings…
Amazon:
4.5/5
based on 3,317 ratings and 1,215 reviews.
Goodreads: 3.94/5 based on 26,049
ratings and 3,101 reviews.
Excerpts...
Dodger wasn’t a thief; not at all. He was. . . well, he was good at finding
things. After all, sometimes things fell
off carts and carriages, didn’t they? He
had never stuck his hand into somebody else’s pocket. Well, apart from one or two occasions when it
was so blatantly open that something was bound to fall out, in which
case Dodger would nimbly grab it before it hit the ground. That wasn’t stealing: that was keeping the
place tidy, and after all, it only happened what? Once or twice a week? (pg. 15)
Dodger had once asked Solomon why he had
chosen to come to England, and Solomon had said, “Mmm, well, my dear, it seems
to me that in the pinch most governments settle for shooting their people, but
in England they have to ask permission first.
Also, people don’t much mind what you’re doing as long as you’re not
making too much noise. Mmm, I like that
in a country.” (pg.
118)
If you wanted to be
a successful urchin you needed to study how to urch. (pg. 78)
The cussing is sparse in Dodger, only 9 instances in the first 20% of the book. All of those were what I’d call “mild profanity”, and none were f-bombs.
Sadly, despite Terry Pratchett being one of my all-time favorite authors, there are
some nits to pick here.
Everything builds towards
good-vs-evil showdown, but alas, things went down way too conveniently in the climax. For all of their fearsome reputation, the
baddies get vanquished way too easily. Nevertheless, the final chapter is a heartwarming Epilogue, where
we get to see how Dodger’s life subsequently unfolds.
An even bigger issue involves the
philosophical asides throughout the storyline itself. Dodger frequently stops to contemplate his
lifestyle vis-a-vis that of the various upper crust folks he
encounters. The first couple times he
does this, his musings are rather enlightening.
But by the hundredth time he ruminates, you just want to ask him to stop obsessing and think
about something else.
Summing up, Dodger is a
one-off novel, which conceivably could have been developed into a series, but never
was. I think that’s for the best. Terry Pratchett is at his best when penning
lighthearted fantasy novels. He
certainly has enough skills to also write dark historical fiction, but it won’t
be his finest hour. If you want to see him shine, pick up
any of his early Discworld novels.
7 Stars. Here’s my favorite new Victorian era slang phrase gleaned from reading Dodger: “Tuppence more and up goes the donkey.” It’s in the Acknowledgment section, and Terry Pratchett laments that he couldn’t find a way to work it into the story. Google it for enlightenment.
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