He told me on October 5th. Told me that someone somewhere had decided I had thirty-six days left.
Rating: 3/5
Trigger Warnings: violence, murder, racism, animal abuse
Spoiler Alert! If you haven’t read the book, this review will contain spoilers so it’s up to you if you continue…
The story of Daniel Ford’s incarceration for the murder of his best friend, Candlemoth follows the path his life took, traced alongside the history America in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. A novel about growing up, the transience of love, living with consequences, and ultimately learning to trust yourself, Candlemoth is a new take on the crime thriller.
Candlemoth was certainly an odd one. I received the book as part of a book sharing scheme - apparently it was somebody’s favourite book and they highly recommended I read it. Certainly it was an interesting read, and I think I would recommend it in turn, but I don’t think that I could say I loved it.
It seems to explore the roles we play in the world, and the roles we play in other people’s stories, when we take a backseat to our own. It’s Daniel’s story we read, but it’s Nathan Verney’s, Linny Goldbourne’s, Father Rousseau’s, Clarence Timmons’, and Mr West’s story too. Daniel, a brilliantly emotive character despite often struggling to express or stand up for himself, seems to have a special skill for reading other people, and through Daniel’s voice R.J. Ellory creates incredible three-dimensional characters.I especially want to praise the women of the story - Linny Goldbourne, Caroline Lanafeuille, Eve Chantry, even the Devereau sisters and Sheryl Rose Bogazzi. They were so obviously all people Daniel loved, but they were all still individuals and it wasn’t a love story in the slightest. Even when I thought it was going to be a cliche ending, Ellory defied my expectations and left Daniel by himself, made Caroline an independent woman who had her own life. It just felt so important to me that despite these women being so loved by Daniel they weren’t defined by him.
I loved the backdrop of the novel, the thread of history throughout the novel is amazing. Every so often the narration takes a pause and fills us in on the American history that surrounds the novel, contextualising the racism that is at the forefront of the novel. Being English and 20 years old, a lot of the events were things I had heard of but didn’t really understand or couldn’t place within history. Therefore these short extracts really helped me as Daniel explained his life; again it was Daniel’s role in another story, in the bigger picture of America. Understanding the macrocosm helped me understand the microcosm.
Now, let’s just take a minute to talk about Father Rousseau. First up, what a great guy. He seems to genuinely want to help and it was refreshing in a novel where prejudice or circumstance left people unwilling or unable to help. I will say that his role was a little predictable. Not from the start, I’ll give Ellory that, but it was definitely easy to pick up that Rousseau’s questioning was targeted. His interest, however, seemed genuine. It didn’t feel like he wanted the facts to solve a case, it felt like he cared about the injustice that was done here and genuinely wanted to fix what had gone wrong in the system. Also, the secrecy behind the whole thing was brilliant. I hated Mr West to my gut but I loved the narration of Daniel thinking he was going to his death because Mr West hadn’t told him the truth about what was to happen. Possibly my favourite bit of writing in the whole book.
Unsurprisingly, it was difficult to get through some parts of the book. It deals with big topics in a very emotive way. I’m careful to say emotive instead of emotional though, which are different things in my mind. I wasn’t emotional about a lot of the events, there was only one point I remember actively feeling close to tears, but it is full of emotion. Everything Daniel feels - and everything he can see other people feeling - is laid out for us. Passion, regret, guilt, and revulsion are all clear in Ellory’s writing, but Candlemoth never got under my skin and made me feel those things. That being said it is a really interesting book, and does end with a message of hope…in it’s own way. I’d say read it if you’re into memoirs, American history, and (it sounds silly but) friendship, because friendship is at the very heart of Candlemoth.
Comments