No One Goes Alone: A Novel
By: Erik Larson / Narrated By: Julian Rhind-Tutt / End Notes By: Erik Larson
Length: 7 hrs and 35 mins
Gotta give Larson the: Huzzah for Just Trying Award
I've gotta tell you. I do love History, and I doooo love it when it’s done well, like, exceedingly! well. And The Splendid and the Vile was one of the best, the very best books ever written (Or produced as an audiobook with the venerable John Lee doing narration honors).
So I know the dude can write; just? How will he manage a nonfiction-ish ghost story? The coming together of a group of disparate individuals, to investigate a haunted house on a deserted bit o’ island. Some are true believers, some are skeptics extraordinaire, some are scientists, and some, complicating the whole thing, are women.
I say complicating it all because our Hero, Josiah, spends quite a bit of this 7 1/2 hour book getting all tetchy about kinda sorta having the hots for one of the women, getting all tetchy about kinda sorta CONstantly verbally sparring with another (Beautiful, of course!), getting all tetchy about the third kinda sorta flirting shamelessly with the Professor who’s a Married Man, for cripes sake!
And I couldn’t help it, I swear I couldn’t: The whole thing was crafted in a way that simply smacked of Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House whereby Larson conjures all sorts of spooooky whatsis, and then gets onto where nothing happens at all, and Josiah goes so far as to discuss exACTly what-all the group ate each meal. Scones? Yup, of course. Tinned tomatoes with spices? Uhm, okay…
Booze? Oh definitely! Every. Single. Type o’ booze available, and all of them are chugging wine, guzzling brandy, taking shots o’ whiskey neat gulp after gulp after gulp. To where the men, at least, are stumbling around loaded outta their gourds and trip trip tripping after weird essences that go whish! through the grasses at night. Women? Femmes fatale. Men? Lushes most eximious. So who’s complicating what, here? Just saying…
Okay, there’s that about the writing. Descriptions of food; characters come off a bit as caricatures, and truly, the only likable one is the Professor and danged if the dude ain’t near-keeling over from angina, like, all the freaking time. And spooky whatsis interjected then interestingly pulled back from in order to offer realistic explanations.
This sounds like I’m Booo-ing No One Goes Alone, doesn’t it, and actually I’m not as I liked it well enough. There are certain truly memorable scenes, good imagery such as when Madeline, Josiah’s object of lust, deadpans: Oh, you’re just in time! as she’s performing an autopsy on a dead little boy, then she slices and pulls the top half of the scalp away to expose the head. Josiah faints dead away, and that was hiLARious. Go girl, go! I liked the discourses on electricity; I liked the explanations of Spiritualists and charlatans and illusionists, and ticked off grieving people, and pretty much all of that historically sound stuff.
And gosh, this has Julian Rhind-Tutt going for it as well! I mean, the man did The. Most. Perfect American accent ever for the Professor! I had to google JRT to make sure, I mean was sure, but it was so good that… I mean, was the man ACTually American and sporting his British tones just for his career?! THAT’S how good he is! He didn’t do any weird falsettos for the women, he made our shameless husband-chasing mystery writer sound well and truly darned tootin’ good with a gun. His was a fine performance all around. Bravo, JRT!
All in all, a worthy little digression from the Master of History, and it seemed to bring him great pleasure to craft, so much enjoyment in offering it straight into audiobook. His enthusiasm at the end with the “Notes for a Narrator” where he lays out who was an actual person, who was fictionalized, what was an actual historical event, what was a creation, show just one jacked up and excited guy. So good for you, Sir!
May he find more enjoyment for the rest of his life, as should we all…
Just? Hope, like, reeeeally hope he goes back to History posthaste! A twinkle here and there is all well and good, but to shine where he shines most? Yesssss, please!!!
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