Set against a stark background of neo-Dickensian London, the novel delves deep into the multiplicitous nature of the self. The central characters - Jack, Catherine and Gold - appear as a triangle of destructive internal forces, each of them threatened with lost love and potential tragedy. Taussig draws on his own experiences, first, in his exploration of homelessness and its common facets of mental illness and alcoholism, and second, in his study of madness and the fine line between reason and unreason. The
result is a starkly honest tale of love, sex and obsession in the twenty-first
century. |