The Infamous Gilberts
Can a tragedy be cozy? Follow me, if you will, down the once-grand hallways of Thornwalk, the decrepit manor house of the sprawling, decayed Gilbert family, and we shall see ... If you don’t mind a narrator whose manner can shade into that of a Realtor trying to unload a house that needs a new roof (as, indeed, Thornwalk does), an oddly diverting read awaits ... Tomaski manages her pastiche with rare control and evident relish. Before embracing a more pragmatic match, the young Lydia engages in an abortive romance with an artistically inclined tutor, who reads her his poem 'Ode to Tuberculosis.' Her reaction is not what he wants; she corrects herself. 'Not funny. I meant sad.' But when Tomaski flirts with the precious, it is on purpose — and to surprising effect.
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There may be more style than substance in The Infamous Gilberts but it is very stylish, indeed ... There’s a disconnect between the cool elegance of Tomaski’s writing and the brutal behavior it describes. Inbred rich people probably have behaved like this down through the ages, but there’s an unreality in The Infamous Gilberts, along with a macabre sense of humor, that keeps it entertaining, rather than grim.
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A delicious comfort read about loyalty and despair, and a gentle questioning of the nature of progress ... This is, in a very real sense, an impeccable book ... While much undeniably happens in The Infamous Gilberts – axes, asylums, escapes, affairs, missing children, missing adults, madness, betrayal, despair – the distancing act of the narrator keeps us curiously insulated from anything that feels too much like plot ... It is hard, in this slow, droll, nostalgia-fuelled telling, to feel that anyone was ever in danger, even as they die before our eyes.
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