My Cultural Diet

Dennis Knuckleyard is doing his best to eke out an existence in post-WW2 London, but his prospects are pretty bleak. As the sole employee at a used bookstore, he’s subject to the whims of his imperious boss, who one day orders him to pick up a collection of rare Arthur Machen books. Knuckleyard’s prospects become even bleaker, though, when one of the books that he picks up doesn’t exist. Or at least, it shouldn’t. Turns out, it’s from another London, the real London of metaphor and symbol that lurks behind and inspires the London that Knuckleyard knows, and if he doesn’t return it, the consequences will be dire. It’s an intriguing premise, and Alan Moore — who’s best known for his work in comics (e.g., Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Swamp Thing) — explores it for all it’s worth, filling his pages with obscure historical references, detailed descriptions of London’s various districts and neighborhoods, and of course, this being Alan Moore we’re talking about here, all manner of the arcane and esoteric. (Austin Osman Spare plays a significant role, for example, while Aleister Crowley and Dion Fortune make an appearance.) Moore’s prose is incredibly dense and detailed, his descriptions alternating between captivating and more resembling entries in the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest (RIP), and at such a rate that you might experience literary whiplash. As such, your mileage will most definitely vary, and will largely depend on how much you enjoy Moore’s, shall we say, eccentricities. The Great When is the first in a planned pentalogy of novels exploring London in the last five decades of the 20th century. I’m not sure I’ll continue reading the series, but I certainly hope young Knuckleyard’s fortunes improve. (Somehow, though, I suspect they don’t.)

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