I received an Advance Listening Copy of this book thanks to the publisher and to Libro.fm. All opinions are my own.
The Gilberts are a family of 6 – mother and 5 children – in the rambling, increasingly decrepit family property called Thornwalk. With a dead father and an absent-minded mother struggling to make ends meet, the children are largely left on their own. They are growing up in post-World War II England, with many of the trappings of wealth but without the actual wealth. There is beautiful Lydia, the oldest. Hugo, the eldest son, and the only one who they can afford to offer any education. Middle child Annabel who is obstinately odd and increasingly hidden away. Youngest son Jeremy, obsessed with history and the outdoors. And dramatic Rosalind, the youngest.
We get to know the Gilberts through their home itself and the items in it that they have left behind when their lives are over. Thornwalk has been sold and is about to be renovated and turned into a fancy hotel. We are being given one last tour through it, as the Gilberts left it, by their neighbour Maximus, who grew up nearby. Maximus has been observing the family for decades, meticulously tracking their history and personalities.
There’s so much potential here. The setting is really well done, very evocative of a crumbling English property and that transitional period of wealth and power in England. There was a lot here that reminded me of The Remains of the Day – the time period plus the narrator who exists slightly outside of the main action and characters. But where the narrator of The Remains of the Day slowly reveals more to the reader than he realizes and we begin to see a larger, clearer picture, there is no such payoff in The Infamous Gilberts.
The 5 siblings are each unique and decently well-drawn. They’re each distinctive without falling into caricature. But they’re also not very likeable. And I needed a little likability to keep caring about them. Jeremy probably came closest but he’s not on the page much in the latter half of the novel. I had sympathy for Annabel who probably could have thrived in a drastically different environment, but it also felt like the novel never stayed in one place or with one character quite long enough to let me care. The others I felt increasingly annoyed with.
But the biggest flaw is that the story ultimately lacked payoff. Why this family? Who is Maximus and why does he care so much? I still don’t know. There is a lot of skill in Tomaski’s writing that show up and the narration by Michael Bertenshaw was terrific – just the right voice for this sort of story – but I finished the book feeling disappointed.
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