Divided Kingdom - Rupert Thomson

Rupert Thomson's Best

I have read all of Rupert Thompson's books and still think this is the best. Some books you read and you think "I could write a novel as good as that" but when I read Thompson's story's I always think "I could never write on that level" his storys tend to take unbelievable concepts, in this case the division of the UK by a persons attitude to life; and give them a suureal and dreamlike quality that draws you in and makes the whole thing so believable your there. I enjoy reading but I am totally removed from reality when I read Thompson. He has got to be the most underrated author of the generation.

Nice premise, shame about the plot. And the characters. And the writing.

This is the first Rupert Thomson novel I have read and unfortunately, it has not inspired me to read any of the author's other books. "Divided Kingdom" begins quite strongly with an opening section in which the hero of the novel is as a young boy separated from his parents thanks to the "Rearrangement". This is a process whereby Thomson imagines that a breakdown in society has caused politicians to divide the United Kingdom into four separate "Quarters", each of which becomes home to one of four distinct personality types. And the Quarters really are separate, as crossing of borders and interactions between personality types are strictly prohibited. The setup is intriguing and well-sketched in the early part of the novel, and I was looking forward to reading more. Unfortunately, once the focus switches to the adult life of the central character, Thomas Parry, the quality of the writing and the plot goes rapidly downhill.

Thomson has Parry wander around the various Quarters in very basic narrative sequences that really do not establish a convincing motivation for the character's actions: Parry went here, he got some food, he saw this thing, he moved on. Time after time Parry escapes from harm or learns new information because thinly-drawn characters around him behave in non-credible ways that Thomson dismisses with little thought, along the lines of: "I thought x was going to do y, but for some reason he didn't". Parry takes the massive risk of sharing his story and intentions with so many of these characters who appear for two or three pages each and mean nothing whatsoever and it begins to become quite wearying. Reading through, I had other nagging feelings such as the glaring number of unaddressed gaps and unanswered questions about the futuristic dystopia Thomson depicts that impact upon the plotline, for example, what is the logic supposed to be behind delegates from each of the Quarters gathering for conferences.

Parry is a weak central character as we are not really shown what is truly driving him and it is difficult to care what happens to him, particularly when, for example, he fails to intervene in a gang rape and is incapable of establishing a convincing connection with any other character in the novel at all.

There are some great ideas in "Divided Kingdom", some intriguing questions, and from time to time a genuinely entertaining detail or paragraph - e.g. what one of the "White People" does to Parry's watch and what Parry does with the watch afterwards - appeared in the midst of pages and pages of the repetitive meaningless. But for the most part, this book was a real chore to read. There is no real satire or insight and no development of story or character. The denouement is an ever bigger disappointment than the rest of the novel, being even more unconvincing and doing nothing to tie up anything that has gone before. This book is far too fatally flawed as a novel and as a reading experience for me to recommend to anyone, despite its quite promising premise and some of the concepts on display.

You either love or hate it

This is one of those novels that divides readership (please excuse the pun): you either love it or hate it. Few are in-between. This may not be his best novel (hence the 4 rather than 5 stars) but personally I found it a great read. In many respects it has more of a satirical feel than normal while conveying some important themes about individual and social identity.

Fantastic Read

I very rarely take the time to write book reviews (and you can see this hasn't taken long) but I really really really do not want anyone who has read the negative reviews of Divided Kingdom to be put off from reading this amazing book.

Divided Kingdom is one of the best books I have read in a very long time .

Divided Kingdom

I have to write about this because I read it about two months ago and I still think about it! It's set in a future time when society has become so warped that the government decides to take radical measures. It splits the country into four regions, each of which is populated by people sharing the same personality characteristics (choleric, phlegmatic, melancholic and sanguine.). On the surface it's one man's odyssey through the 'divided kingdom' but it really does a good job of making you sit back and think about society and the way people interact within society. I would really reccommend this book.