{"id":2948,"date":"2018-07-29T22:03:50","date_gmt":"2018-07-29T22:03:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/floridareview.cah.ucf.edu\/?post_type=article&p=2948"},"modified":"2018-07-29T22:03:50","modified_gmt":"2018-07-29T22:03:50","slug":"an-introspective-journey","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/article\/an-introspective-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"An Introspective Journey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Beast: A Novel<\/strong><\/em>
\n<\/strong>by Paul Kingsnorth
\nGraywolf, 2017, $16<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Cover<\/p>\n

We only need to look around ourselves and the world to know there are many things wrong with our society: How our comforts have made us lethargic, how our technology only divides us, and how the lack of empathy between different cultures has only deepened in recent years. This is the rabbit-hole that Beast<\/em> invites us to plunge down, in a beautiful exercise of stream-of-thought and self-reflection. Paul Kingsnorth\u2019s poetic prose takes us into the mind of Edward Buckmaster, who has fled his normal life to live in solitude, high in the English moors. While this is not a new concept, Kingsnorth\u2019s novel is original in its form and offers a tilted perspective that gives the narrative a unique voice.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Beast <\/em>is the second novel to a trilogy. The first novel, The Wake<\/em>, published in 2014, was that same year longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, won the Gordon Burn Prize. Both books stand entirely on their own, with no need to read one before the other. The Wake<\/em> has been praised for its inventive language, as Kingsnorth merged his own form of Old and Modern English to write it. Beast, <\/em>on the other hand, experiments with sentence structure, and you\u2019ll find, as the narrative progresses, certain rules are either lost or forgotten. It\u2019s notable, at first, then it becomes a part of the book, and then a part of the character.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Edward Buckmaster\u2019s voice is both simple and dynamic in the constant questioning and reasoning between which he traps the reader. He has fled to the moors to find himself, to let nature overtake him, and eventually find enlightenment, as if it were that easy. We find Edward at the beginning of the novel already more than a year into his self-imposed exile, standing in a freezing river and letting the cold water numb his body. \u201cThe river sang and kept singing,\u201d and Edward welcomes pain and challenge in the forms of nature and his own fasting. It\u2019s not long before a powerful storm finds him and breaks his body. From this point on the core of the story begins. The sun stops setting, his food runs out, and it\u2019s not long before a creature of some sort begins to stalk him. There are no other characters to be found, except in his memories. Even then, they appear as wisps and phantoms.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

While there are only hints as to what Edward leaves behind in his earlier life, we rarely find ourselves caring about them. He is here now, high in the moors, alone with the rawness of nature and the creature. Besieged with hardships, fog, and visions, Edward must push himself forward. The sense of time becomes lost, as well as any firm sense of reality. That\u2019s not to say that Edward is an untrustworthy narrator. Rather, the effeteness of Kingsnorth\u2019s prose wraps the fog around his readers as much as it does Edward. We get tangled in the \u201chot and muggy and still and the sky was a uniform white across the farmyard and over the top of the silent ash trees\u201d sentences that go on and against each other, through Edward\u2019s head and seemingly out into the moors.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

While the strength of Beast<\/em> lies in Kingsnorth\u2019s unique prose, at times readers accustomed to plainer fare may find it difficult. The 164-page novel ends up feeling a bit longer, as it becomes necessary to put the book down at times to consider Edward\u2019s thoughts or the surrounding circumstances he finds himself in. The prose insists that you digest each sentence properly, lest you miss some hidden meaning. It brings on a fascination at the level of language as opposed to plot and requires the reader to live inside the world of the novel and inside Edward\u2019s head.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The search for meaning in life is as old and clich\u00e9 as literature itself, but there is very little that is clich\u00e9 here. The narration moves from one thought to the next in a translucent, stream-of-consciousness manner that conveys Edward\u2019s thoughts as if they were your own, contemplating topics and issues that are very much prevalent in today\u2019s world. Indeed, Kingsnorth\u2019s elsewhere-stated love for nature, ecological advocacy, and warnings about global warming are underlining themes that come to life in his settings as well.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

To read Beast<\/em> is to make a journey of two sorts, as it may be impossible not to consider your own value as Edward considers his. That is the beauty of Beast<\/em>\u2014it captures that essence of self-doubt that haunts all of us. Though we may or may not find what we are looking for at the end, there is a sense that the answers have been looking for us as well. The third and final novel in this trilogy has been said to take place two thousand years after the story of Beast.<\/em> One can only wonder what new form Kingsnorth\u2019s imagination will take in that far future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kingsnorth’s poetic prose takes us into the mind of Edward Buckmaster, who has fled his normal life . . .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2950,"template":"","categories":[9,139],"tags":[6,744,745,746],"class_list":["post-2948","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aquifer","category-book-review","tag-aquifer-the-florida-review-online","tag-beast","tag-paul-kingsnorth","tag-william-michael-rincon"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAn Introspective Journey - The Florida Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/article\/an-introspective-journey\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"An Introspective Journey - The Florida Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Kingsnorth's poetic prose takes us into the mind of Edward Buckmaster, who has fled his normal life . . .\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/article\/an-introspective-journey\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Florida Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2018\/07\/Cover-of-Paul-Kingsnorth-Beast-horz.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"564\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"353\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cah.ucf.edu\\\/floridareview\\\/article\\\/an-introspective-journey\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cah.ucf.edu\\\/floridareview\\\/article\\\/an-introspective-journey\\\/\",\"name\":\"An Introspective Journey - 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