Jamaica Inn
6/10
A masterclass in tension building that, sadly, culminates in a predictable ending and an implausible romance.
This novel started off so well. The premise, an orphaned 23-year-old goes to live with her aunt and uncle by marriage at a destination that has strange rumours swirling about it, with hints of a deeper mystery, lures the reader in. She finds her aunt Patience completely changed and ‘slatternly’ and her uncle a cruel ape of a man. In fact, her uncle is a perv right out of the gate as when she meets him first, he says, “Haven’t you a kiss for your Uncle Joss?”, a question that repulses her. Joss is a great character. Unstable, unpredictable, volatile, violent, scary, and brutal. The man is basically a lunatic. Mary says of him, “I fear and detest him more than you or anyone in the country, and with reason.” Me too, Mary. Comedically, she later concedes that the vicar is worse than Joss. “My uncle at least was honest; drunk or sober, he blurted his crime to the four winds, and dreamt of them by night – to his terror. But you – you wear the garments of a priest of God to shield you from suspicion; you hide behind the Cross.” Patience is a doormat that is repressed and controlled. I thought it was interesting how, prior to her trip to the fair with Jem Merlyn, Mary sees that Jamaica Inn is causing her so much distress, it is aging her prematurely and she gains some empathy for her aunt. Now, I was expecting twists and turns and made various notes throughout my reading about my predictions. My guesses, in order, were that Aunt Patience was an imposter and a stranger was impersonating her; that the vicar would betray her; that Jem would kill Joss; that the vicar was really the mastermind behind the ‘wreckers’; Bassat was in on it too; and Jem would kill the vicar. The fact that half of my predictions were correct and posited long before they were addressed by the book, says something about its predictability. In fact, any dummy could guess that Francis Davey was up to no good from the moment of his introduction. Some positive aspects of the book are how Du Maurier ratchets up the tension and I was on the edge of my seat at times, like when Mary sneaks down to the bar late at night to eavesdrop on the ‘wreckers’ conversation; when Mary speaks to the vicar after she discovers his caricature drawing of his congregation; and when Mary leaves the Bassat’s for Jamaica Inn in the trap and doesn’t know what she will find there. Thrilling stuff. Major criticisms I have of the novel are its stilted dialogue, a notion confirmed by the commentary accompanying my copy, and Mary falling in love with Jem and leaving with him in the end. I think at that stage they had met five or six times total, plus he planted a smacker on her at the fair. It was too quick and not believable to me as a reader. I also don’t like books that are too action packed. The section where Mary was taken to the cliffs by the ‘wreckers’ was that I enjoyed least. There was also one really obvious and painful plot hole that I noticed. When Joss is keeping careful watch of the inn after the botched wrecking, in order to avoid being attacked and killed by his former gang, Jem climbs up to Mary’s window and breaks it in order to have a kiss and a cuddle. How on earth did Joss not notice this?
