Dodger

By: Terry Pratchett

Narrated by: Steven Briggs

Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

Dodger is a tosher – a sewer scavenger living in the squalor of Dickensian London. Everyone who is nobody knows Dodger. Anyone who is anybody doesn’t.But when he rescues a young girl from a beating, suddenly everybody wants to know him.And Dodger’s tale of skulduggery, dark plans and even darker deeds begins

©2012 Terry and Lyn Pratchett (P)2012 Random House Audiobooks

The Fog of Truth in a Fun Historical Fantasy

Terry Pratchett's historical novel Dodger (2012) is a fun read right from the opening stormy night scene, in which the eponymous seventeen-year-old protagonist saves a golden-haired damsel in distress from two thugs and makes the acquaintance of Charles Dickens. This sets in motion a chain of events that threatens Dodger's comfortable and unambitious life and identity as a "tosher" (earning his living by scavenging the labyrinthine network of sewers running beneath mid-nineteenth century London) with new emotions, revelations, responsibilities, reputations, dangers, and prospects.

In addition to being the "king of the toshers," Dodger is a "geezer," which means that he knows and is known by all the right people dwelling in London's underbelly and that he is sharp-witted, skilled at acting, and adept at reading people. Suiting his nickname, he's also quick and slippery, never to be caught by the police ("peelers") or other undesirables. Pratchett has taken the Artful Dodger from Dickens' Oliver Twist and reformed him with a handsome figure, a good heart, a salubrious mentor, and a less illegal occupation than pick pocketing (though he is accomplished at that as well).

Pratchett turns other fictional characters into "real" figures in his novel, including Sweeney Todd, a murderous though pitiable veteran suffering from war-trauma, and Solomon Cohen, a philosophical Freemason who has escaped in the nick of time from murderous anti-Semite mobs in seemingly every European city before ending up in London. Solomon, like Dodger, is a reformed version of his Oliver Twist persona, Fagin the Jew, who in Dickens' novel exploits street kids and corrupts them into lives of crime. In Pratchett's novel Solomon is a learned savant who repairs intricate watches and other valuable objects found by Dodger in the sewers in order to return them to their original owners for monetary rewards. He is Dodger's landlord and mentor, keeping him clean and fed, teaching him to read and write, educating him in the ways of the world and the scope of the universe, and generally helping him to grow his soul.

Pratchett, like Dickens, partly based his Jewish character on the historical crime lord Isaac Solomon, but unlike Dickens, writes a sympathetic character in Solomon. Other real life historical personages also appear in his novel, including Henry Mayhew, socially conscious co-founder of the journal Punch, Angela Burdett-Coots, independent woman of great wealth and connection, and of course Charles Dickens, a canny, crusading, and well-connected young journalist working to improve life for the impoverished masses. Dickens is also a burgeoning popular author, and through his dealings with Dodger he gains inspiration for titles of his future novels, like Great Expectations and Bleak House.

Pratchett writes vivid details about early Victorian London, like "honey wagons," "growlers," "flower girls," and "nobs." The foul London fog he turns into a metaphor for truth, an amorphous thing that people make into what they want it to be. From the toshers and their sewers he fashions an interesting sub-culture of London, with its own goddess of the sewers, the Lady, whom the Romans who built the sewers called Cloacina. And Pratchett, who highlights Dickens' role as social critic and reformer, does a fair amount of both himself by skewering politics, poverty, and wealth.

Sometimes Pratchett tries too hard to be constantly humorous, as when he plays with words like hubbub ("the epicenter of a hubbub that was loud enough to be considered a hubbub with at least an extra hub, not to mention bub") or refers too often to the strong odor of Solomon's dog Onan (who is unnecessary for the plot and exists in the novel for the many jokes about his bad smell and the pay off regarding his name).

As Pratchett says in his afterword, Dodger is a historical fantasy, and hence, I believe, has less of gravitas and believability and more wit and narrative expedition. And as he also says, he does "put a shine on things," for his characters, whether fictional like Solomon and Dodger or real life like Charlie and Angela, are all wittier, luckier, stronger, and kinder, and more interesting, capable, and effective, etc., than their real life avatars could be. Things are a bit too easy for Dodger. This novel is therefore entertaining but not so suspenseful or powerful. And I've found most of Pratchett's straight fantasy Discworld books to be more of all three.

If it is easy to read Dodger with a smile on one's face, this is due in part to Steven Briggs, who gives a great reading of the novel, speaking the accents and moods of the different characters and the witty flourishes of the narrator with engaging skill.

Thanks Terry another great story

What did you love best about Dodger?

I loved the mix of known characters and story

What other book might you compare Dodger to and why?

Oliver Twist a bit but that's intentional a cleverly done

What does Steven Briggs bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

He has a great skill for this and brings the characters to live

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

The real artful dodger

Any additional comments?

It's not disc world but I am so glad I did not let that put me off and that my faith in the skill of Terry Pratchett was rewarded hugely

Wonderful Pratchett

Would you listen to Dodger again? Why?

Yes, the story was wonderful and the reader excellent

Who was your favorite character and why?

Dodger

Have you listened to any of Steven Briggs’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No, just thoroughly enjoyed it

Any additional comments?

The book reminded me of the Sallay Lockhart mysteries; very entertaining.

Disappointing

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I would start them on one of the Witches books or the Tiffany ones if they were younger, definitely not this one. I also would look for any other narrator.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

As expected, all sorted out and by that point, I was just waiting for the book to end. Dodger was far too heroic with no real flaws and so there was no real challenge - everything came easily and coincidentally to him. Frankly, Saul was the most interesting character in the entire book.

How could the performance have been better?

Briggs was very recommended online, but I found his reading fairly monotonous. I expected a change of pace for different scenes but it seemed like he had one speed setting for the entire book.

Did Dodger inspire you to do anything?

Hope there will be another Pratchett book soon to get over the disappointment of this one? He is 95% of the time brilliant, so Dodger is really a sort of Dark Side of the Sun for me.

Rags to riches

At first I thought this was a pale reworking of Dickens, but as the story unfolded I was more impressed. Yes, there are obvious parallels to be drawn, but this is a genuine Terry Pratchett story told in his own way. The introduction of the famous characters can be a little stiff - reminded me of those 40's and 50s B & W biographies where the "oh look there's ....... come and meet him" was the way to introduce a historical figure. By the way the history and settings are pretty close to the real thing.
Worthwhile - if a little more serious than some of Mr Pratchett's Discworld series