Carol Birch’s Jamrach’s Menagerie
Canongate, 2011
(Looking for a swallow rather than a full glass? ORANGE Squirt below.)
This is a true story: while being delivered to Jamrach’s menagerie near Ratcliffe Highway, a Bengal tiger escaped. “An eight-year-old boy who walked up and patted it on the nose was knocked down and carried away in its mouth, but escaped unhurt after Jamrach jumped on the tiger’s back.”
That eight-year-old boy of the historical record becomes Jaffy Brown in Carol Birch’s tenth novel, Jamrach’s Menagerie.
She recounts this and one other historical snippet in the acknowledgments, which appear at the end of the novel, after it’s become impossible to believe that it’s only Jamrach who was real, not Jaffy Brown.
And, yet, Jaffy does seem larger than life somehow. In 1857, at eight years old he is in the mouth of a tiger and emerges, alive. Which impresses Mr. Jamrach and leads him to offer Jaffy a job looking after the animals in Jamrach’s menagerie: the marmosets and the cockatiels, the ape and the baby elephants, and all the others besides.
And, so, incredibly but brilliantly, Jaffy moves from a world in which he cannot afford a pair of boots into a world of amazing things (and footwear). Not the least of which is that, by eleven years old, he can read and write, because Mr. Jamrach needs his boys to be able to take things down and read off lists (including the lists of desirable specimens that his wealthy clients are seeking for their collections). And then, by fifteen, he is off to sea, in search of a dragon.
So, yes, Jaffy does seem larger than life. (Do take a moment: indeed, dragons.)
But Carol Birch establishes credibility by immersing readers wholly in Jaffy’s existence.
His work in the menagerie shapes his view of the world, in both details and in broad strokes. His friend, Tim, has small “baboon wrinkles” at the sides of his nose, a pole is long like a stretched horse, and a whaling ship’s masts and yards and sails are like the “web of an insane spider against the sky”. And Jaffy develops an inherent sense of compassion for animals of all sorts (two- and four-leggeds) that could, in the hands of a Hollywood director, lead him to be depicted as The Tiger Whisperer.
Adding to the verisimilitude of the tale is the attention paid to the novel’s settings, from the docks to more exotic scenes (which readers should discover in Carol Birch’s prose for themselves):
“The ginger beer was good and sharp. I smelled fish, and lavender. A sugar wagon rolled by groaning, a knock-kneed brown horse between the shafts. The sound of hammering and singing was carried on the breeze, and the sun was warm.”
Readers’ senses are regularly and thoroughly engaged in Jamrach’s Menagerie. Sometimes in unexpected ways. “I loved my ma. To me, she would ever and always be a warm armpit in the night.” An uncommon but, upon reflection, affecting way of expressing this connection, given the era and characters’ social class.
There are other images of comfort and memorable relationships, particularly that between Jaffy and one other, but although the strength and depth of feeling is sometimes expressed directly, it is more often subtly drawn through Jaffy’s surroundings.
“We crept below, through the snoring room where we had caroused last night, past the sleeping snout of a black pig asprawl before the quietly ticking fire, past coiled cats and twitching dogs, and hens breast by swelling breast along a stone shelf.”
But not all the imagery and sensation in this story is warm and comforting.
Sometimes it is beautiful but unsettling. “When the lightning flashed it was beautiful, silver echoes on a world washed out, on mast and spar and binnacle, on the great, thrown-out cloth of the sea.”
And sometimes it is simply unsettling. “It was the kind of smell that makes walls cringe and plants curl and die.”
Carol Birch’s use of language is equally skilled in drawing more complicated scenes. “A breath like the scraping of a nail on slate, exhaling into silent infinity.” There are devastating bits in this story. Haunting scenes that are all the more powerful for the author’s skill in drawing readers into them before their dimensions are fully understood and realized.
Jamrach’s Menagerie will certainly be a satisfying read for readers who enjoy an adventure with a historical setting, and those who appreciate that the thrill of discovery bears a corollary, the ever-present possibility of failure and devastating loss.
Jaffy Brown’s story comes with beautiful and moving and tragic and horrifying elements. It took me to unexpected places, and even though I hated some of them, I will sign up for any other expeditions that Carol Birch is hosting: she has something I’ve been missing, something I want in my collection.
ORANGE Squirt 2011: Book 15 of 20 (Carol Birch)
Originality Narrator emerges from the mouth of a tiger
Readability Strong
Author’s voice Visceral, Engaging
Narrative structure Chronological, historical
Gaffes None spotted
Expectations Accomplished author, her tenth novel
Companion Reads:
Yann Martel’s The Life of Pi (2001)
Katherine Govier’s Creation (2003)
Charles Dickens Great Expectations (1861)
Alissa York’s Effigy (2007)
[…] did not love the story in Carol Birch’s Jamrach’s Menagerie (it may be the only time I’ve used the word ‘hated’ when discussing a book), but […]
Thanks, Heather; I’m glad that observation worked for you. I love it when I happen upon something like that which adds another layer to my own reading when I’m thinking back on a book. How regrettable that the acknowledgements are missing from your edition: gah!
(As for the other historical snippet, IIRC, it was about what happens to Jaffy later on — the crux of his experience at sea — which I didn’t want to specifically mention because it would spoil that part of the book for readers who don’t know about that plot point. Of course we know that kind of thing happened, but I, for one, had no idea it would be part of Jaffy’s story: I was shocked!)
Isn’t it funny that (some of) the most unbelievable parts of this story are the ones which actually happened?!
[…] mouth in a busy London road—and the boy living—is drawn from fact: I learned this from this post over at Buried in Print; the Doubleday American edition of the book unfortunately omits the Acknowledgments section that […]
I love your observation of how Jaffy describes the world around him in animal similes/metaphors – I hadn’t thought of that.
And now you’ve made me really curious: what was the “other historical snippet” that Birch mentions in the acknowledgments? The US version of the book, published by Doubleday, annoyingly seems to have omitted the acknowledgments entirely – if not for your review and another I read, I wouldn’t have known that Jamrach was a real person/that a tiger really did carry a boy in its mouth on Ratcliffe Highway!
Gavin – I’m glad they were helpful. I really think you’ll appreciate Jamrach’s Menagerie. (It reminded me of Remarkable Creatures which you recommended to me not long ago.) You might also find Wendy Law-Yone’s novel of interest…I seem to remember some of your reading brushing against such territory…
Helen – I know! She was new to me as well. I have no idea how that happens…how one can be so obsessive about reading and miss ten books by a single writer. But I’m rather pleased to know there is a good chunk of good reading ahead of me. And intrigued: how to follow Jaffy?!
Thanks, Vasilly. I think the way that she draws certain relationships will really appeal to you. I haven’t said much about that part of things here, deliberately, but I think you’ll like it.
The more I think about this one, the better I think of it. Funny how that happens with some books, isn’t it.
I’ve seen this book around but hadn’t read any reviews of it until now. This is an amazing review! I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy of this!
I enjoyed this book too. I’ve also been working through the Orange longlist (though I haven’t read as many as you) and this has been one of my favourites so far. I was surprised to find that Carol Birch has written so many books as she’s not an author I had ever come across before.
Wow! Somehow I missed the fact that you were reading and reviewing the Orange shortlist. Thanks to your posts I have a much better feel for the ones I want to read, including Jamrach’s Menagerie.