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In FINDING DAVEY, Jonathan Gash has a promising idea in this neo-Dickensian tale. When little London boy Davey Charleston is snatched from an unnamed Florida theme park to be brainwashed and raised by nefarious uber-rich Americans Hyme and Clodie, almost everyone gives up hope that he will ever be found. Almost everyone, that is, except his grandfather, traditional woodcarver, joiner, and antiques restorer Bray Charleston. Together, Bray and Davey had constructed an intricate model world of wood and plasticine, with purple clouds, square-hatted citizens, and other details literally unimaginable by anyone else. In order to find Davey before the child loses his memory, Bray must brave some strange new worlds himself: those of information technology, international travel, and the publishing industry. FINDING DAVEY plods along predictably, at an even pace. Bray never seriously makes a false step and is uncannily able to guess exactly what has happened to Davey despite the frustration of the police forces of two countries. "The evil people would brainwash a child to eliminate his former life," Bray guesses. "They would remake him, set out his new future like items in a playpen." From the first page, we're told that that is exactly what Hyme, Clodie, and the malevolent psychiatrist-cum-child-seller they have employed do. Gash is a master craftsman when it comes to protagonist Bray, but all of the other characters are one-dimensional, from the angelic Davey, to the child-buyers and child-snatchers. These last -- Hyme, Clodie, the Doctor, and his henchpeople -- constitute a laughable parody of American culture. Hyme is a businessman with more power and money than empathy or sense. Clodie is a Milltown-style hysteric whose maternal instinct is entirely narcissistic. They feed Davey junk food and television. They know and care nothing about the age-old folk arts in which Bray excels. They speak in an odd, heightened form of American English dialogue: "Can I go and see the sea?" "You sure can, Clint! We've got your old surfboard here! Sure!" The nurse brightly put in, "And Clint likes football, Doctor!" Doctor laughed. "Clint's going to be a hotshot quarter back!" "He changes TV channels on his own now." Yes, that's right: Hyme and Clodie even re-name the child Clint. Apparently, as in Clint Eastwood, the all-American gunslinger Dirty Harry Callahan himself. If FINDING DAVEY is intended as a thriller, it's too predictable to thrill. If it's intended as an allegory about American hijacking of British culture, it's an inventive one, but needs a few more surprises and revelations along the way.
Reviewed by Rebecca Nesvet, March 2006
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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