The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 14 December 2000
by Penelope Fitzgerald
In the late 1970s, the art and archaeological worlds were sent into a frenzy by the touring display of the treasures of King Tutankhamun. This book seems to be a take-off on that tour, though I wonder if its publication date (1977) isn't a little early for that. Penelope Fitzgerald was 60 when this, her first, book was published. It is a dryly witty sort of British story, with a tinge of mystery (though I wouldn't call it a mystery novel). In a respectable London museum, the treasures of the lost boy-king of Garamantia are on display for the first time. The mysterious country of their origin is a closed and backward culture in northern Africa. Much of its story is the most amusing in this book. At the museum, the venerable archaeologist who discovered the treasures still holds a tenuous position in the heirarchy based on the expectation that he'll leave his fortune to the museum. Many workers, high and low, make up the characters in the book. One of them, young Waring Smith, is garrotted in the presence of the golden treasure, and thus opens up a mysterious path through the true origin of all those golden artefacts. The book is dry but funny, occasionally surreal and highly improbable. The best characters were those with the most humane feelings. It is an entertainment, not particularly deep. A fun romp from England to Russia and back again.
Also by Fitzgerald: [The Beginning of Spring]