Books are dangerous things in Collins's alternate universe, a place vaguely reminiscent of 19th-century England. It's a world in which people visit book binders to rid themselves of painful or treacherous memories. Once their stories have been told and are bound between the pages of a book, the slate is wiped clean and their memories lose the power to hurt or haunt them. After having suffered some sort of mental collapse and no longer able to keep up with his farm chores, Emmett Farmer is sent to the workshop of one such binder to live and work as her apprentice. Leaving behind home and family, Emmett slowly regains his health while learning the binding trade. He is forbidden to enter the locked room where books are stored, so he spends many months marbling end pages, tooling leather book covers, and gilding edges. But his curiosity is piqued by the people who come and go from the inner sanctum, and the arrival of the lordly Lucian Darnay, with whom he senses a connection, changes everything.
Blurb taken from Goodreads.
✼
I saw The Binding advertised by Waterstones as a new release, and I thought the idea sounded really interesting. Kind of like historical fiction, but with a little bit of fantasy thrown in. Two genres that I absolutely love, so I was really pleased when I received the book as a gift for Christmas.
When I started the book, I found that it wasn't really what I expected at all, and the pacing felt slower than I would have liked. Nonetheless, I persevered. I'm really glad I did. This was a really interesting idea, and I appreciated the whole craft of binding that the story revolved around. However, I don't think the story developed as much as I would have liked, and I was left feeling a little disappointed. I did enjoy it, but I felt the idea had a lot more potential than was used.
Rating: ✫✫✫
SPOILER ALERT
The Idea
The idea for The Binding was one that really excited me. I wasn't sure how it would be written, whether it would feel like a fantasy novel or more like historical fiction, but I was pleased to see it was a little bit of both. Emmett lives and works on his family farm, but has a calling that means he is plucked from their home and taken to work with Seredith, an elderly binder who nurtures Emmett's craft.
The idea of binding a person, removing their bad memories and encasing them in a book, allowing them to move on with their life unburdened - it's undoubtedly a very interesting one. This really raises the question of morality. Is it ever really acceptable to alter a person's very thoughts and memories?
In this book there are of course two different sides to this. Seredith, as she mentors Emmett, tries to show that binding can be a kindness. She does not do a lot of binding, and Emmett himself comments regularly on how she takes time and care over each book, and how she rarely receives clients. This seems to show the emotion that Seredith puts into her craft, and the importance she puts on each individual. She does not do it as a job, or as a way to keep busy. She only agrees to do it when a person comes to her and she believes it is the kindest thing to do. She almost makes it justifiable because we can see clearly that he heart is in the right place.
On the other hand, there is also the more sordid aspect of binding, led by De Havilland and Mr Darnay (senior). They bind people as a job with a lot less care than is given by Seredith, and this really highlights the problem with the whole process. They give no second thought to the way they are messing with a person's mind, and it's a very cold perspective that highlights the immorality of the act. Mr Darnay, at one point, uses the argument that a subject cannot be bound if they do not consent. Yet this is evidently a very thin form of justification for the fact that he abuses his power with her servants, and erases their memories in order to be able to feel no remorse. It is no wonder that these characters consent to having their memories removed when they cause them so much pain on a day to day basis. It does not make it acceptable.
Once bound, of course, the subject cannot remember a thing, they cannot be told about their memories that have been bound, and they have no recollection of the process at all. It's a form of therapy that can be too easily abused, and allows a person to avoid the problem rather than really working through it. A kindness, perhaps, but one surrounded by so many inconsistencies and problems that it makes for a really though-provoking story.
In this book there are of course two different sides to this. Seredith, as she mentors Emmett, tries to show that binding can be a kindness. She does not do a lot of binding, and Emmett himself comments regularly on how she takes time and care over each book, and how she rarely receives clients. This seems to show the emotion that Seredith puts into her craft, and the importance she puts on each individual. She does not do it as a job, or as a way to keep busy. She only agrees to do it when a person comes to her and she believes it is the kindest thing to do. She almost makes it justifiable because we can see clearly that he heart is in the right place.
On the other hand, there is also the more sordid aspect of binding, led by De Havilland and Mr Darnay (senior). They bind people as a job with a lot less care than is given by Seredith, and this really highlights the problem with the whole process. They give no second thought to the way they are messing with a person's mind, and it's a very cold perspective that highlights the immorality of the act. Mr Darnay, at one point, uses the argument that a subject cannot be bound if they do not consent. Yet this is evidently a very thin form of justification for the fact that he abuses his power with her servants, and erases their memories in order to be able to feel no remorse. It is no wonder that these characters consent to having their memories removed when they cause them so much pain on a day to day basis. It does not make it acceptable.
Once bound, of course, the subject cannot remember a thing, they cannot be told about their memories that have been bound, and they have no recollection of the process at all. It's a form of therapy that can be too easily abused, and allows a person to avoid the problem rather than really working through it. A kindness, perhaps, but one surrounded by so many inconsistencies and problems that it makes for a really though-provoking story.
The Story
The plot, therefore, is a real journey for the reader to go on. It took me a little while to get into it, and I found myself making really slow progress for the first half of the book. Seredith takes Emmett in, knowing he is destined to be a binder, and begins to teach him about the art of binding. Emmett is confused and reluctant, always taught by his parents that books are bad. He meets a few clients who visit Seredith, and eventually learns what binding actually entails.
I liked that Emmett was conflicted on discovering the truth. It raises the question of morality immediately, and it prompts deeper thought into the premise for the story. However, I think he can really see that Seredith is, although troubled, kind. I was actually very surprised and upset when I found out that she had passed away. I suppose I knew that it was coming, but it just felt like a bit of an injustice. Seredith had so much more potential as a character that it felt like such a waste for her to be removed from the story. On reflection, I also now think the section with Seredith as Emmett's mentor was probably my favourite part of the story. I loved the process of Emmett learning from Seredith, trying to come to terms with what binding actually was, and understanding that Seredith's motives came from a good place.
Once Seredith passed away (which I wish had been given more attention, as we never really find out if this was natural or manipulated), the rest of the book seemed to me to become more interesting and less enjoyable all in one. This sounds impossible, but that's the only way I can describe it. Emmett's move to De Havilland's bindery was laboured, and I began to feel that this book was not going to live up to all my expectations.
However, when we eventually get to the point in the story that Emmett's memories are restored, my attention was more firmly grasped. This was very interesting, and I was surprised by the plot twists that surfaced. The way the story followed a young Emmett, Alta and Lucian piqued my interest, and as I learnt more about what had actually happened in the build up to Emmett's binding, my heart did break for him a little. There is no reason at all for love to go unaccepted, and I think this was a very powerful statement for the book to make. This section of the book, the chapters in the past which reveal the truth that Emmett has been missing; I loved them. I really felt like I was coming to know the main character better, and I think this is why I now, on reflection, appreciate the earlier parts of the book. Now that I understand Emmett's journey, I appreciate the way Seredith nurtured him. I also feel that these earlier stages represent a form of innocence. Emmett does not know everything about his past, and so his mind is very naive and innocent in the way it processes his new surroundings. I cannot help but wonder, now I have finished the book, whether or not Seredith would have been entirely honest with Emmett about what had happened to him, had she had more time with him. My instinct is that she would have told him the truth, but only when he had grown, and was ready to hear it.
When Emmett comes round, the narrative switches to Lucian Darnay, and we now see the world through his unknowing eyes. I really liked that this was done. One of the most powerful aspects of this story is that it is told through the eyes of a character who does not have the full facts of their own life. I don't think there is a stronger display of binding as an injustice as this way that the story is told. We follow Emmett as he tries to understand what binding is, not knowing that he himself has been a victim of the process. When he is finally enlightened, we switch to the perspective of another character who detests the process; this time a character who knows he has been bound, and is scared of discovering why, and what he has done in his past that was worthy of forgetting. It's heart-breaking to know that Lucian did not do any of the awful things he is concerned about, but that he was bound by force as a result of pursuing love.
After this, I must admit, I found the latter chapters quite tedious. They were meant to feel, I suppose, exciting and full of suspense, but I didn't really get that. I hoped, of course, that Lucian would have his memories restored, and that he and Emmett could move forward together, but I wasn't as invested as I would have liked to have been. I'm happy with the ending of the novel, but if I'm honest I did find it a little anti-climatic.
The Verdict
All in all, after finishing The Binding, I feel quite conflicted about this book.
As soon as I read the blurb, I was very excited to read it, and I absolutely loved the idea of binding. I thought it was such an intriguing, original concept that had the potential to make for a really exciting discussion about morality. And in fairness, there were a lot of points in the book where I think this theme was explored. The contrast between Seredith and De Havilland is the most obvious way of demonstrating this, and I was very conflicted by how just and moral I felt the process was. Although I saw that it could often be seen as a kindness, the fundamental problem of altering a person's mind really stayed with me.
However, I just didn't find myself as engaged with the story as I would have hoped. I really wanted to love it, but it felt quite slow in places, and I found myself putting the book down quite a lot. It also felt very disjointed. Although I appreciate that the plot developed and needed to have different stages, they did not feel cohesive. I didn't feel that they were all part of the same novel. This may be partly because of the shift in narrative, which obviously means that the reader needs to readjust the way they view the story. However, the story as a whole wasn't as engaging as I would have hoped for.
There were some elements of the book that I really loved, such as the premise for the story, the sharp contrast between characters, and the way they symbolise the morality of binding, and the bold statements the book makes about right and wrong. I did enjoy the book, but I also felt it wasn't quite as good as I was hoping for.
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