Book Review - The Dumb House by John Burnside

The Dumb House isn't the most interesting book I have ever read. But what catches the attention (and manages to retain it) is the topic dealt therein plus the style of narration which is creepy; the story being narrated in first person by a mad man with perfect logic and sense.



The book is based on an experiment (maybe fictitious - its a part of the folklore and myths) conducted by the Mughal emperor Akbar the Great. Once during a discussion with the senior court members, Akbar argued that the language is learned/ acquired while the courtiers said that its innate. To prove his point. Akbar built a palace outside the city and filled it up with randomly picked up new borns from the entire length of the country(maybe to ensure that his "samples" came from families speaking different languages). These children had all the worldly comforts, were attended to by mutes and didn't hear a sound from the outside world. The palace came to be known as the "Gang Mahal" or the "Dumb House". At the end of some years Akbar went over to inspect the result of his experiment. It was as he had thought...there wasnt a single sound from the entire palace, thereby proving that language is acquired.(http://www.sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de/bibweb/Miles/1200-1750.html )

Inspired by the myth and some incidents and influences from his own life (including his insanity) the central character of the story, Luke puts his own new born twins in solitary confinement. Over a period of time the twins develop their own language (or so Luke assumes). He grows paranoid and lives in constant terror that the twins, who are not more than a year old are plotting to kill him. The high levels of emotion lead to the termination of the experiment by Luke himself, where by he poisons the twins.

For further details you can refer to the links:
John Burnside the author: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Burnside
Book Review: http://www.amazon.com/Dumb-House-John-Burnside/dp/0099582716