Racing the Gauntlet

Alicia Kerfoot is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of English and
Cultural Studies at McMaster University.

Racing the Gauntlet is a strange picaresque tale set in early
19th-century Wales and England. Even Tom Jones has some complex female
characters, but in his version of the travel narrative Heywood Graeme
portrays women as sexual symbols that only move the plot along when they
perform sexual favours.

The novel’s primary characters, a young man named Ianto and a dwarf
named Dyn, are more convincingly portrayed. The two Welshmen begin their
journey when Ianto steals a watch from an English officer, and Dyn’s
appearance with Ianto makes him complicit. Their escape is made complete
when Captain Glyn Morgan takes them under his wing and they set sail on
the Maneg as smugglers of illegal goods from France. The adventure and
intrigue that results from this leg of their journey is a highlight of
the novel.

The inclusion of Welsh words and 18th-century historical references
could be more eloquently woven into the thread of the narrative. Graeme
does incorporate a reference to the Irish Rebellion into the dialogue,
but he provides historical information about the English possession of
Belle-Оle outside of the voice of his narrator. Perhaps information
like that would be better placed in a note? The historical realism of
the narrative is interrupted by an extra-narrative voice that stops the
plot in order to provide short history lessons. Notes, rather than
brackets, on the English meaning of Welsh words might also encourage the
reader’s suspension of disbelief. We know that we are in the 21st
century, but it would be nice to forget that the narrator is here with
us.

If you can make it past the two-dimensional women, the strange
narrative flow, and the choppy historicism, Racing the Gauntlet is an
entertaining read.