Palace Without Chairs by Brigid Brophy

Palace Without Chairs Reviews

• 
  Surreysmum

  [This note was written in 1983:]. I enjoyed Brigid Brophy's Palace Without Chairs although nothing of hers has ever quite come up to the pyrotechnical brilliance of In Transit.
• 
  Wreade1872

  Well that was fun :) . The trials and tribulations of various characters from the small democratic monarchy of Evarchia. Mostly following the members of the royal family.
  Clearly inspired in parts by
  Gormenghast but its players are more real and a little less grotesque. Its a book about characters and setting rather than plot. You could also compare it to Dickens books like
  Bleak House , or
  South Wind by Norman Douglas.
  Its a very funny book too at least to start with although the humour, while it doesn't disappear, gets pushed into the background during the final quarter.
  
  I actually found Brophy's writing style a little... complex. Its not that she uses long words or anything but the way she puts sentences together, just seemed to throw me off at times and i was forced to reread.
  The other thing which i had to adjust too is the scene changes. Some scenes can be very short and when you which to the next your never sure how far the jump will be, will this be 5 mins ahead or days or weeks. As someone who's mind tends to travel on rails this can be a little disconcerting.
  
  Finally due to its lack of plot the ending doesn't really seem to mean much, it comes so far out of left field.
  Overall though, much like Gormenghast this is a beautifully drawn (rather than written) book and left me wanting more, which is always preferable to the alternative :) .