Critique: The Binding (Bridget Collins)

In this world, binders make books, both of which are considered in a negative light. Emmett is carted off to be an apprentice to the binder Seredith. The readers learn with Emmett why books and binders are considered so badly because ‘No one had ever explained why books were shameful.’. Queer issues, disabilities and sexual assault are of great importance to this story, too.

 

*****SPOILERS*****

 

The book is split into three parts. One is Emmett learning to become a binder. Two is Emmett remembering his past with Lucian. Three is from Lucian’s perspective starting at the exact moment Emmett remembers their shared history.

 

 

Plot

 

Binders bind a memory, taking it away because it’s too bad to live with. This creates a book. This psychological gap leaves people in a vulnerable state and this is why people, especially Pa and Lucian, hate books so much. The only way to regain the bound memories is to burn the book.

When others talk about these taken memories, the bound only hears a high-pitch note and feel nauseous. After someone has been bound, they are vacant, docile, sick and physically weak. Examples include Lucian and Milly. Plus, to Emmett’s eventual realisation, himself.

Lucian and Emmett have sex in Part Three. Lucian thinks like Emmett acted like ‘he never touched anyone else’ but thinks ‘No one fucks like that unless they’ve done it a lot.’ Both statements are right but Lucian didn’t make the connection that Emmett had a lot of sex with one person. Is it that his brain literally can’t even think that he previously had sex with Emmett? So a binding not only removes the memory but even the idea of what the memory was about, even in an abstract setting?

Pa tells Emmett he doesn’t have a choice about becoming Seredith’s apprentice. Is it punishment for whatever he did? Or is it his only opportunity to find a manageable living because he won’t be able to run the farm? It could be an combination of both but considering Pa’s other actions I’m pretty sure it’s most likely the former.

 

The romance between Emmett and Lucian wasn’t gushy but instead the right amount of sweetness and dispute.

Many hints of Emmett’s crush on Lucian were peppered throughout. Emmett dismisses these, such as a churning stomach, as signs of him not liking Lucian. Watching Emmett grow enough to first let himself be fond of Lucian and then entering the relationship was really sweet.

Lucian courts Alta just to be near Emmett and even buys a ring to propose to Alta with. He might have bought it for Alta but he had Emmett in mind when choosing it.

Emmett didn’t stop thinking about Lucian. He’s disappointed when Lucian doesn’t come. He’s embarrassed for Lucian to see him dirty and not at his best.

 

The very end of the book has a plethora of touching moments.  It’s about showing their love to each other but also about not being afraid to show the world.

Lucian asks Emmett if he meant it when he said he loved him. Emmett asks him to ‘ask tomorrow’. Not because Emmett needs to think about it’s to show they’re staying together.

Emmett’s hands contain these moments, too. He holds out his hand and Lucian interlocks their fingers. Emmett wears his wedding ring on his finger, not around his neck like he did in Part Two.

 

 

Behaviour

 

There are elements of believable behaviour in regards to disabilities.

Emmett feels guilty for his forgetfulness, slowness, spasms and trembles. This is rather common in people with any sort of disabilities.

Someone bangs on the front door and Seredith acts scared, saying the Crusade came for them. She tells Emmett to hide with the books in the basement. The way she behaved subsequently was very in line with PTSD.

 

Yet there were elements of behaviour that simply weren’t believable in keeping with an individual’s characterisation.

The first example is more situational, however. After Emmett’s parents have a calm conversation about the book, Pa hits Em. That seems really out of place.

Emmett vehemence towards binding seems a little too strong to me. A toned-down dislike would have served the same purpose and appear more likely. Also Emmett seems to do a one-eighty on his perspective on binding so a smaller hatred towards it makes the turn-around more likely.

Seredith acts like a child when de Havilland comes. She is otherwise brisk and to the point but never rude, in fact portraying kindness. Then when learn she’s his mother so her acting like a child towards him isn’t realistic.

De Havilland tells Emmett that Seredith thought him a slave. So Emmett starts to doubt his relationship with Seredith really badly. This isn’t realistic: de Havilland’s comments are nowhere near as world-shaking as Emmett made it out to be. He thinks, ‘everything I though I knew about her was wavering.’

Lucian hates books so much yet he owns one. He hates people that read books. He hates binders for taking both payment and advantage of people’s suffering. When he realises he’s bound, he is disgusted with himself for doing something so awful because otherwise why would he have had it done? So no, he wouldn’t own a book.

Lucian and Emmett find Lucian’s book. The books are behind the grill so Emmett wants to burn the books. Lucian doesn’t want this and starts to doubt Emmett because he blames Nell’s suicide on Emmett. But Lucian had trusted Emmett this far so why doubt him now?

 

 

Miscellaneous Moments

 

It’s clear that being queer isn’t accepted in this society. Indeed, Lucian thinks he’s ‘depraved’ because he likes guys.

Alta sees Emmett and Lucian have sex. Pa says, ‘We were so proud of you.’ Pa then says Emmett ‘won’t have a family’ if he touches another man again.

Emmett was fired for having the ‘slightest sign of… vice’. It’s implied it’s to do with homosexuality yet Emmett clearly trying to get back with Lucian so why would he sleep with another man? But no. Emmett asks a lot of questions about Lucian and visits him when no appointments so de Havilland may have put two and two together.

 

The doctor give de Havilland medicine for Seredith, giving clear instructions on how little to use. It treats pain and insomnia. Then Emmett starts to sleep far longer than normal: perhaps he’s being drugged with Seredith’s medication that makes people live longer? Then Seredith dies even though she’d been getting better. I think de Havilland overdosed Seredith to get access to all her books that he’s been coverting.

 

Figuring out the time period this book was set in was interesting.

Emmett says they have to farm the old-fashioned way rather than relying on machines. Agriculture has had many advancements so this isn’t actually that big of a clue. But when Seredith says the Crusades were sixty years ago, this seems to point towards the Middle Ages.

Yet Emmett hears machinery when he goes to Castleford: machinery in the context of a city most likely points to an industrialised society. Further, they have rifles and the living and working conditions of de Havilland’s employees is disgusting.

But then the final clue: the year before was 1750. So here’s me trying to figure it out and then it’s handed to me on a plate!

 

 

Good Moments

 

Alta and pre-bound Lucian have the best interactions with Emmett.

Alta is great. She says, ‘There better be some pie left, or I will kill someone. With a fork through the heart. And eat them… with mustard.’ This whole speech had me going but adding ‘with mustard’ as an afterthought was pure genius.

After saving Alta from the ice, Lucian wears Emmett’s clothes whilst his own dry and he says, ‘perhaps you’d rather I took them off?’ Then he starts to undress. Hilarious.

Archimbolt and Perannon have sex in the lodge so Emmett and Lucian need to hide. Lucian presses up against Emmett who gets an erection. Lucian asks, ‘Are you getting excited?’ Emmett’s thinks ‘I wanted to die. Right here and now’ and I howled. Then Lucian tells Emmett to deal with it and asks if ‘you would like a hand?’ This whole exchange was too much humour!

 

There were so many creative descriptions in this book that were pure delights.

‘I never knew that my body could betray me, that my mind could go out like a lamp and leave nothing but darkness.’ This is a great description of disability.

The binder Seredith was ‘painfully and skeletally old… face as creased as paper.’

The rain ‘fell in ropes’ and ‘the smoke congealed.’ When Lucian’s book burns, ‘The truth flares in my mind.’ ‘The bare trees were like a pen-and-ink drawing against the sunset’ is a gorgeous image, as is, ‘Under everything is happiness so deep and rich its like dark wet earth.’

‘A freezing draught kicks at my ankles’. The idea of air kicking is brilliant.

One sentence says, ‘Gossip is public property.’ This is thought-provoking.

‘The satyrs lounging with their pens erect in their hands.’ This amused me because satyrs often have other erect things in their hands which include the same letters (in the same order) as ‘pens’. Just add an ‘i’!

 

 

Erroneous Moments

 

There were a few moments that were either erroneous or problematic.

Like so many authors, she uses apostrophes for speech. Boo!

The very first paragraph was very long, especially for an introduction.

During Part One, Lucian looks through the workshop window. It then says Emmett opens the door at the end of the workshop. But the only doors mentioned there during the tour were the bathroom and the basement.

The phrase ‘the bones of her nose’ come up but humans don’t have bones in their nose. For the period the novel’s set in, this is a known fact.

The procedure to bind someone is to touch them, listen with ink and paper, both sit, and subject gives consent. Then the subject is ‘bound’. That’s a process, not an explanation. So we have no idea how it happens, this key detail, and that’s frustrating.

One book has mother-of-pearl baby skeleton on it. This is expensive and Seredith doesn’t bind for money so how can she afford this?

In one paragraph, we have ‘Luc speech.’ Acre prose. ‘Luc speech.’ No.

Lucian gets drunk after one glass of mead, yet he can withstand glass after glass of brandy and sherry? How does this work, then?

If Mr Acre took Emmett to get bound by Seredith, how had Pa met her? Maybe he was the one who collected Emmett after the binding? There’s no written record of how Emmett gets home so we’ll never know.

 

 

Conclusion

 

Reading about a society where books are frowned upon, so much so that people used them to justify violence, was uncomfortable. But to have not only a different perspective but a completely unexpected one at that was an interesting experience.

 

I received this book as a present from my best friend after both she and her mother had read it. About books, queerness and a little bit of magic, it was always going to be a potent mix in my favour. It was actually the first book I’ve been introduced too in a long time, rather than being given a book because I asked for it. For someone to read a book then think ‘So-and-so would like this’ is really special. The book itself was special enough to match.