Observatory Mansions

Edward Carey's Observatory Mansions is the story of a handful of neurotic misanthropes who live in a curiously isolated apartment complex in what appears to be London. A new tenant moves in, resulting in a sea of change, including a few deaths and a lot of reconciliation with the past.

The characters are certainly interesting and eccentric. The narrator, with his deep abiding distrust of humanity projected on the people he encounters and his meticulously cataloged collection of garbage, has the least redeeming qualities of any of them.

It is hard describe the book as compelling, however, even when events are building to a climax at the end. It was very similar to reading The Wasp Factory; the events that unfold are unusual and interesting, but ultimately one is left thinking "So what?".