Review - Bricks by Leon Jenner (Coronet)

Bricks by Leon Jenner
Published by Coronet

Hardback – 136 pages

Published August 2011

Review copy given by Hodder and Stoughton

This is the story of a bricklayer. A master of his craft, he keeps its sacred teachings secret. For him a house is the dwelling place of a soul, and a house must be built in the right spirit or the soul inside it will suffer. The building of an arch is a ritual to obtain a right relation with the earth and a connection with the truth.


The bricklayer recalls his previous life as a Druid priest. He talks about the creation of the sacred landscape of these islands; how even a simple stick lying on the ground would tell people the direction they needed to go in; how when people stared at the stars, they were staring at their own mind. The reader sees the world through the eyes of this great, magical being at the time of the Roman invasion, and learns how he tricked Julius Caesar and set in train the series of events that would lead to Caesar's assassination on the Ides of March.

But as the bricklayer continues, he worries he is losing his ancient, sacred powers. The vision begins to fray at the edges as we learn how he has recently taken violent revenge on yobs who have mocked him. Is he really connected to a once living Druid priest, or is he gradually losing himself in his own fantasies?

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 Throughout the entire of reading Bricks, my opinion was split between looking forward to the next chapter and wanting to put the book down and stop reading altogether. The book swings between long sections of monologue and preachy rambling in which the bricklayer addressed the reader directly, and retrospective historical events seen through the eyes of the Celts. I relished the latter, and dreaded the former.

The sections that are dedicated to the lives of the Druids and the Roman invasion of Britain was well written and filled with tension - from Ceasar's initial rise to power to the eventual incursion onto the island itself, the Celts and the Druids are seen to be both all knowing and patient. These scenes, taken with care from the pages of history, are plausible and exciting. However, these scenes are all too infrequent. Instead we are shown long sections of sermon from the mind of the modern day bricklayer as he recants this earlier time and waxes philosophical to the reader. Frequently can be read 'I am unable to put into words ...' and 'I would not be able to write in a way that you would understand ...', which comes across as the author not attempting to write in further detail the concepts that he is outlining. These sections of sermon have no plot at all and don't really form any cohesive structure. Whilst this confirms the notion that the bricklayer is slowly losing his mind, it feels less a point of character development and more a point that the author wanted to put across through the writing.

Aside from the question of whether or not the bricklayer is actually the reincarnation of a Druid, or is actually insane, there is no character development in the story. Roman leaders Julius Caesar and Gaius Paulinus are mentioned but aren't developed beyond their guide as Roman leaders. These historical sections should have been given much more prevalence than they were; cutting out these long sections of sermon would have helped with the slow pace of the novel and given more characters a chance to breathe and grow.

In short, Bricks is both an historical novel and a psychological profile in one, but neither satisfies the reader. As a history buff, the most interesting part of the book was the Appendix that had long chunks of text lifted from Caesar's The Gallic Wars. What disappoints me most about Bricks is that, had the novel focused more on character and plot, it would have been an excellent read. As a short book (only 136 pages long) the more eclectic amongst you may enjoy flicking through it. For most though, Bricks reads like a flicker of potential that is lost within a mire of ramble.