Theories on Darwin, the man

JUDGING by its title, “The Darwin Conspiracy,” I half-expected John Darnton’s novel to turn Charles Darwin into some kind of Satan worshiper perpetuating the “Big Lie,” that life evolved through natural selection, an idea so robustly opposed by our nation’s more reactionary fundamentalist brethren. Would the author, by diving into conspiracy myths, render Darwin a caricature and a pawn of those scenarios or so trumpet him and his theories that any scientific skepticism is washed away?

Fortunately, the book offers a more complex fictional take on Darwin’s life and on evolution without delving much into dogmatic blindness or conspiratorial fantasy. In fact, without giving away the plot twists, the book offers a much more expansive view of Darwin’s “discovery” -- a simple observation that his findings may have been ingrained in our collective psyche, yet blurred by superstition, doctrine and ignorance.

Darnton certainly doesn’t paint a rosy picture of Darwin, nor is he overly sympathetic toward the man. Mostly we see him through the private diaries of his little-known eldest daughter Elizabeth, or Lizzie, who discovers her father is not at all as the world sees him. He comes off as deceptive, paranoid, sickly and lacking integrity. In this book, the theories of Darwin don’t fall as much as the man.

A lot of this is because of Darwin’s interactions with Robert McCormick, his rival on the HMS Beagle. Darnton depicts a jealous competition between McCormick and Darwin throughout the novel, including how the ship’s surgeon eventually meets his maker. The character of FitzRoy, the Beagle’s captain, also adds to the mix, mainly as a counterforce.

Many of the novel’s strongest parts are of life aboard the Beagle and passages in Lizzie’s diaries. All of this is held together by the present-day tale of an amateur researcher who, after studying Darwin’s finches in the Galapagos, journeys to England to try to unravel some of the mysteries surrounding Darwin’s life.

A secondary plot revolves around researcher Hugh’s determination to reconstruct the final years of his older brother Cal. Much of what Hugh learns mirrors his subsequent findings about Darwin. Cal, always something of a heroic figure in Hugh’s imagination, had worked in a medical research laboratory in London, then left under blurry circumstances, got a divorce and returned to his native America, where Hugh was struggling to find his own place in life.

Once there, Cal dies in an accident before Hugh can find out what happened to his brother in London.

Some of the novel’s present day aspects seem hurried and bland, not as alive as the historic parts. Attempts to sex it up with a love affair between Hugh and another character researching Darwin in a caricature of modern-day England and a reliance on dialogue to propel the plot fall a little flat. All that said, however, Darnton offers an entertaining, fast-paced read, less mawkish and maudlin or otherwise far-out than its title might suggest.

Michael Standaert is a regular contributor to Book Review. His first book, “Skipping Towards Armageddon,” will be published this month.