Fiction & Biography
books@list.co.uk
GRAHAM SWIFT The Light of Day
"'...
It was another Graham (Greene) who broke convention with his novel The End of the Affair, by declaring his intention to write ‘a record of hate much more than Iove’. Since then, many a cynical middle-aged male author, from Rushdie to Kureishi. has written darkly of relationship failure, imparting bitterness, self-loathing and isolation in excruciating detail. Fifty years on from Greene's torrid tale. Graham Swift‘s bleak new work (his first since the 96 Booker winner Last Orders) aims to have the last word on splintering partnerships. To this end, the author has, rather clumsily, made his central character a private investigator, himself a fiftysomething, divorced ex- policeman, reduced to grubbing around in the dustbins of adulterous husbands. Gradually, Swift divulges the events that brought George Webb to his current station in life, including his dismissal from the Day is a detective story with deeper concerns, in the force for attacking a witness, and his marriage’s tradition of Chinatown or Vertigo. It's no coincidence subsequent fizzling out. His current empathy for that Webb and Hitchcock‘s Scottie share a vertiginous cuckolded wives is explained by the revelation that, as panic when forced to confront their emotional life as a child, he bore uneasy witness to his father‘s both works attempt poetic explorations of control and infidelity. manipulation, and the impossibility of connection. The tale’s crux is in the development of George’s Swift works out his scheme repeatedly in the gamut relationship with respectable lecturer, Sarah Nash, of relationships depicted - George and his ex-wife, who arrives in his office with a seemingly simple George and Sarah, George's parents, Sarah and her assignment. George‘s mission - should he choose to husband - with a glimmer of hope provided by Webb‘s accept it - is to follow Sarah‘s husband and much burgeoning friendship with his previously estranged younger lover (a Croatian asylum seeker whom she daughter. had offered a home) to the airport, ensuring that Yet, having made his point and then some, Swift Kristina gets on a plane and leaves for good. Needless goes on traipsing back and forth in time, painfully to say, the task becomes complicated by George‘s unravelling every last detail of these individual growing passion for his client and an unforeseen tragedies long after you’ve ceased to care. And being violent outcome. forced to follow George Webb‘s tortuously ruminative Swift’s protagonist may be a private eye and his tale narration — even over a mere 250 pages — is rather a may loosely follow noir conventions, but The Light of depressing experience. (Allan Radcliffe)
i3()i3[)t
Swift offers a bleak, vertiginous spin on detective noir
St X UN 5
‘7 ,{W l"£il)(‘,l(?.'".R1)"T(3.f"(?.tlf3i?,2;“gli';\" 1-:- (1'1" "wig". ‘.
HM \ H' 7‘ ~ ~. H";‘ vu‘ (t'~ \".‘ ' »° .‘ t‘ . \w- on Blondes H0 «Emit-Lt, Vt, .1 .Dl,t,.. .i 5,, 4, 2.. . \ \ \ v i\ \y(‘ n‘ 7i\ t; j t v ‘ i " l i I ° it \ ' ' I ,hlodmt‘h)“ 5 “1.9:; .... U ..,..>(, 6”». .ti.. .. . _. ., .. .\)'\i' “Xx! Ni: (:\,. (i'(f:l.\f\3{(l{t,.\:\l .ifiJf' t1..'<1,.'.‘ t .3 ’.’.. l .i', ',.' l i (“\J‘t}.17(i57|(}'1 '\)‘\l .‘.<:' My INN, «1".3. '.,', «I ;‘..' .'.o le', a .. a a o ,\ ‘0, ,. \i M... .,‘o, w . .,,,., .. , . \ ‘1‘»! r,. \ f" ‘h “(it fiti'W \.(.u'f>'.,..' Hidimi “if J'NYJL’JI UT: ... ' _2 i", -' ~i .5 ‘,,,H 4‘ \‘l \. to .,.,\ ')o , ,. ,. {‘ ‘0'. \ .\ ‘, , , , {KL s>t3 \J/\\ :H'1 “ \l\ (1 I ‘r "‘(2' A,"» ...'.,"., \) ', ;:. uzlri;', 1 x '\ {' 'xmt, (if) (1' (llji ' ‘ ' > ' 1' ' ' A ' ' ' in? u MIA. (1. f) ‘f .. t.' ...:"\ - " (in, uh: .e ._ ~ \-(1\.‘:,.> \l ga'vti‘ytxf \: 'K.(i\,.uxr'\53 . if "\.i“,\,'. i .a' ‘ i’\'.:l' \i' I '1’, n ' i. t3u \/ f3t l > \A ' ‘ t ' "H ) i I (a l) !\ l < x i\ t l t a '3 l i A ‘3 t) l ' ‘ A K 1 A“: A ' ‘)b\ ..\‘ 0' r v \: ()I r t v u i l ,1' ‘ bix 1“,(‘o '\ M. ,\ i\,r\.~ ‘/\_\- \y\"r c'._ n ‘ "" .‘ g I. g r- I, -{’/c .1' (l [\lttl . lvititltliti' 1.. '. m} .. e if». . . n. (1‘: ..' .r‘. . \,\,‘,,,\ ‘ ‘ A,” . . L‘ \, ‘r- z,‘ , a" . I'._-i~ :~«_ 1' 1 ' Mango d'hi Manama. - . . " 2.1.1, Ht?! l'lttbb :t» L 70.. l) ("‘11: 1. ., ,‘o, w ‘ ,‘.,, . N... , ,.\. _, u .. . . .,.,‘ ,., , ‘15:“? .’(ii\y E“. it\\\ \,.‘ (:.\A';'.- l/ "-:'.'.‘ (17,: ".'.1,‘,' A ' ' '1 "(gt/1v v a": 'u‘ H; Ii).’;'i"t‘ 7‘ ‘;y~r‘v~ " y\"l““.‘ v.3 .«_. y ;._,w '0' r ;,. Blonde ambition ersonified Aw)" i o ~.- a. . i .. ::' .
92 THE LIST .‘ ‘ ‘-.-1‘ ‘5 ‘.'.‘:' .‘
Shelf life
C/aSS/c note/s rews/teofi T/l/S Issue: Death m Venice
Published
What‘s the story "
What the critics said -.'
Key moment '
Postscript . '