Books REVIEWS
MYSTERY DRAMA JULIE MYERSON Then (Jonathan Cape) ●●●●● The apocalypse is cool right now. It’s everywhere in popular culture – as a theme, as a backdrop and in widespread adjectival form – and it’s all over Julie Myerson’s eighth novel, Then. Set in an icy tundra that was once London, the novel follows a vague and bewildered central character as she attempts to repair the ruins of her life. Barren recollections and an ambiguous identity render her relationships with the survivors around her as especially unsettling: they variously suggest sexual unions, infanthood, familial ties and a dire overlap thereof. Myerson is no stranger to disquieting fiction, but Then makes for a particularly unpleasant read: the protagonist’s pointed loathing is heart-breaking, even if it is a veil for unthinkable denial and grief. The only relief in this tale of nameless apocalypse, economic downfall and family breakdown is that human beings will live on, even in the harshest environments. Otherwise this book, like the nightmare it occupies, feels horrific and bereft. (Nicola Meighan)
TRAVELOGUE JON RONSON The Psychopath Test (Picador) ●●●●●
About halfway through his new book, Jon Ronson has a revelation. Having spent time with the likes of ‘Tony’ (a violent offender who faked some insanity in order to get a lighter jail term but ended up in Broadmoor) and David Shayler (the MI5 whistleblower who ‘did an Icke’ by proclaiming himself the new messiah), Ronson realises that his journalistic career has been largely spent focusing on individuals who may be a bit mad. For The Psychopath Test, he also meets people
like Robert Hare, who devised the PCL, a checklist which rates just how psychopathic a person is, and the scientologists who believe that all psychiatry is evil. All the while, Ronson frets over the checklists and ponders his own potential psychopathic tendencies. For seasoned Ronson-watchers, this is a typical treat, a semi-sinister, half-hilarious trip into the dark side, as he stumbles around upsetting his subjects with a mix of probing investigation and social faux-pas. (Brian Donaldson) 66 THE LIST 26 May–23 Jun 2011
SOCIAL DRAMA ALI SMITH There but for the (Hamish Hamilton) ●●●●●
You rarely get bombs or tornados or motorway pile-ups in Ali Smith books, but the results of inner turmoils within her characters can often be just as devastating. In There but for the, nuances, shades and intricacies stack on top of one another to reveal some valuable truths about the way we live. When Miles Garth is brought to a dinner party by a friend, he slinks off in between courses and locks himself in a spare room, refusing to emerge for weeks. Dubbed ‘Milo’ by the press, he becomes a 24-hour rolling-news sensation with growing crowds camped outside waiting for the merest glimpse of a twitched curtain. This mysterious scenario has curious knock-on effects as
we are introduced to other people’s stories. There’s May Young, an elderly widow, closing in on death amid a slow demented haze and awaiting a visit by someone she assumes will be the Grim Reaper in disguise, and ‘clever-clever’ Brooke Bayoude, a highly intelligent but truant-happy girl obsessed with the self-incarcerated man.
At the core of the book is a feeling that while our means of communications have become more sophisticated, true connections are harder to maintain. The sense that we are now out of touch with nature is heightened by the images of dead animals (shot rabbits, a dog run over and left in the middle of the road) and multiple references to all kinds of birdlife. Our physical and philosophical breakdowns are sharply satirised in this almost mystical narrative dreamed up by one of contemporary literature’s most deft and astute analysts of human nature. Another Booker nomination may well await. (Brian Donaldson)
GOTHIC THRILLER RICHARD T KELLY The Possessions of Doctor Forrest (Faber) ●●●●● Take three respected Scottish doctors, now all living comfortably in suburban London. Make one of their number suddenly disappear and you have the beginnings of a very satisfying thriller, one that owes a debt of passion to the gothic mystery traditions of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and James Hogg’s The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner; although, according to Kelly’s blog, Matthew Lewis’ The Monk and the films of David Cronenberg also cast a spell over him while writing this.
The first three-quarters of the book are made up of journals, police notes and correspondence before Kelly teasingly gives up the real story. It’s all marshalled with a real feel for pace, character and that gap where metafiction meets the gothic novel. The Possessions of Doctor Forrest is a big departure from the epic sweep of his debut novel Crusaders, but is no less impressive in its desire to reshape a genre. (Paul Dale)
HISTORICAL THRILLER BERYL BAINBRIDGE The Girl in the Polka Dot Dress (Little, Brown) ●●●●●
Beryl Bainbridge’s editor Brendan King called this final novel by the Booker-friendly author – who died of cancer in 2010 – a flawed masterpiece. And he’s right: although a final vital spark lighting the narrative’s dry tinder is never struck, Bainbridge’s prose has the unmistakable crispness of a writer in absolute command of her craft. Inspired by reports of a mysterious girl in a spotty
frock witnessed fleeing the scene of Bobby Kennedy’s assassination in 1968, like many of Bainbridge’s novels it’s a thriller based around real events. But with a very personal slant: the titular
lass Rose – a naïve English girl driven across America by her suspicious sponsor Washington Harold – was modelled on Bainbridge herself. Rose and Harold’s uneasy relationship is never satisfactorily developed, and many questions are left unanswered. But for simple elegance and foreboding ambience, this is a sign-off worthy of any author of Bainbridge’s generation. (Malcolm Jack)