I have neglected this blog for a good few weeks/months. Lord knows what you’ve all been doing to keep yourselves entertained. Anyway, I thought the best way to get back into this is to write about what I’ve been reading in recent weeks (this is primarily a books blog, after all).
Wild Abandon by Joe Dunthorne
As readers of this blog will know, I am a huge fan of Joe Dunthorne’s first book Submarine. And hopefully that’ll be the last time I have to mention it in this little round-up. Because, again as many will know, in the years between his two books, Dunthorne’s first novel was made into a film. I always try to read a book as a singular piece of work, regardless of the author’s reputation and prior work. But this can be hard, and after an impressive debut which subsequently became a film, the expectation on Joe Dunthorne to come up with something every bit as good as, or indeed better than, Submarine was pretty high. So let’s just take this one as it is.
Wild Abandon is ostensibly a family story, albeit with a pretty abnormal family at its centre (I know all families are abnormal, but this one more so).
They live on a commune in Wales, which though once vibrant and thriving, has in recent years lost many of its members and fallen on harder times. Simultaneously the family at the centre of the commune is beginning to fall apart. Parents Freya and Don are drifting apart, daughter Kate begins to long for the suburbs and a life away from the commune, and son Albert is preparing for the end of the world. It is a small family with each member pulling in a different direction, having spent years living in a way that requires cooperation and a shared mindset. Also present is Patrick, who set up the commune with Freya and Don years previously, and is quite fed up with his erstwhile friend. Over the course of the novel each of the central characters moves in his or her chosen direction, preparing either for university, singledom or the apocalypse, before they reconvene finally for a rave at the commune.
As with all good books about family, there is the sense that each member is a little screwed up and that they are all rebelling against one another in some way. I became fond and frustrated with them all in equal measure, in what is a very funny book that gains as much of its humour from well-observed cultural references as it does the story itself.
Great House by Nicole Krauss
Wow.
This was bloody brilliant.
No, honestly. Absolutely bloody brilliant.
I am not often completely bowled over by a novel. It happens usually once or twice a year. The last was Lorrie Moore’s A Gate at the Stairs. But I’m a massive Lorrie Moore fan, so that was always bound to happen. This one came right out of the blue (or, more accurately, a recommendation).
Great House is a beautiful, sweeping novel, made up of three intertwining stories – the common threads between them being loss, love, death and, strangely, a desk. However, though the story itself is engrossing and brilliantly imaginative, I loved this book just as much for the beauty of the writing. Some of Krauss’ sentences made me stop mid-page, look away from the book and into the vague direction of the person sitting opposite me on the train, to consider the majesty of the written word. Yes, I thought it was that good.
Bed by David Whitehouse
Bought this in a charidee shop for £1.99. And it was a brand-spanking edition. Some crazy-ass must have dumped it there (or a publishing so-and-so was clearing out their flat). Either way, their loss, my gain.
This is a debut by a British writer, so I am naturally predisposed to think highly of it. Lucky then that it’s quite good.
It is the story of Malcolm Ede who, tired of the real world and the constant expectations and obligations it forces upon people, climbs into bed and refuses to get up. Over the years, which are tracked by a digital wall clock, he puts on a few pounds (100 stone to be exact) and in the process pulls his family apart.
Despite Malcolm being the focal point the novel is narrated by his brother, who sufferings in love and life are due in no small part to what he perceives to be Mal’s selfishness. Eventually circumstances conspire to push the two brothers closer together as Whitehouse explores notions of depression, blame, regret and the idea of a happy life.
Despite weighing in (ha! Get it?) at almost 300 pages I got through this very quickly. It’s quite fragmented, with short chapters making it easy for the author to jump between times and places without warning and then back again. All things considered Bed is an impressive debut which is at times sad, funny, surreal and believable. I look forward to reading more from David Whitehouse.
So there we have it. Enjoy the continuation of autumn, which I believe started mid-way through July, stopped for a while for more summer, and now is in full flow. As such I am re-reading The Secret History, which is blates the best book for the season.
