"Not Funny - Not Clever" by Jo Verity

“Not Funny – Not Clever” is Jo Verity’s fourth published novel and it’s an engaging read. It is essentially a character study where the feelings and emotions of the main protagonists take centre stage, rather than the plot.

It is a fairly straightforward story told as a linear narrative and describing the events of a single week in the life of Elizabeth Giles. This tightly focused timeline gives the book a satisfying structure and Verity’s deft writing allows the storyline to gently develop and gather pace.

Elizabeth has settled into a largely uneventful life. When her husband heads off to France on a cooking course she decides to visit her old school friend Diane in Cardiff. However, just as she is making plans to leave an unexpected problem arrives on her doorstep in the shape of Jordan, the teenage son of her own son’s older lover. She decides to take Jordan to Cardiff with her for the week, setting a train of events in motion which will challenge her perceptions and force her to re-evaluate her life. The catalyst for this re-evaluation is Diane’s neighbour, the charismatic TV weatherman Dafydd Jones. Elizabeth, Diane and Jordan are invited to stay at Dafydd’s parents-in-law’s holiday cottage on the Gower peninsula along with Dafydd and his two teenage daughters. In this idyllic setting Elizabeth is challenged to confront the direction her life has taken.

Jo has a great ear for dialogue and it’s the conversations she constructs for her characters which makes them authentic and convincing. She also does a superb job of balancing the various characters’ back stories with their present actions, teasing out details that provide a depth and a resonance to each of her cast. There are beautifully judged echoes between how the teenagers and the adults react to different circumstances which give the book an edgy realism.

Based in Cardiff, Jo’s books are published by the independent Welsh co-operative publishers Honno. On the strength of this novel I shall definitely be ordering Jo’s other books to add to my “must read soon” pile.