Goodnight Steve McQueen by Louise Wener

I have been reading a number of first novels recently and decided to read Louise Wener’s debut, “Goodnight, Steve McQueen” even though it dates back to 2002. I am so glad that I did; I think I enjoyed it more than any other novel I’ve read over the past year.

The quality of the writing is outstanding, and Wener skilfully creates a really entertaining set of characters with distinctive voices. She writes in the first person through the eyes of Danny McQueen, a 29 year old who has spent his life dreaming of rock stardom. He is given an ultimatum by his long-suffering girlfriend; make something of his life by the end of the year or find a new girlfriend.

The novel has been compared to Nick Hornby’s “High Fidelity” and to my mind that’s a reasonable parallel. Wener has a similar ear for both for dialogue and for comedy, and I read the book in virtually a single sitting with a huge grin on my face.

I particularly liked Wener’s minor characters, such as Danny’s bandmate Vince and his obsessions with Kevin Rowland and finding the perfect transitional shoe. Matty the drummer is another beautifully observed portrait, painfully accurate and stopping just short of caricature.

In reading various reviews of the book I was astonished by the amount of bile and bitterness aimed at Wener, which on the strength of this debut seems completely unfair. Even the endorsement section at the front of the paperback edition starts with a quote from The Scotsman “She can actually write”, which is pretty demeaning. If anyone wants proof of the power of her writing they should read “What’s wrong with being a mother?” a piece that she wrote for The Guardian in 2006 which moved me to tears.

The Dinner by Anna Davis

I have been reading a number of debut novels recently. Although “The Dinner” was originally published back in 1999 I found Anna Davis’s debut to be an acerbic treat. The events of the novel take place during the course [or courses] of one suburban dinner-party, which slowly and spectacularly descends into a surreal nightmare reminiscent of a Hieronymus Bosch painting.

The four couples at the dinner party each have a host of dark secrets which slowly surface, as they try to deal with an unbalanced and unexpected ninth guest whose unsettling presence triggers the unravelling of their respective lives.

I was impressed by the way that Davis handles her cast and creates sufficient differentiation between the characters to enable the reader to mentally hold them without confusing the couples and their personalities. Davis’s writing is at times as precise as a surgeon’s blade, and she creates painfully accurate portraits of her unlikeable cast with their competitive point-scoring and manipulative strategies.

As I was reading I kept sensing a number of resonances. The first was Mike Leigh’s 1977 play “Abigail’s Party” with the wonderful Alison Steadman. This painful study of middle-class manners kept echoing through my head as Davis slowly unfolded her plot. The other resonance was an obscure Danish film called “Babette’s Feast” written and directed by Gabriel Axel from a story by Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen). The vivid descriptions of the food that Davis creates reminded me of the banquet sequence in the movie, particularly in the clever use of colour imagery.

Davis has created a cast of unlovable characters, and one of my problems with the early part of the novel was the lack of empathy that I felt towards any of the main nine characters. However I think it is a testament to her skill as a writer that by the end of the novel I felt far more sympathy with each of the characters; they may still have been horrible people, yet I found myself hoping for some sense of redemption for each of them.

The tightly focused time-frame of the book creates a wonderfully compressed sense of tension, which Davis alleviates with some deft flashbacks to balance the metronomic chronology.

As a debut novel this is an extraordinarily accomplished piece of work. However if I were the author I would have been incensed by the publishers including a quote on the book jacket from Attitude Magazine: “A stunning off-the-shoulder debut in suicide red”, which seems to me to be a spoiler of monumental proportions.

"The SilentWife" by A.S.A. Harrison

Susan Harrison’s debut novel is a stunning achievement. Her story is told in alternate viewpoints between the two main protagonists, who are both damaged products of their environment and upbringing. Her focus is firmly upon character and motivation, analysing the psychology of each party and trying to determine their impulses and motives.

In some senses it’s difficult to achieve a critical distance from the book knowing that Harrison died shortly before publication. Any criticism, however minor, sounds like ill-will, given that she cannot defend herself. However, to my mind in some instances the book felt just a little over-written; with the psychological discursions obscuring the plot rather than advancing it, but perhaps this had been her intention.

She herself described the work as “a study of two people at the limits of their ability to cope”, and for me where the novel works best is documenting the discreet retaliations that Jodi employs to keep the grievances in check that she feels towards her philandering partner. I particularly enjoyed the way that Harrison chose to make the two main characters fairly passive in their approach, with neither being particularly likeable at times, hence the title of the novel.

Many reviewers seem to want to compare the novel to Gillian Flynn’s “Gone Girl” but to me that seems a lazy comparison. The two books are fundamentally very different, and this felt darker, more calculated, somehow more real. The real loss is Harrison herself, and as a reader I feel an overwhelming sense of sadness that this powerful debut will also need to serve as her epitaph.

"Doctor Sleep" by Stephen King

I haven’t posted any reviews on my blog for quite a while as I have been working hard on my debut novel, “Ilona”. I’ve still been constantly reading throughout this time, but I thought it was high time that I started up the blog post again [New Year resolutions etc.].

I re-read “The Shining” late last year and found that it was even better than I remembered. It was one of the books that first made me want to write, along with Alan Garner’s The Owl Service and Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird”. I initially read “The Shining” back in 1978 when it was first released in paperback. I had pre-ordered it from Webster’s Bookshop in Dorking, having already devoured both “Carrie” and “Salem’s Lot”, and I was so excited to get my hands on a copy on its release. I read it the weekend I got it, finishing it breathless and exhausted in the middle of the night.

To me it was just the perfect novel and I was so disappointed when I saw the Kubrick movie which seemed to lose the essence of King’s intent that Jack Torrance was essentially a good man tormented by inner demons. Jack Nicholson was great in the film but seemed too dark and unhinged from the outset. However I felt that King’s story-telling had reached its peak with Danny, particularly his ability to make you feel the fear through a child’s eyes.  His minor characters were well-written too, particularly Wendy Torrance, Dick Halloran and even Lloyd the bartender.

So I had mixed feelings when I initially picked up “Doctor Sleep”, the first being why revisit something that was about as close to perfect as you could get? When I first started reading the novel it took me a while to re-adjust to Danny as an adult, and initially I found the scenes with the True  Knot a bit gratuitously violent, if I’m honest. However, I think I was wrong. I should learn to trust him.

As usual by about half-way through King had me gripped by the throat, and the pages flew by as I became absorbed in the story. I was transported back to how I felt when I first read “The Stand” and “It”…immersed in his imagination. In “Doctor Sleep” King has fleshed out an utterly convincing cast of characters, from the main protagonists to the minor supporting roles. If I’m being particularly critical I personally would have welcomed more page space being devoted to a few of the supporting characters, particularly Snakebite Andi and The Crow. However, tonally King creates a balanced blend between the warmth of the protagonists and the death-rattling chill of the enemy, the True Knot.

Many reviewers seem to want to compare the novel back to “The Shining” which I suppose is an obvious but ultimately lazy comparison. They are totally different books, written as King himself acknowledges in his Afterword at totally different points in the arc of his career. To my mind “Doctor Sleep” is a far more thoughtful book which worms its way into your psyche rather than going for the proverbial jugular.

In King’s universe things have a way of unravelling, often spectacularly and nearly always with raw and savage consequences. Without revealing any spoilers the final unravelling of the True Knot involves delicious twists and snarls and King delivers a fierce and final sense of closure.

So is it a story worth revisiting? You bet. As Roger Waters once said:- “Shine on….”