The first of the books I had highlighted as a must-read for 2024 was very nearly my first five star rating of the year. Jon Ransom won the Polari First Novel Prize for his debut "The Whale Tattoo" (2022) which I really enjoyed giving it four stars and describing it as "dark, raw and relentlessly gritty." This offers more of the same and I think I liked it even more.
Eli is a young man living with his aunt in Norfolk in 1952. His mother disappeared following a flood in the area, which did not spread to the land Eli's family live on. Because of this, local residents think the fields are cursed and respond by acts of hooliganism towards the property. Eli's aunt allows Jimmy, whose family work the merry-go-round at fairs (the gallopers) to stay in their barn and Eli finds himself becoming obsessed.
There's real intensity here- the first half of the novel takes place during a heatwave and as emotions simmer it reminded me of the Southern American work of authors such as William Faulkner and Tennessee Williams and I found myself having to remind myself that this was early 1950s Britain. There is a sense of detachment from the characters which does feel very English, however, and which steers clear of the melodrama we might associate from the American authors. It moves well, I read it quickly and it exerts an enigmatic power which I enjoyed. What had really appealed to me when I first heard about the book was that it was offering a spread in time and would move forward thirty years to London at the time of AIDS. In the end this was the element of the novel which stopped me from reaching for my five stars.
This change of time setting is reflected by the beginning of the script of a play written by the main character which retreads some of the events from a more modern perspective. It isn't a very long section but it does not work as far as I am concerned and I couldn't see its relevance. It seems an odd stylistic choice and now I'm very aware that Paul Murray's "The Bee Sting" also saw the author making odd choices and that ended up as my current Book Of The Year but here I'm just puzzled. It breaks the flow of an involving plot and the book is not long enough to require a break from the main narrative thread and it seems to have been done for reasons I can't fathom.
Putting that aside there's much to impress here, more disappearances, hypocrisy, lives lived by rules and a self-loathing lead character offended by his "sissy-sounding voice" who puts his family's problems down to his inability to fit into the working-class male environment of 1950s Norfolk. This made for a gusty and at times grubby read as well as exerting an almost elemental power especially with Eli's relationships with the female characters. I would be interested in other perspectives from readers concerning the more modern section.
The Gallopers is published on 25th January 2024 by Muswell Press. Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the advance review copy.
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