This book's appeal led me to making it one of my 2024 potential highlights in my Looking Forward post as the start of the year. (I've now read 90% of these). This is a debut novel from an American writer for which there was a five-way auction for publishing rights. So, lots of buzz around this title and on this occasion this is totally justified.
It feels like I've read a fair share of grimy romances with outsiders as the lead characters recently with "Young Mungo", "Juno Loves Legs" and "True Love" springing to mind but this offers an American perspective. There's less poverty than in the British books I've mentioned but even more drugs and booze which fuels these characters.
We first meet Davy aged 15 due to spend a summer with his Dad in the New Hampshire home he'd once lived in with this mother. Socially awkward, Davy thinks he can only survive this by being continually high. His father has other ideas and insists Davy takes a job.
In a hardware store a considerable bike ride away from home Davy reinvents himself as Theron when he meets kindred spirit Jake, who is the person Theron both wants and wants to be. This begins a two decade relationship clash structured around three car crashes (considering how intoxicated they are much of the time when driving it's amazing there weren't more!).
These young men are struggling and Theron is pulled magnetically towards others who struggle too. We find out about Lou at the very beginning, a support for Theron but she is equally on the edge. The mental health aspects of this remind me of another British book I rated very highly last year "Small Joys" by Elvin James Mensah and all these echoes suggest this book is very much of the moment.
I think the narrative (first person by Theron throughout) is beautifully shaped. There is the right balance of times with Jake and times without him to appreciate the effect he has on Theron who attempts to keep his life plodding on when he is not around. But is Jake, an enigmatic character throughout, doing the same?
This is a powerful bisexual romance novel which is intense, often queasy and especially unhealthy and which really drew me in. I have nothing in common with these characters but they still felt believable and convincing and I was involved with their lives, another achievement from the author where reader unfamiliarity can so often create distance. There have been some debuts this year that have been equally hyped that, although very strong, didn't quite live up to my five star expectations. This does.
"Anyone's Ghost" is published by Picador in the UK on 11th July 2024. Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the advance review copy.
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