review by Malcolm
From the Back Cover
Wish You Were Here is both a gripping account of things that touch and test our human core and a resonant novel about a changing England. Rich with a sense of the intimate and the local, it is also, inescapably, about a wider, afflicted world... etc.
(What a pretentious review!)
My Review
I have read two previous novels by Graham Swift: Booker prize winning Last Orders which was hard going and also about a funeral and Waterland set in the Fens which I enjoyed. I bought this one on Kindle hoping for a good read with promises of Devon farming life during the BSE and Foot and Mouth outbreaks of the 80’s and 90’s. But as one Amazon Reviewer stated “The most boring book of 2011” – but that’s only because Bill Bryson hasn’t brought one out this year! Sorry Bill!
The novel starts almost the same point it ends – Jack lying on his bed with his father’s gun loaded at his side – and not much happens in between. Jack is the son of Devon dairy farmer Michael and his wife Vera and he has an 8 year younger brother Tom. Neighbouring farmer Jimmy has a daughter Elli and is Jack’s girlfriend and later wife. Tom is obviously the apple of his dad’s eye, and probably of Jack’s too. The novel jumps all over the place in the lives of the characters but essentially, Vera dies, Tom joins the army on his 18th birthday, Michael – maybe as a consequence of Tom leaving – Ellie’s dad dies soon after and Jack and Ellie decide to sell up their farms and buy a caravan park on the Isle of Wight. Some years later they receive news that Tom has been killed by an IED in Iraq and Jack goes alone to meet the repatriated body and see that he is buried next to his parents in the churchyard near their old home. The sensitively described repatriation scene was about the only part of the book I felt that had any merit. And that’s it!
The narrative takes us over and over again about what Tom did and then what Tom did and then what Tom did next. Mainly told from Jack’s perspective – Jack seems to have been very jealous of his younger brother. And then there was Tom and the old dog. And then Tom and …..zzzzzzzzzzzz. And Jack overanalyzes the whole thing endlessly – maybe Tom had slept with Ellie, maybe Tom this and maybe Tom that - and Jack starts imagining he sees the figure of a soldier everywhere – guess who - Tom!
No! I shall not intentionally buy another Graham Swift book. It was hard going and I would have given up long ago if I hadn’t promised to review it today. Oh! Is that Tom over there?!!!!!!!!!
Review by Malcolm Martland – broadcast on Radio Scilly 107.9 FM 14 July 2011
book reviews , different studio guests each week. Join us every Thursday between 12 and 1pm on Radio Scilly 107.9fm or log on to radioscilly.com.
Missed any programmes? See below for list of guests, books and other details discussed.
Missed any programmes? See below for list of guests, books and other details discussed.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment