Oh, this is such a sharply, darkly funny book, very keenly observed and knowing, merciless in its use of pen-as-scalpel!
Kate Clanchy's Meeting the English is a comedy of manners set in London's Hampstead during the hot summer of 1989. When famous Welsh playwright Phillip Prys has a stroke, his self-centred, ineffectual family want little to do with his care, preferring to make Phillip's illness suit their own ends. They advertise for someone to look after him, a living-in position with modest pay, and they hire Struan Robertson, a school-leaver from the small Scottish town of Cuik, to do the job. To Struan, England is a foreign country and they definitely 'do things differently there'. He's an innocent abroad as far as the bohemian Hampstead household is concerned, but he's also a resourceful young man, a brilliant scholar well-acquainted with the work of the literary lion he's been hired to look after, and his upbringing as carer to his late father, in a mining town hit by the decline of that industry, gives him a clear-sighted albeit puzzled view of the strange ways of the people he has come to live among.
The Prys extended family includes current, 'trophy' wife, Iranian artist Shirin, feckless daughter Juliet, interfering former wife, Myfanwy - an actress turned property developer, arrogant son Jake, and Phillip's literary agent Giles. With Struan's presence, each person's life will gradually be altered, and in turn, their influence on the kind-hearted young Scot will be felt, too. Great is the transformation and opportunity for re-invention, as outer identities are discarded to reveal truer inner selves.
Kate Clanchy is a poet and a playwright, and that background is obvious from her wonderfully limber way with words and the dramatic pulse which she gives to the book as a whole. Her period references to the life and times of 1989 add colour and flavour - clear and vivid and often mouth-puckeringly astringent; I imagine she had great fun writing the book.
The novel reminded me in some ways of Harriet Lane's Alys, Always (there's a post on it here) which is very different in tone and mood, but which similarly employs the device of an outsider coming into a world which would otherwise be closed to them, and which is also set in literary London; they would make interesting and contrasting companion reading.
As with Harriet's book, Kate's is full of terrific lines, many of them running jokes or so much of a piece with their scenes that quoting them in isolation would be to lessen their effect, but there are many real gems in this irreverent, witty, clever novel, which in comic form explores and questions stereotypes, whether based on nationality and class or mere artifice.
OOH! Can't wait to read this! Sounds just up my street.
Posted by: adele geras | 03 June 2013 at 02:59 PM
It's fun, and Struan's great!
Posted by: Cornflower | 03 June 2013 at 03:04 PM
Yes, it was fun to write, but I did worry, as I giggled in my writing hut, if other people would get my jokes. You have - and 'get' the rest of the book too. Thank you so much for such a wonderful, thoughtful, review
Posted by: Kate Clanchy | 04 June 2013 at 03:17 PM
Thank you, Kate, it was a great pleasure to read.
Posted by: Cornflower | 04 June 2013 at 03:26 PM
This sounds so good.
Posted by: Mystica Varathapalan | 04 June 2013 at 11:17 PM
Cornflower, I have been trying to catch up with your posts and was quite taken with this look at "Meeting the English." I hope you don't mind, but I mentioned it and linked to it from Belle, Book, and Candle on 8 June. Looks like a wonderful story. Thanks.
Posted by: Belle | 10 June 2013 at 10:10 PM
Delighted, Belle.
Posted by: Cornflower | 20 June 2013 at 09:18 PM