'In the Kitchen' by Monica Ali

Not having read Monica Ali's 'Brick Lane', I wondered to myself before opening 'In the Kitchen': what if I don't like it? Will I keep on delaying reading 'Brick Lane' for another two years? Unfortunately, the answer to this question is probably 'yes'.

'In the Kitchen' tells the story of a Gabriel Lightfoot (Gabe), the head chef at the Imperial Hotel in London. Gabe is essentially going through a mid-life crisis. He is having problems at work where he presides over a group of challenging employees. His relationship with his girlfriend, Charlie, is reaching the point where he is debating whether to ask her to marry him or not. His Father is suffering from an illness that requires him to leave behind London and go and be a source of comfort for his family in difficult times. In the long-term, Gabe wants to open up his own restaurant. In order to finance this he has gotten into bed with a soon to be ex-minister of the government and another financier.

The first criticism that I have of 'In the Kitchen' is the way that the story begins and ends. This is essentially with the death of Yuri, a Ukrainian porter at the Imperial Hotel. The death happens under curious circumstances and is therefore investigated by the police but aside from this, I am unsure what the death really adds to the story. A possible answer is that it brings Lena into Gabe's life. Lena is an eastern European girl living illegally in the UK who is connected in some way to the death of Yuri. Now in order for Gabe to get to the bottom of how Lena is connected with the death of Yuri, he apparently has to invite Lena to stay at his home. Not only that, he then embarks on a thoroughly inappropriate relationship with her whilst being deceptive towards her. Whilst at the time I had no idea where Ali was going with all this: should we judge Gabe immediately and have done with it or should we see how things continue to play out? I did opt for sticking with it and seeing it through to the end. I did hope this would prove to be worthwhile but mostly I just got what I expected and nothing more.

The foundations of a great novel are clearly visible if, like me, you are interested in contemporary novels in which the challenges faced by engaging characters are dissected along with the connected social issues involved. To be successful, though, the story and the message which is tries to get across must be well integrated. It is here where Ali, in my opinion, fails. There is no such integration; in fact, there are long sections of the novel where what the characters are saying are in fact a diatribe by the author. All the current pressing social and political issues are included in different parts. 'In the Kitchen' is a credit-crunch novel; there is the token career politician who is planning his next move after his term in Parliament ends; and of course there is a spectrum of views on immigration. It is also telling that, on all of these issues - and even after supposedly being in Gabe's head for over 400 pages - we still don't know what he thinks about each of them. There is simply no colour in him. I think the bland cover of the novel is quite telling of just how little 'well-roundedness' is on display in the novel. Especially when you compare it to the very memorable front cover of 'Brick Lane' and the colours in the title.

Despite all this, I still believe that it could be included in this year's Booker long-list. When I think of the sort of novel that could be there, I can picture an author like Ali and novel like 'In the Kitchen' being included. Being a deserving winner, however, is another matter. For that the author must surely have had to aim for perfection and in this case, I think that could reasonably be doubted.

'The Black Rock' by Amanda Smyth

Celia lives with her Aunt Tassi in Black Rock in Tobago. She grows up knowing very little about her parents. Her mother, she is told, died giving birth to her and her father, lives in England and he has never visited her. At the beginning of the novel Celia has two aims: to visit her Father in England and to make something of her life. Her school teacher, Miss McCartney, tells her: ‘You can be anything you want to be. Don’t let anyone tell you any different.’ Here enters someone who does tell her different – Roman Bartholomew who is her Aunt Tassi’s second husband. Roman rapes Celia and this causes her to flee from the Black Rock with the intent to visit her Aunt Sula. Whilst on her travels she meets William who takes an instant liking to her. Celia accepts his offer of temporary shelter at a house that he shares with his mother and brother, Solomon. Try as he does, William doesn’t get any where romantically with Celia. Instead, after agreeing to work as a maid at a local family’s house, she falls involve with the head of the family, Dr Emmanuel Rodriguez. From this point onwards the narrative gets really interesting. What is going to become of this relationship and how is this going to affect Celia are two questions at the front of the reader’s mind. Something that I began to consider two-thirds of the way through the novel is just how much of Celia’s troubles would have been avoided if she had grown up with loving parents? And then – and this was the best part for me – there are certain revelations which turn everything that I was thinking on its head. These were completely unexpected by me and, of course, so much more appreciated.

The inside cover of the novel describes Smyth’s writing as having a ‘vivid sense of the supernatural’. I have to say when I began the novel I didn’t expect this to interest me especially. Throughout the novel, it is through supernatural references that Smyth warns us that something bad is going to happen in Celia’s life. Here’s an example during a period when Celia is living with her Aunt who is seriously ill:

Later, a small brown bird flew into the house. It perched for a moment on the gramophone, then it flew to the window and settled on the ledge. It had yellow
eyes. It seemed to look right at me; and it wasn’t at all afraid. I wondered if it was a sign that my aunt would soon die.

I’m not sure I really cared for these supernatural references which just seemed to be added at particularly bleak occasions in Celia’s life without good reason. However, looking back on the novel now, these sorts of references seem more worthwhile when considering all the different places that Celia goes and the events that unfold there. In fact, it’s a way of remembering the place where Celia came from, Black Rock and the things she learnt there whilst with her Aunt Tassi. This is evident towards the end of the novel – when Celia is more mature – and she avoids eating a bowl of soup prepared by someone who doesn’t care for her that much:

Mrs Shamiel served corn soup for dinner. There were dumplings in between bits of meat and bone in the yellow liquid. I didn’t want to eat it, there was something about the soup that tasted odd. I remembered Aunt Tassi telling me how some people put human bones in their soups to make unwanted guests very sick.

In short, I thoroughly recommend this novel which remarkably is from a debut novelist. It does reward close reading and the plot does come together very nicely at the end. If you are a reader who is attracted by a writer’s ability to set a scene thoughtfully and tell a story beautifully, then this novel belongs on your To Be Read list.

'The Night Climbers' by Ivo Stourton

Did I ever tell you about my night climbing experiences? No? Well it happened like this: whilst at school I used to sneak out each Saturday night to go partying in town with my mates. Being unable to leave my house through the front door, I instead exited through the bathroom window under the cover of darkness and came out on top of the garage adjoining our house. From there things got much easier. The risk associated with my parents discovering my antics was of much excitement to me and gave me the persona of a thrill-seeker amongst my peers. But so what if my parents were to discover what I was doing? All that would happen was that I would be reprimanded and they would be more vigilant in the future to prevent such behaviour from occurring. Now transfer the above scenario to the context of being a student at Cambridge University and the reason for exiting the building through a window was solely for the thrills of being able to party on top of the building with others without being discovered. Suddenly you have so much to lose. Your life and, of course, your place at one of the most prestigious universities in the world. As if the process of being admitted to Cambridge University isn't a roller-coaster in itself, why would someone want to become a night climber and engage in such behaviour? This is the question that was going through my mind when I decided to read this book.

Ivo Stourton in his first novel, The Night Climbers tells the story of a group of five Cambridge University students who are the ultimate pleasure seekers. In addition to being grifters and expensive party-goers, they scale the university buildings at night for pleasure.

As a group, it is their disposition for thrill-seeking that makes them bond. James is the newest member of the group having just arrived at Cambridge as a new student. His entry into the group is interesting as he purposefully doesn't seek out friends himself; instead he devises a strategy of waiting to see who comes to him. The first to bite is Michael because he requires James' help during one evening of night-climbing when he is being chased by the porters at the college.

Francis - the son of Lord Soulford a Conservative Minister and another night climber - is one of the most intriguing character in the book. Lord Soulford funds not only Francis' drug habits but also the whole group's expensive way of life.

My most damning criticism of the novel is that I didn't think that Stourton managed to hold the storyline together. To write a novel about night climbing at Cambridge University should require the activity and the reason why the students engaged in it to be at the centre of the novel. Instead, night climbing just takes up one of the twenty-one chapters in the novel. There is never any clear narrative on these issues and this is exactly what would have made the story worthwhile and not just inspiration for an episode of Hustle.

Furthermore, the characters can be just so unreasonable. There is frequent references made to their behaviour - especially Francis' - and how this could lead to them being 'sent down'. Instead of compelling reasons that would make a reader want to read on, their only incentive is to help keep Francis out of trouble so that he can continue to provide them money. An example of this is the following extract which made me laugh when I got to the end of it:

As the term progressed, the old Francis showed himself less and less, and was replaced by a man with glassy eyes and unpredictable moods. Our problems grew as even Lisa's faultless management of the Cambridge system showed the strain of
his behaviour....He was breaking windows, vomiting in courts, swearing at the porters, fucking girls in the shadows of the colonnade by the staircase. Lisa kept supplying him with essays, but he simply did not bother to hand them in, and if he went to supervisions at all he turned up drunk. He was coming close to being set down.

The ending did not get much better for me, unfortunately. It was difficult to tell whether we were still dealing with thrill-seekers or just immensely stupid students after the completion of a particular business deal by the group. All becomes clearer at the end but its not really the ending you would be looking for if you opened the book, as I did, because you were particularly keen on reading about their experiences as night climbers. The answer to the question that I posed in the opening paragraph goes unanswered and this is what I found the most displeasing.

'An Equal Stillness' by Francesca Kay

The novel is a biography of the life of Jennet Mallow who is first and foremost a painter. It is through her paintings that most, if not all, of the turning points in her remarkable life come. At an art school early on in the novel, Jennet meets her future husband, David Heaton. The two get married quickly and establish lives as the royalty of the art world. Their paintings provide a substantial income for them and they are able to live part of their lives in Spain where they have their first child.

David Heaton leads a troubled life as an adulterer and an alcoholic that would cause a huge amount of grief to Jennet if she didn't have her own equally troublesome issues. Throughout the novel we are introduced to different people on the international art scene. From wealthy dealers with their own priorities to other talented artists who are far from being saints. This was one of my favourite features of the novel. There is an interesting dichotomy between the art dealers with their good business sense and these hugely talented artists who don't have an ounce of common sense. Both these groups of people significantly affect the lives of Jennet and David. But just how much they affect Jennet is what makes the book a page-turner. Jennet came from a stable family background: her father was a soldier and then a priest, she was accepted into Oxford University but her time there was short-lived because of the outbreak of a war. After finishing the book one of the pressing questions that still lingers on is whether Jennet could have enjoyed just as successful a career as an artist if she hadn't married David and become embroiled in his problems.

Francesca Kay's language is what makes the book simply outstanding for a debut novelist. There are two examples that reoccur. One is how Kay describes what Jennet is thinking at a particular time. Here's a memorable example:

She will never paint them; she knows that at the time, they are not gathered together for a portrait but for a transaction of another kind. Still, the painter in her narrows her gaze, squints to get the scene and its purpose into vision. With her painter's eyes she strips fold on fold of fabric off the men to assess the underlying structure.

The other is how Kay sets a scene using colour. Here's a taster:

Ice. Not the deep Antarctic sort, crystalline, blue-tinged, but thin ice, nothing much more than a membrane separating the water from the air. Ice that comes so suddenly it seems to seize the moment - arresting on the seashore a wave just on the point of curl, imprisoning the rising bubbles in a mountain tarn. How to show that thinness, the colourlessness full of colour, the way that ice in sunshine is both mirror and source of light? White light. Purity and danger.

I was somewhat overwhelmed that Kay managed to maintain such a high standards of writing right the way down to the last sentence of the novel. The book certainly rewards careful reading. I found myself quietly celebrating at several points in the novel. Towards the end events start happening very quickly. Several characters die systematically and there is a sort of revision (or, to put it more crudely, a repeat) of events that have already happened. However, its also at this point, that the narrator ever so slightly comes to life with the reminder that this is a biography. Perhaps, therefore, it would be wrong to criticise Kay for this sudden change in pace.

'Days of Grace' by Catherine Hall

This is the first novel by Catherine Hall and one of the titles on Waterstones' New Voices for 2009. I managed to read the novel, which is just under 300 pages, very quickly because I found it impossible to put down. If this is a taster of what the other novels by the New Voices will be like then I've got a great time ahead of me.

The novel tells the story of Nora and Grace who are teenagers when WWII begins. Nora is an evacuee from London who gets sent to live with the Rivers family in the Kent countryside. Grace is the daughter of Rivers family that takes Nora in. The novel moves between different time periods: during the war and after the war. For the period after the war, the story centres around Nora's relationships with a neighbour, Rose.

Nora and Grace strike up a friendship that is a product of the times they are living in and the people they come into contact with. This leads to unbearable consequences for both of them.

Grace is more adventurous than Nora; however, both would like nothing more than just to be in each other's company and enjoy themselves without fear. Throughout the novel they try to find a place that they both could call home but this becomes increasingly impossible to do.

Various themes run throughout the novel: faith, secrets and fear being the important ones. Nora was brought up a Roman Catholic and continuously feels that all the bad things that happen around her are a result of losing faith in her God. Secrets are abound in the Days of Grace. The Rivers' family, with whom Nora comes to stay, aren't all as pure as they seem. Strong feelings of love are hidden where it is hoped that time would make them reciprocal. Fear is never far from being felt. When its not the sirens going off signalling the next bombing raid, its the sense of what other challenges will tomorrow bring and will Nora and Grace be able to overcome them.

What makes the novel great is the way the author absorbs the reader into the plot. This is done through two principal ways: the structure of the novel (moving through different time periods) and the perfect description of the settings and what the characters are feeling. The structure allows for careful revelations of details and the descriptiveness makes the events more memorable.

I would be hard pressed to find fault with Days of Grace. What I would say, though, is that a lot of events happen in the novel that have a huge impact on the characters. Now, whilst their feelings are well detailed, I would have liked more meaning to have come out of it. This isn't really a criticism at all though as, on reflection, there is a quote by William Blake at the beginning of the novel which embodies all the meaning itself.