Figures Crossing the Field Towards the Group

Rebecca Gransden
The Tangerine Press

A pilgrimage. An England in delirium.

In the midst of an apocalyptic event of unknown provenance – a mass of red spreading north from the southern counties – a young girl sets out on a journey. Along the way she encounters a series of eccentric characters, the few left behind in the wake of a widespread evacuation. Some of these individuals are ravaged and on the edge of death, while others are immersed in their own hermetic practices, be they solipsistic, nihilistic, or otherwise. None wish to engage for more than the brief time necessary to offer their meagre assistance

Rebecca contacted me recently with regard to her book and a read of the synopsis alongside a glowing review from Iain Sinclair -  ‘Linguistically inventive, alert in every sense, and propelled with such narrative force that hairs burn on the unsuspecting reader's neck.'  - was all I needed to avail myself of a copy.

A post-apocalyptic novella that accompanies 'Flo' on her journey across an emptied land, its inhabitants having fled the unknown apocalypse spreading from the south.  It's effects on those who've remained are as profound as they are bizarre but it's most obvious impact is the altering of the written word, reducing it to single syllables, a deconstruction of language that gives the book the deeply lyrical character of Beat or Jazz poetry as the words fracture and tangle, tumbling over each other to create a delerious, occasionally nightmarish, vision of a land stripped of cohesion, slowly degenerating, reducing itelf to a primordial state.

At first look, this broken narrative felt daunting, an obstacle placed directly in the reader's path, but by the third page, it became the novellas' strongest feature, one that immerses rather than repels, given Flo's journey the character of her name.  There were moments that didn't necessarily work for me  - the chapter titled 'Public Information Dreams' seemed purposeless - and the enigma of the ending will,  I suspect, frustrate as many people as it enthralls but, and I say this unreservedly, I adored this book to the point that I'm certain I'll revisit this decaying world again soon and rejoin Flo on her search.

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