Serpent's Tail
Phillip Tennent makes his living at the tideline, collecting artefacts that wash up from the Channel. It's been years since the crisis changed everything, but its exact nature remains obscured. Government barely functions, the seas are full of new creatures, Europe has been mislaid. It feels like the end.
Now Phillip has fished out of the water an object he can't keep. A creature that keeps changing. An artefact he must take inland, before it destroys everything he thinks he knows.
I've only ever read a couple of things by Harrison but have been equal parts bemused and besotted by them and this newest Booker Prize shortlisted novel continues that noble tradition.
On the beach, in a post breakdown Britain, Phillip fishes an 'artefact' from the sea, unwilling to dispose of it he embarks on a journey through a disjointed land that feels achingly familiar but entirely lost and unlikely. Meanwhile, on her own journey is his aunt, the fabulously callous, Marnie, in equal parts searching and escaping, moving in parallel and then tandem with Philip and the artefact as it slowly assimilates itself.
It's a brilliantly befuddling read which, perhaps, offers a commentary on contemporary fears over immigration and loss of cultural identity. It holds a kinship with the likes of J.G. Ballard at his apocalyptic best and with contemporary books such as Rebecca Gransden's stunning 'Figures Crossing the Field Towards the Group'.
It is, I think, a book that will polarise utterly and I imagine few who read it will be tepid in their opinions. Personally, I thought it to be bonkers and brilliant but equally I was pleased to leave that broken world behind.
..........................................................................................
If you enjoy what we do here on Wyrd Britain and would like to help us continue then we would very much welcome a donation towards keeping the blog going - paypal.me/wyrdbritain
No comments:
Post a Comment