A Great Literary Novel

Rating:
3 out of 5 stars

Summary:
It’s very difficult to summarise this novel, because there’s so much that happens within the plot. To begin with the first part, the story follows Richard, a British film producer, and his fairly lonely life with his only friend Paddy, an Irish script writer. They had a great friendship in which they shared a lot of serious topics, but also less serious topics and they were also close colleagues that often made films together. In the novel, we follow the two and see that Paddy eventually gets ill and dies. The main storyline is Richard on a train-station platform in Inverness, seeking for something unknown.

Another storyline is the one where Florence and Britt are travelling together to Scotland, to a place of which Florence had a postcard. The two don’t actually know each other at first, but they get to know each other somewhat on the train, even though Florence doesn’t reveal anything of her private life. This part is written from Britt’s perspective, so the reader doesn’t get to know anything from Florence’s perspective as well.

Throughout the story, important themes of contemporary UK and Britain are interwoven. Things such as Brexit and the war between Ireland and Northern Ireland. These themes are discussed within the two storylines mentioned above and in chapters that are apart from the storylines.

Writing style & form:
I liked how the story was divided. There were three parts in the novel: 1 focused on Richard and Paddy, 1 focused on Britt and Florence and 1 at the end in which the two storylines came together. This way, the storylines tie in with each other nicely and they are actually working towards each other.

Moreover, I liked the way in which Ali complicated the story by using multiple narrative techniques, perspectives and just generally different structures.

Plot:
I read this novel for my class ‘Introduction to Literary Studies’ and I read it twice, but I still don’t really know what to think of it. I suppose it’s a great novel for this class, due to the many many different literary techniques Smith uses – so many that I can’t name them all – and due to the fairly easy language and style of writing that is used.

However, I just don’t really see the point of the plot. It’s not a difficult story and the storyline is clear, but the aim of the story is not clear at all. Why would they all go to Scotland? I get that Florence wants to go, but why does Britt go with her? And why does Richard go there and not to Ireland to mourn his best friend?
Why are Richard’s, Paddy’s and Britt’s lives explained, but don’t we know anything about Florence?
I just have many questions after reading the book, more questions than the ones the novel answered during the reading.

I feel as if the focus was more on the literary techniques, the larger themes and the topics open for discussion, and they are all really well implemented. However, the plot just wasn’t it for me, very confusing and unclear.

What I did, however, really like, was the fact that more and more details became clear during the second time I read it. This is one of those novels that you could keep on reading and keep on discovering new ideas, metaphors, themes, etc. and I really really appreciate that. Not just everyone can write a novel like that.

Conclusion:
It’s a nice read for a literary geek that wants to unravel all of the technical details of a story, but the story itself was vague and unclear. I don’t understand the aim and I don’t understand the choice for Scotland as opposed to Ireland. I did have a lot of fun talking about the novel and its complexity during my classes, but this is no novel for me to just read for fun.