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Hawthorn And Child (2012)

by Keith Ridgway(Favorite Author)

3.43 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

1847087418 (ISBN13: 9781847087416)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Granta Books

review 1: Lance Cleland (Workshop Director): I was tempted to select Keith Ridgeway’s Hawthorn & Child as my favorite story collection of the year, but as the good folks over at New Directions have called it a novel, I will abide. Ostensibly a detective story that centers on those that commit and solve the crimes of north London, Ridgeway is less concerned with the solutions of investigations but rather in what those investigations reveal about the communities involved. Our lead detectives for whom the novel is named float in and out throughout the ten or so “cases” presented, with the melancholy and increasingly unreliable Hawthorn as our guide through the criminal mist. As a protagonist, if you will allow me to stretch the meaning of the word, Hawthorn is one of the most mem... moreorable and compelling characters I have encountered in recent years. Openly gay and forced to endure a constant barrage of jokes from family and colleagues alike, the strain of the personal and professional takes a toll on Hawthorn as the book progresses, eventually calling into question whether or not what we are reading is nothing more than lucid dream from a broken man. In one of the most memorable sequences of the novel, we are given alternating memories of a group sex encounter Hawthorn had at a gay sauna, a family gathering, and his participation in a crackdown of a demonstration. While none of these memories necessarily pertain to the case at hand, they allow the reader to better understand the lens in which Hawthorn views his job. Despite (or maybe because of) Ridgeway’s channeling of classic noir language and tone, Hawthorn and Child is a surprisingly moving novel, full of emotionally powerful fragments that chisel into your memory. And while some readers might find the lack of a traditional narrative nothing more than a clever parlor trick, I found the innovative way it plays against the conventions of genre to be both effective and unlike anything else I read all year.
review 2: I inhaled this book in two sittings. Almost impossible to describe - it's a book of fragmentary, incomplete (but connected by the titular characters) mysteries or detective stories. Reminiscent of Paul Auster's New York Trilogy in that respect, I suppose. One of the best books I've read this year, and it feels like it could only improve in the re-reading. Brilliant, odd and exhilarating - highly recommended. less

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