Rupert Thomson

The premise of this novel is that a nation hopelessly divided by internecine strife, presumably the UK, divides itself into four nations, whose inhabitants are assigned to one of them according to a psychological profile based upon the four medieval physiological humors. Intercourse between the nations is strictly controlled, save for a group which the authorities believe defy classification. Called Achromatics, they constitute a sort of Dalit class; harassed and despised, they live on the show more margins but have the right to travel between the nations. That's one impressive premise and the author delivers in spades. His protagonist is a civil servant who has been removed from his parents as a child and assigned to the sanguine nation, but who develops a wanderlust whilst attending a conference in the phlegmatic nation, instilled in him by visits to a sort of virtual reality site therein which allows him to revisit the most idyllic moments of his life. However, exigency intrudes, and he finds himself forced into an odyssey which sends him on a wander through all four nations, sometimes in the company of Achromatics. The book is a surreal picaresque delight throughout its ramblings, somehow extremely believable amidst all the magic realism.. show less

I read ‘Never Anyone But You’ during a bout of insomnia and subsequent fug of sleep deprivation. I’ve got a pretty good instinct for insomnia reading and this was well suited to the purpose. (Now I kind of want to write a taxonomy of what’s best to read while experiencing different types of insomnia, but that’s just the tiredness talking.) Thomson’s writing style is elegant, cool, and somehow distant, unusually so for a first person narrative. The plot centres on the four-decade show more love story of two women in the early part of the twentieth century. Initially they live together in Paris and mix with artists, surrealists, and the demi-monde, before moving to the island of Jersey where they see out the Second World War. Although the pre-war chapters are atmospheric and evocative, it is the war years that really bring out the character voices and dramatic tension. This part stands out as the clear highlight of the book. Indeed, it could easily have been extended and earlier material reduced. The war’s legacy in Jersey is also beautifully delineated in a few simple scenes, which impressed me. I doubt this was intended as a War Novel, though. It’s a story of love and art, meditative in tone.

Given aforementioned coolness and distance, I would perhaps have found the love story a little lifeless had it not been for the excellent, nuanced portrayal of mental illness. I found the parade of surrealists much less interesting and visceral than Lucie’s struggles with her mind, seen through the eyes of her partner. Perhaps as a result, I felt slightly uncomfortable upon remembering that Lucile and Suzanne are fictionalised real people. ‘Never Anyone But You’ makes their life together compelling, yet gives it a novelistic veil that I’d be loath to rip off by reading non-fiction about them. Odd how that sometimes happens. show less

A trio of connected narratives. In the first, an English woman living in Barcelona has an affair with a male sex worker half her age. The second is a dissolving, dissociated, dive into the addled consciousness of a self-destructive alcoholic pianist that brings to mind the disorienting strangeness of The Insult. The third is a hallucinatory tale about an unearthly carpentry shop told by a lovelorn translator that has kind of Dead of Night vibe. Thomson is such an outstanding, unsettling writer.

Katherine "Kit" Carlyle is 19, still mourning the death of her mother and resenting her absentee father. An IVF baby, she's haunted by the 8 years she spent as a frozen embryo. Instead of heading off to college at Oxford, she's "experimenting with coincidence," following happenstance clues to her future. Her odyssey will take her to Berlin and on to Russia and the frozen north. The wrap-up is a little disappointing, but the trip is a lovely, eerie, elegant ride.