Hot Stew has been featured in National Book Tokens' 21 books to look out for in 2021 article on Caboodle.

"Agatha considers this half of the exhibition to be bland, predictable. The themes illuminated by the photographs draw upon standard modes of leftist disaffection. The usual moaning. Perhaps these people think they’re being very clever, but as far as Agatha is concerned, the work is derivative."

Hot Stew is the second novel from the previously Booker shortlisted Fiona Mozley. It begins with a history of Soho, showcasing the many changes over the centuries, which concludes:

"Trade and commerce and common sense and common decency prevailed, and men and women availed themselves of all opportunities. New roads were laid; office blocks shot up. And luxury flats stood on crumbling slums like shining false teeth on rotten gums."

This could have set the scene for a novel about a brave property developer helping to bring the area into the 21st century, and tackle climate change into the bargain by improving energy efficiency, but instead this is a novel where the property developer is cartoonishly evil, and the 'heroes' are on the other side, lamenting the replacement of bulbs with LEDs or praising houses that leak heat:

"The building stood on this street when Samuel Pepys walked along it. Or, if not Samuel Pepys, then never-bored Samuel Johnson. The floors are warped from years of use, so dropped pencils roll from one side to the other. The door frames are tilted, and, rather than having been mended or propped up, the doors have been shaved and sanded to the new shape. The windows are single glazed and the wooden window frames are chipped and draughty. In winter, wind sneaks through."

In a TLS interview after her first novel, Mozley said, in response to what defined good literature the following, which set off double alarm bells in my mind.

"Innovation is overrated. Our obsession with innovation – literary or otherwise – is part of the capitalist project."

And the implied politics (it's the sort of novel where characters argue that “volunteering denigrates the value of labour and that charities prop up capitalism”) are very present here, as well as a novel that certainly doesn’t attempt to push literary boundaries, with lines like:

"The pressures of finals got to them both, and they were ‘on a break’, like Ross and Rachel from Friends."

and

"She turns the camera over in her hands and presses some buttons on the back. Lorenzo and Robert hear a beeping sound and assume the photos have been deleted."

In the same interview when asked what she found it most difficult to write about the author replied “sex, both explicitly and implicitly” and indeed one scene in this novel has already set a high bar for the Literary Review’s Bad Sex awards.

It is a novel that two of my other Goodreads friends have highlighted as “fun” to read, but I’m afraid I found rather tedious.

Thanks to the publisher via Netgalley for the ARC, but this was very disappointing for me.

1.5 stars

After her debut novel “Elmet” was unexpectedly but deservedly longlisted for the 2017 Booker Prize – the author was asked by the Booker Prize website what she was working on next and answered

“Another novel. It contains similar themes to Elmet – property, ownership, gentrification - but the setting and characters are very different. It also has many voices, so there has been a stylistic shift too”

In a TLS 20-question interview after her shortlisting, when asked what subject she found it most challenging to write about and answered

"Sex, both explicitly and implicitly. Sex doesn’t feature in Elmet but it also appears on every page. It’s something I struggle to write about though, both through prudishness and because it presents such a complex confluence of physicality, emotion and politics. You cannot write about the politics of sex without capturing the physical and emotional elements. Equally, you cannot describe the physical activity (or activities) without drawing on the social context or the power-dynamics that are present in any sexual encounter. At least, I’m not sure you can write about sex well without considering all those aspects."

This, her sophomore novel, is the novel that is referred to in her Booker interview – and also one that takes head on the challenge of the TLS interview (not I would say always successfully – one sexual scene would be far better excised from the book I think).

The book is set in 21st Century Soho – and features a Dickensian number of people connected to a building and pub (the Aphra Behn) there – as a cross-section, and non-too-subtle examination of trends in London life. I was reminded a little of John Lanchester’s “Capital” in that respect.

The cast includes:

- Precious (daughter of a Nigerian pastor, now a sex worker) and her companion and “Maid” Tabitha who live on the top floor and roof garden of the building – and various other sex workers who rent rooms in the same building

- Agatha – the ruthless last born daughter of a local gangster via her Russian mother Anastasia – who has inherited (to the disgust of his middle daughters) and now manages his extensive property portfolio – including the building which she wants to redevelop into luxury flats and restaurants (leading to a protest by the sex workers that is a reminder of the rent strikes in “Elmet”) . Her minder is her Father’s ex-driver and right hand man Roster, and her companion a borzoi dog Fodor

- Bastian – the Cambridge educated son of Agatha’s lawyer (his girlfriend Rebecca, ex-flame Laura)

- Robert – a one time enforcer for Agatha’s father via (hard not to be reminded of Mr Price and Daddy) now a customer of the sex workers and drinker at the Aphra Bern

- Lorenzo an aspiring actor who ends up playing a Brothel owner in a Game of Thrones rip-off – and who is a friend of Robert as well as of Glenda – Laura’s best friend now squatting above the pub

- A group of down and outs who occupy a basement and who include The Archbishop as well as a man nicknamed Paul Daniels (as her performs magic tricks for small tips) and his sidekick (inevitably Debbie McGee).

As an aside their introduction in the second chapter made me wonder if the novel should be set in (Mrs) Merton rather than Soho ……

- A suburbs-based policeworker concerned with a rise in Missing People and possible sex trafficking (who fixes on the case of Debbie McGee) and her boss who has designs on a run for the Mayor and on any funding that Agatha can provide for his ambitions

- Not to forget a snail ….

As an aside Aphra Behn was (in real life) a Restoration playwright – who (per Wikipedia) was groundbreaking for being one of the first English women to earn her living by writing – and both the challenges for women to earn a living and the idea of groundbreaking are rather key to the novel.

Because as well as a book about buildings and about property rights and the history and evolution of an area – this is also a book about what goes on below ground – as both Crossrail and the ultra-rich tendency towards basement cinema/swimming pools feature in the book. And there are frequent references to earth/dirt – for example we are told (of Fedor as he sniffs the soil) that “Through its nose, a dog deals with history”, the one section in the suburbs contrasts the good dirt (soil, compost, organic matter) there with the grime and residue that is the dirt of Soho.

My review from Elmet containts a quote “The soil was alive with ruptured stories that cascaded and rotted then found form once more and pushed up through the undergrowth and back into our lives.” – and this actually serves to capture one of the key parts of the novel – and in particular one of its more fantastical element as (just like “Elmet” this is a book with an almost fairy tale and rather implausible element to it – as well as one with a rather black and white, hero/villain view of capitalism.

And similarly to “Elmet” the book ends with a property based show down which turns rather apocalyptical.

Nevertheless (and perhaps in contrast to “Elmet”) it is fun to read – if anything too expansive (some story lines and characters seem largely incidental) compared to the almost claustrophobic “Elmet” .

So given one of the characters – my overall conclusion for literary fiction fans rather writes itself

"You’ll like this .... Not a lot, but you’ll like it."