The Porpoise

For those who know me, know I love a readalong. In this instance, I mean an instagram-readalong; a dark-social book club, if you will. Tandem Collective UK run them for the majority of the publishing houses in the UK, so when they asked me to read The Porpoise by Mark Haddon, I was more than happy.
I’d only ever read one book by Mark Haddon before and that was The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, which is very, very different from The Porpoise. However, I would say they’re both very strong ‘concept’ novels.
For those who haven’t read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, firstly where have you been? The narrator is a young man, who describes himself as a “a mathematician with some behavioural difficulties” but who society would describe as someone who has Asperger’s syndrome, high-functioning autism, or savant syndrome. Everything in the book is written through Christopher’s eyes — if he see’s a certain number of red cars, it’s going to be a good day. Chapters are numbered solely with prime numbers — because that’s what he prefers.
The Porpoise, is very different where The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time narration style is black and white and very factual. Angelica’s narration during The Porpoise is meandering, lyrical and painterly, like watercolours falling across the page. Haddon’s choice of narrator for The Porpoise, as Angelica, but also the strength of his female characters, bring a voice back to women silenced in narratives previously shared with the world. Pericles, The Prince of Tyre, is a play by William Shakespeare that The Porpoise relies heavily on, but Haddon is noted to be frustrated that some of the women with the most pivotal character movements are killed off and only given two spoken lines. Haddon’s version has these characters renewed with fresh agency and mirrored them in a modern setting.

Immediately capturing audiences from the opening pages, Haddon writes of a horrific plane crash, followed by a relationship that can only be described as crippling, controlling incest. To distract herself from the horrors of her own life, Angelica drifts into exploring new worlds and stories she loves to pour over. The book tells the story of powerful women, and how they exact that power — even in ways readers don’t see immediately. Even though Haddon’s book can be seen as a retelling of Pericles, The Prince of Tyre, for me it is not about Pericles. It’s about Angelica, Chloe, Marina and the women.
Our participants in the instagram readalong found the book quite divisive — very ‘marmite’.
The leaps from one story to the next, passages building to a crashing wave, only to be followed by water as still as a mill-pond split the group. Some were enthralled by the constant switching of narrative styles, whilst others fell in love with one particular narrative and wanted to read more of that particular element of the story.
Overall, a very interesting, eye-opening read.
I would recommend it to anyone who has a penchant for a more lyrical, character driven novel, over a reader who favours plot and pace. One for those who enjoy retellings, or ‘updated versions’ of classic works and books that change the agency of the original works.
Fans of The Porpoise, might also like:
The Deathless Girls by Kiran Millwood Hargrave (The story of Dracula’s wives, as told by them.)
The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave (Witch Trials, as told by the hunted.)