A Shock

<i>"Get out of London. Which is only a fraction of the world. You know? A tiny dense little fraction. It is not the full extent of things. There is fresh air. There is a cold drink of water."</i>

I'm going to write a fairly minimalist review of this because I think this is the kind of book where the less you know about it, the better (so quite frankly I wouldn't recommend reading this review, or ANY review!). Keith Ridgway is one of my favourite writers, and <i>Hawthorn & Child</i> is just an absolutely monumental book for me, which I am now going to go back and reread. The good news is, for fans of <i>Hawthorn and Child</i> or even <i>Animals</i>, <i>A Shock</i> continues in the same vein. Fragmented novel, linked collection, whatever, who cares!

This book has:
- The city of London and its isolation. Connection and disconnection. Class division. Hustlers. I was reminded often of Kiare Ladner's <i>Nightshift</i>
- DEATH. It's what the book's title is a reference to: <i> "May your death come as a shock to you, he'd say."</i>
- Disappearances, vanishing. The power to vanish completely.
- Dreams. This book is SUCH a good example of why yes, Virginia, dream sequences CAN and DO work in fiction (only when done well and purposefully though!)
- Buildings. The merging of humans with buildings. This is a BIG theme, and ties in with the other theme of being trapped in the mind, being trapped in general. Borders. Containment. And in contrast with this, we have the feeling of bursting free, of entering "<i>a whole amazing openness.</i>"
- Rats, mice. Dirtiness, filth. The unseen, the unspoken
- The idea of a book 'speaking' to a reader. The way <i>A Shock</i> itself does this (in one or two chillingly striking sentences) was REALLY, REALLY interesting to me.
- Sexuality, desire, perversity
- Drugs, madness. God, some of the description of meth drug binges in this made me feel PANICKY. Being trapped in the mind.
- Routine. Everyday life. A sense of apocalyptic doom about the future.

This book was so good, I didn't want it to finish. It's is fully of mystery, and unresolved questions, and deeply unsettling and tense scenarios. I love, love, love the punchy short rhythmic sentences, and the way they buildbuildbuild into something terrifying. I wanted to ration the chapters out. I loved it, and I'm definitely going to read it again. So many good moments. The monologue about the cave is one I am never, ever going to forget. The story about the fifth room. The story about the pigeon in the roof. The eyeball in the wall. The dialogue - God, the dialogue is so good.

In summary, with this book Ridgway cements himself as an absolute legend. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC.

<i>You are running away from your own story. You are bitter and lonely and terrified that you will be like this for the rest of your life.

A person. Love. Death. It is stupid. It is barely a story. It is not a story. It is not a story.

Her life was smaller than a bus. She stopped herself then. Stupid. But still. Clouds are very fucking big. That's the point.

I would rather a shock, than a terror, you know? A long decline.

Maybe too soon, but everything is too soon. Today is too soon. Life is too soon.

He fell asleep and dreamed of dying at the bottom of the sea, part of the world at last, part of its mulch and its mess, its waste matter, its sag and decomposition, living forever in the soil of the future, living forever like a slice of what happened.</i>

It's been 8 years since Hawthorn & Child, Keith Ridgway's last book, which was rightly celebrated. A Shock is just as good. It's a London novel and much more, and a short novel that is much more than the sum of its interlocking parts. It's moving, funny, startling, unnerving, and shocking. The various, interdependent stories come together satisfyingly but leaving as much open as closed, as is signalled towards the beginning of the book - "all stories are the same story, and here I am, the leftover part, the unresolved plot, the loose end." It's not dystopian in any recognisable sense but captures the unsettling, dysfunctional character of the contemporary world better than most dystopian novels. I can't imaging a better novel being published this year.

A grimy, witty prod at London’s underbelly.

A Shock peels back London’s civilized veneer to gnaw at the liminal spaces beneath. A cavity in a party wall allows a woman to spy on her neighbours, a pizza restaurant’s bin area attracts rats that break into a couple’s kitchen, a wardrobe hides the erotic evidence of a flat’s former occupants, an attic provides a hiding place for a marooned plumber’s mate, a pub skirting board conceals the tunnel excavated by a mouse called Troubadour Anx.

This non-novel exposes all the loosely connected characters’ insecurities, neuroses and psychoses.

With razor-sharp dialogue, pithy turns of phrase and a similar structure to Ridgway’s last book (eight years ago), Hawthorn and Child, A Shock confirms the author’s status as an inventive and skilled storyteller of the peripheral world.

My thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for the ARC.

I found this a peculiar and unsettling book, but one that was nevertheless satisfying. I enjoyed the characters, the ebb and flow of their lives and the narrative and, most importantly, the way the city comes to life.