Novel About My Wife
Emily Perkins
Novel About My Wife
If I could build her again using words, I would: starting at her long, painted feet and working up, meticulously shading in every cell and gap and space for breath until her pulse just couldn't help but kick back in to life; her hip bones, her red knuckles, the soft skin of her thighs, and her fine crackle of hair.Tom Stone, skinnyish, fortyish, English, is madly in love with his wife Ann, an Australian in self-imposed exile in London. Pushing forty and expecting their first child, they buy their first, semi-derelict house in Hackney. They believe this is their settled future, despite Tom's stalling career and their spiralling money troubles. But Ann becomes convinced she's being shadowed by a local homeless man whose presence seems like a terrible omen. As her pregnancy progresses she spends hours cleaning and reorganising the house, and sits up all night talking with a new feverish passion. As their child grows, so too does Tom's sense of an impending, nameless threat. Their home appears beset with vermin, smells and strange noises. On the verge of losing the house, Tom makes a decision that he hopes will save their lives.
4.2 out of 5 based on 4 reviews
|
Omniscore:
|
| Classification |
Fiction |
| Genre |
General Fiction |
| Format |
Hardback |
| Pages |
288 |
| RRP |
£12.99 |
| Date of Publication |
May 2008 |
| ISBN |
978-0747584223 |
| Publisher |
Bloomsbury |
| |
If I could build her again using words, I would: starting at her long, painted feet and working up, meticulously shading in every cell and gap and space for breath until her pulse just couldn't help but kick back in to life; her hip bones, her red knuckles, the soft skin of her thighs, and her fine crackle of hair.Tom Stone, skinnyish, fortyish, English, is madly in love with his wife Ann, an Australian in self-imposed exile in London. Pushing forty and expecting their first child, they buy their first, semi-derelict house in Hackney. They believe this is their settled future, despite Tom's stalling career and their spiralling money troubles. But Ann becomes convinced she's being shadowed by a local homeless man whose presence seems like a terrible omen. As her pregnancy progresses she spends hours cleaning and reorganising the house, and sits up all night talking with a new feverish passion. As their child grows, so too does Tom's sense of an impending, nameless threat. Their home appears beset with vermin, smells and strange noises. On the verge of losing the house, Tom makes a decision that he hopes will save their lives.
Reviews
The Daily Telegraph
Heather Thompson
“Emily Perkins picks out Tom's memories with the nimbleness and accuracy of a hummingbird. From love and death, madness and abuse, she makes a sharp, playful story. She captures so much, so simply: the gradual collapse of? Tom and Ann's happiness, but also their trajectory from childless defiance to giddy parenthood, and the petty frustrations of their lower-middle-class life - the humiliating in-between-ness of moderate earners in a city where affordable neighbourhoods are all too quickly gentrified beyond reach.”
18/05/2008
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Time Out
Fiona McAuslan (London)
“This is a disturbing, sad and brilliantly paced novel; a page-turner that’s too easy to gobble your way through. Perkins’ writing is electric and scattered with London vernacular... The story is interesting, but Perkins’s real strength is her ability to give voice to the concerns of Ann and Tom and those around them... Perkins has a sharp wit and a great ear. She captures Londoners’ quirks and quiddities with acid brilliance (the setpiece scene at a Hampstead party made me laugh out loud on the tube), and exposes the city’s class and colour stratifications with subtle honesty. ”
27/05/2008
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The Sunday Times
Lindsay Duguid
“...a frightening tale of delusion... The pace is fast and inexorable. The narrative moves with certainty, taking in swift biting portraits... dropping into the story a series of terrifying revelations from a more primitive past... Perkins's earlier fiction was both celebratory and satirical, scathing but full of bounce. Although her new novel deals with a more disappointed stage, it still displays her forceful, energetic prose, her glancing wit and her acute perceptions.”
11/05/2008
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The Guardian
Carrie O'Grady
“Perkins is impressively convincing in her attempt to get inside the male mind, its many anxieties and fears, its need to avoid admitting them, even internally. In a rare reflective moment, Tom muses on the death of his grandfather and wonders, as he did then, if he will ever be a "complete man". That's the question that lies at the heart of this accomplished, clever, rather sad book. And if Tom is not, perhaps, someone you'd want to take for a drink after the last page, you certainly believe in him - and care about him to an extent that reveals Perkins's subtle power.”
24/05/2008
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