Heidi Voltmer Voltmer من عند Hebron North, NE, الولايات المتحدة من عند Hebron North, NE, الولايات المتحدة

Eat your heart out, Philip Hensher. This "state of England" novel, covering much of the same period as The Northern Clemency, blows it out of the water. It tells the story of a disintegrating mixed-race family, Irish musician Robbie Fitzgerald, his Malaysian wife Susheela, and their two children, Vincent and Ellie, through the 1970s and up to 1989. It starts with the brutal racism of a rough estate in Warrington, and moves on to the more discreet racism of a genteel suburb where Susheela tries desperately to integrate with her white neighbours (renaming herself to Sheila in the process) and Robbie gradually falls apart, while the children drift away from their parents into drugs and sex. The style grabs you from the first sentence; it's a bit purple at times, but so fast and vivid, especially in the drug-fuelled scenes at Legends nightclub, it leaves you gasping for breath. The characters are utterly convincing, with all their faults and foolish choices, and Walsh echoes Tolstoy and George Eliot in the way she makes you angry with the characters while still understanding why they act as they do. It tackles big themes: racism, queer-bashing, economic decline, drugs ... but without ever seeming as if it is preaching or letting the issues determine the story, rather than the characters. As one of the reviews on Amazon says, "Helen Walsh avoided the trap of creating one-dimensional victims. To a great extent, the characters do not help themselves. There is the feeling that, for example, Vincent is not bullied because he is black, but because he is weak. There is wrong choice after wrong choice. Moving to Thelwall; not reporting the rape; choosing the wrong school bag; buying the wrong car; going to the wrong school; ... It is a catalogue of disasters, some of which might even be funny if they were not so tragic." But at the same time it seems impossible that this family could survive unscathed in the toxic atmosphere of 1970s Warrington, even if they had supported each other better. Incidentally, I thought Ellie's thirteen-year old behaviour was a bit far-fetched, until I read this interview with Walsh, which suggests that Ellie is largely based on herself.