Adam Thorpe: Missing Fay

I recall his superb first novel Ulverton ( perhaps ought to re-read) but not read anything else so have high expectations of this.

Marvellous. As with Ulverton we hear a range of voices putting together a picture of lives which sometimes briefly intersect but which together give us a picture of a society and a place. The sense of place is very strong here ( like Graham Swift’s Waterland) with wonderfully vivid and poetic prose with some remarkable phrases that sparkle like diamonds.

The focus is both about and not about the missing girl Fay whose poster is encountered by a range of characters. It has either major and minor impacts on them but in all cases it illuminates these characters, places positions and thoughts. We don’t I think ever really know what happened to Fay as she is someone who in her life is unseen unnoticed and who makes no impact on the world. What Thorpe shows though is that she does have an impact, but totally unknown to her. She is a lost little soul, literally and metaphorically, as are the other people. All of them have difficult in ‘only connecting’...either with themselves, their families or their society. Thorpe conveys this with marvellously sure empathy and subtlety that makes this book as much a gripping page-turner as a Jackie Collins airport novel.

The ambiguous title is wonderfully appropriate. No one does miss Fay, truly, although this is also her state.

There are subtle structural links between the various sections like with the family in section 1 (David) appearing in the background ( literally) of the final near-transcendental final section (Chris).

I think that finally many if not most of the featured characters find some sort of temporary or partial relief or salvation at the end of their section but you do not have a sense of total finality and closure as you know their lives will go on, maybe a little better maybe a little worse but all of them have been touched, wittingly or unwittingly by missing Fay.

Must read more of his; had not realised how much else he had written.