Hello!
A little later than usual because I had my tea out (at Bao & Bap, very delicious!!!!) I’m afraid this newsletter won’t be very relatable to many as it is about my friend’s books which are not published yet, one of which I can’t name because her publisher will roundhouse us both. But, as always, I have much to say about what I can talk about.
What I’ve been reading and what I think about it
I read Rachel Connolly’s Lazy City, which is out next year with Canongate. Now I am aware I’m biassed as Rachel is one of my best friends but I also wouldn’t lie to you -- Lazy City is a truly outstanding book. It’s about a girl called Erin newly returned to her native Belfast after an unpleasant and life-altering event in London, where she is doing a course. She is living with a family friend as a live-in nanny, routinely meeting up with her friend Declan at the bar he works in, and trying to avoid her mother. She meets an American man at the bar, and we go from there.
This is such a great look at Belfast as it is now, especially from the perspective of its young adults who are living in the aftermath of both the financial crash and the Troubles. As with any Belfast-set text, its history is always present, but not in a contrived or pointed way -- it is acknowledged as something that is inextricable from communities and interpersonal relationships without being the novel’s governing force. This is much more about the friendships and relationships we have as we grow up, and how they’re different to the ones we have as teenagers and children.
The main driving force of the novel is really about how we move forward, and how scary and alienating, but also how freeing, that is. It is ultimately a hopeful novel, but not sentimental -- indeed, the realism is often soul-crushing in how accurate it is. Rachel’s journalism is full of the kind of observations about people and contexts that also fill her novel, you’ll be happy to hear.
She mentions the song at the end, but the whole thing feels like living inside Fairytale of New York by The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl, and that end-of-year, bittersweet feeling it always conjures up. Endings and beginnings are prevalent in the story, and they are communicated in the same way that that song makes you feel at the end of the year. It also feels like a very crisp, dry, bright winter’s day, and the freshness you feel when you walk around outside in that kind of weather.
As I mentioned at the beginning, I also read another book by another friend that I can’t mention, but I’ll talk about it once proofs are sent out. Another incredible novel that is out next year -- you’ll all love it!! Sorry for being annoying!!!
Books on my radar
I forgot to mention last week that I have bought some new books, aside from the King Arthur trilogy by Rosemary Sutcliff, which I got too excited by to remember other new purchases. Whoopsies.
The Houseguest and other stories by Amparo Dávila (2018) (tr. Audrey Harris and Matthew Gleeson). I bought this from the newly opened Juno Books in Sheffield, and it was a complete impulse buy. It was on their Halloween table and it looks v intriguing- the blurb describes it as filled with characters who are pushed to the limits of ‘desire, paranoia, isolation and fear’.
Leaving the Atocha Station by Ben Lerner (2011). Bought this in Oxfam on Bold Street - what is there to say that hasn’t already been said? Excited to read.
The Heart of the Country by Fay Weldon (1987). Also bought in Bold Street Oxfam —I picked it up because I’ve never read any Weldon and she seems like my vibe. Also the cover is nice.