Books Oct 21.qxp_Layout 1 23/09/2021 15:04 Page 1
BOOKS
Autumn reads
Here are four books chosen and reviewed by bookseller Saskia Hayward at Topping & Co. with diverse themes of iconic music, money, and two narratives of lives lived in a remote location. Checkout-19 by Claire-Louise Bennett Claire-Louise Bennett’s previous book, Pond, marked her out as one to watch; an author who’s landed something akin to cult status. This is a hypnotic, absorbing chronicle of one woman’s solitary existence on the edge of a town by the sea in Ireland. For many of our booksellers it was a revelation, demonstrating a knack for writing that is hard to pin down and contain, but settles firmly under your skin. Hence why her latest novel has arrived with such anticipation. Much like Pond, it’s hard to say exactly what the subject of Checkout-19 is. In part, this is thanks to a defiant resistance against simple forms of storytelling. Instead, the book spirals between subjects: from school years to adolescent employment in a supermarket (at the titular Checkout 19) to a brilliant Calvinoesque story within a story about a character she invents called Tarquin Superbus. It’s a story of a life lived through books both read and written, of what it means to misremember a novel, and of how the written word can spill out and overtake our reality. Watching a man’s hands browse the canned section of a supermarket spurs a story of an orchestral conductor seducing the wives of fin de siècle Vienna. Books are understood as both material and transcendent – they are scattered around apartments, unopened; they are a means of trying out new identities; they are the lens through which you see and are seen. Inevitably, I suppose, a book about books is always equally a book about life itself. Life, equally, resists a singular narrative. Checkout-19 captures it in all its excess and profundity, its superfluous detail and symbology – all recorded with sharp humour and a shrewd eye. Vintage, £14.99 Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney Arguably the most anticipated literary release this year, the latest novel by Sally Rooney does not disappoint. It’s hard to build upon the foundation of success she has created with Conversations With Friends and Normal People, and what feels most admirable about Beautiful World, Where Are You is that it seems to signify a change in direction for Rooney’s work, whilst remaining as a novel her fans will love. The book focuses on Alice, a wealthy young novelist who has retreated to a remote town in Ireland, and goes on a date with Felix, a man working at a nearby warehouse. Meanwhile, back in Dublin, Alice’s friend Eileen and her old friend Simon grow closer and the boundaries of their friendship begin to change shape. What has remained is her familiar muted, spare prose style and her brilliantly precise, true-to-life 48 TheBATHMagazine
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dialogue. The first suggestion of a new direction comes in the initial chapter: a sudden change in tense transforms the scene from an interior world to one rendered entirely in exteriority, like a camera slowly panning out. It’s a shift in register that is unexpected and transformative, perfectly capturing Rooney’s ability to take you by surprise. Faber, £16.99 We Need To Talk About Money by Otegha Uwagba This is one of the most engaging pieces of non-fiction writing I’ve read recently. Otegha is a writer and journalist, founder of the organisation Women Who: A Community For Working Women and the podcast In Good Company. She has made a name for herself as a sharp, honest, and insightful commentator on contemporary millennial culture, race, and politics – and especially on how those dynamics intersect in the workplace. We Need To Talk About Money is a dissection of our cultural and private attitudes towards money, and everything that is enveloped within that: race, class, gender, age. Narrativised as a memoir, she draws on her own life experience to structure the book: from growing up on a council estate to gaining a scholarship to a private school, from her experiences working in advertising agencies and at VICE, it’s a choice which proves incredibly valuable. Her experiences of employment and the power dynamics within contemporary workplace culture are illuminating and profoundly resonate to the current working generation. It’s an utterly refreshing read: lucid, well-informed and thought-provoking. Otegha’s primary aim is to highlight the necessity for initiating open and honest communication regarding money. It’s helped by the fact she’s a fantastic writer, and the book has a shining clarity and charisma which makes it hard to put down. Harper Collins, £14.99 What They Heard by Luke Meddings Subtitled ‘how The Beatles, Beach Boys, and Bob Dylan listened to each other and changed music forever,’ What They Heard is a love letter to the most iconic music of the mid-60s enacted through a forensic tracing of interlinking influences and overlapping paths. The author, Luke Meddings, describes it as “an invitation to hear these familiar records anew.” His method is to reconstitute the songs firmly within the locale of the four-year period between ’63 and ’67 when they were created, deconstructing the sound, lyrics, and inspiration. Recording and release dates are tracked alongside wonderful descriptions of songs, and the result is that even the most overfamiliar of tunes are rendered strange, seductive, and revolutionary once more. Luke’s enthusiasm for his subject is felt and hard to resist. His methodological approach finds fascinating genetic overlap in the most unlikely of music, and proves a great reminder of the far-reaching nature of artistic influence. Weatherglass Books, £11.99 n toppingbooks.co.uk
