The Predicament, Paradise City and What We Can Know

 

We are in 1963 (and I'm just finishing sixth form), and here again is Gabriel Dax. We met him first in Gabriel's Moon, which I thought was the writer-on-top form. Gabriel is now a double agent, which seems very tiring, given that he is trying to finish writing his book on Rivers. He has not only to listen to instructions from his boss, Faith Green, but also the Russian agents that seem to monitor his every move.

However, in The Predicament, Gabriel is off to Guatemala (typical of the writer, exploring all these different countries). Apparently, the possible new leader will only talk to him. But things do not go to plan, and Gabrile is soon back home before leaving for Berlin. The story moves along at a decent pace; all the cities are very well described in their sixties setting. The book is entirely written from the view of Gabriel, the closest to the first person that you can get. In Berlin, it's all about a visit by President Kennedy (note 1963), and Gabriel is on the task force to make sure it all goes to plan. MI6 are on the trail of possible assassins, but they have all disappeared. Should we be worried?

A few years ago I read Elizabeth Day's novel "The Party" and was quite impressed. But her latest book, Paradise City, was a disappointment. I had hoped it would include a lot more about London, but it concentrated instead on the stories of the four main characters. I guess the writer didn't properly research the locations. It's Sir Howard Pink (formerly Fink), who is central to the story, a self-made man maybe loosely based on Sir Philip Green. In the first chapters he comes across as pretty obnoxious.

The second character is Esme, who lives in a Shepherd's Bush that I barely recognize. Although it was sixty odd years ago when I changed buses on my way to school. Esme works on Kensington High Street (where my father managed the one large grocer's shop) and passes Kensington Church Street, where my brother went to school. Older Carol and immigrant Beatrice have shorter introductions.

Obviously we start to find out about connections between the four, starting, obviously, between journalist Esme and Sir Howard. What could have been a fraught meeting they instead bond over her father's death and his daughter's disappearance. Their interview is, for me, the best part of the book; their conversation is so well written. Sir Howard then comes across Beatrice, a cleaner in his hotel room, and there is an unsavory occurrence where there are obviously repercussions.

Carol, a solitary widow, is visited by her daughter and grandson, and they are off to Barnes Wetlands Center. (We used to go to Barnes Common most Sundays in the fifties, but things do change). Carol has strange Alan as a neighbour. Their story is central to the second half of the book, which turns into a mystery as Alan disappears and Carol discovers something that puts her into the limelight. There is quite an emotional ending as it all comes to a satisfactory conclusion.

It's 2119, and Tom Metcalfe, our narrator, is at the Bodleian, now in Snowdonia, looking through the journals of Vivienne Blundy. She was married to the famous poet Francis Blundy, and Tom is interested in finding the missing corona of fifteen sonnets that Francis could recite from memory. But that was over a hundred years ago, and a lot has changed in the landscape since then. In What We Can Know, the UK is now just a series of islands. It all happened in the 2030s following the warnings of global warming.

Vivienne's journals include a dinner party where she does all the work, not grudgingly but "irritated by his (Francis) certainty, his entitlement, and his capacity for repetition. A brilliant man, but such a fool". Back to Tom, and there are hints about the state of the environment (not good) and that life expectancy is now sixty-two. There is a discussion about the merits and preference of poetry or prose. It's time I mentioned that this is a pretty highbrow novel; for example, in Chapter 9 there are three pages of highly intellectual stuff, a précis of all that has happened in the intervening years.

We hear from Vivienne's journal all about her first husband, Percy, a genius at making violins, but his descent into Alzheimer's is such a strain on his wife. But in 2120, to find that missing corona involves an expedition to the Cotswolds that involves travelling across inland seas and results in an unexpected find. Then Part 2 is a massive change of direction; saying anything would be too much. But its prose is far easier than what went before.