I've tried to stick to my usual rules of reviewing books: keep it fairly brief and say what you think about the book rather than re-hashing the plot. Please let me know what you think of the review (in a kind way), I'm going to submit the second draft to the Guardian readers review section so want it to be as good as it can be:
Review:
If This Is Home is the hugely impressive debut novel by
Stuart Evers that is as accomplished as it is readable. Set both in a delightfully
realised provincial town in the north of England and in the bright lights and
dubious morals of Las Vegas, it follows Mark Wilkinson as he changes identity and
deals with violence, loss and regret both sides of the Atlantic.
The sense of place in both settings is one of the strengths
of the book, the descriptions of the pubs and hotels in the English town
contrast brilliantly with the high class, aspirational venues in Vegas. It’s
easy to be drawn into an internal debate about whether the novel is better when
it’s set in the UK or USA: but it’s as futile asking whether you prefer Lennon
or McCartney. Both are great and work better alongside the other. However, for
the record I’m a Macca and England man.
Evers skilfully builds the tension throughout the novel and springs
some surprises, but this tension is relieved by some truly comic moments. The
mood is also lightened by funny, fresh and
unforced dialogue: the conversations between Mark’s US alter ego Joe Novak and
his best friend O’Neill are particularly entertaining.
It’s the relationships in the novel that are its most
interesting aspect: Mark’s friendship with O’Neill, his interactions with scumbag
clients in his dark and mysterious sales job in Las Vegas, and the family and
friends he’s left behind in England. The most significant relationship is with
the ghost of his girlfriend Bethany, the goth who was attacked brutally after
her dutiful and uncomfortable role as Carnival Queen. It is this incident which
Mark spends the next 12 years trying to both run away from and come to terms
with and is the key event in the book (it is really just as much Bethany’s story as it is Mark’s). There are also intriguing relationships Mark has with other women throughout
the novel, with his departed girlfriend fulfilling gooseberry duty.
Like those who care about him in the novel, I was seduced by
Mark, as a complex, engaging and witty character. I wanted him to succeed even
when beginning to doubt some of the credibility of his account; even when he
disappointed me. He is a refreshingly odd central character because of this:
unpredictable, messy and very human. A favourite Mark moment is his creation a fully
formed back story for Joe Novak, handwritten in a notebook, with wonderful
details like ‘he’d stood next to Joey Ramone in a pub toilet in West London’.
If This Is Home is a well paced, thoughtful novel,
beautifully written and plotted. It is a proper page turner so works well as a
short-ish read, but is best read carefully (or more than once) to fully appreciate
its intricacies. Even then there are some aspects to the story left open to
interpretation, but this is handled well - it made me think more and more about
the novel rather than feel any frustration. It’s an entertaining and rewarding
novel and should secure Evers’ place as one of the UK’s best young authors.
