The Tyranny of Lost Things by Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett
THE TYRANNY OF LOST THINGS
by RHIANNON LUCY COSSLETT
'When you are young, life plays itself out in a succession of summers. School comes to a close and the days stretch out before you, filled with countryside wanderings, fruit-picking, sticks and stones thrown across streams and ditches during unspoken battles with the kids from the other side of the cul-de-sac. Then, later, sex, drama, weed. Guitar music, sixten-inch-long spliffs becuase you don't know any better, virginity loss and four mile walks home through fields because the buses haven't started yet. Before we grow old, we live a life of summers'
Having dropped out of university, Harmony returns to the site of the urban commune where she lived as a child, now divided into flats. She rents a room in the hope of uncovering the source of her nightmares about a red headed woman who haunts the house and, her obsession with lost objects from her childhood.
As the London riots explode in the streets, the two hot summers converge, blurred by the drugs and sex and cheap wine, and Harmony begins to discover what really happened at Longhope twenty years ago.
Can she grow up at last, and build her own future?
I thoroughly enjoyed this atmospheric novel which cleverly combines two story lines which follow the emotional journeys of a mother and daughter over the course of one summer and over the course of a tenancy in the same house on Longhope Crescent. The sense of heat, long days and simmering tension permeate the pages and the evocation of summer is very powerful. With the description of the hazy days comes the exploration of blurring the lines within friendships and the consequences and repercussions of living outside the conventional boundaries of society and families. What initially seems to offer freedom maybe only results in further complications for the characters as they try to navigate the legacies they seek to create for themselves. Throughout this narrative immersed in sunshine and hot summers, hovers a darkening cloud which gradually begins to linger more oppressively over the pages as Harmony's need to seek out the truth about memories from her childhood and events at the house in which she grew up, becomes more threatening.
Harmony has grown up with 'hippie' parents and her character is punchy and funny with an appealing mix of outlandish behaviour tempered by a vulnerability. She is a complicated soul who feels thoroughly authentic as she struggles to overcome the long term effects of the parenting she's received and it's effect on her ability to conform, settle and, most interestingly, feel.
Each chapter opens with the description of a lost object. I really enjoyed this preamble which emphasised the themes of the novel which are linked with belonging, building a home, our pasts and our families. It's a great device for adding another layer to the characters and the plot and also further shows the authors skilful writing. For some of us, objects can be as powerful as smell for igniting memories and we all have objects which tell stories about us, someone in our family or reveal something from our past. It's perfect for a novel so concerned with loss, memories and home.
As in keeping with the summery heat of the novel, this novel is a slow burner. This is a character driven novel and really about exploring the thoughts, feelings, motives of the character, an internal confrontation with overcoming their past histories. If you love reading about other people or if you are fascinated dysfunctional families then this is just the book for you. This is also a book about memories, the past and the effect these things can have on your future. It's reminiscent of novels by Hannah Richell, Claire King, Rebekah Makai and Claire Fuller.
This is an assured and impressive debut - the writing is exceptional. The prose is beautiful; it's intense, it's mesmerising and the reader finds themselves immersed in the characterisation and the narrative. The protagonists are exceptionally well crafted and the dynamics, and relationships between the different characters very well conveyed. The author has a deft touch and reveals so much through the use of key details, reflecting a huge insight into people and families.
I thoroughly enjoyed it and loved losing myself in Harmony's story and her search for lost things. It was a gorgeous read and I'm looking forward to seeing what Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett writes next.
The Tyranny of Lost Things was published on 21st June 2018 by Sandstone Press.
My thanks to the publishers for an advance copy of the novel.
RHIANNON LUCY COSSLETT
Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is a columnist, feature writer and editor for the Guardian newspaper, contributing mainly to Opinion nad Feature sections, and the Weekend magazine. In 2012 she co-founded the Vagenda, a funny feminist blog which was published in book from by Vintage. In 2014 Rhiannon was shortlisted but a press award for young journalist of the year. As a freelancer she has written for publications as wide ranging as Elle, Stylist, the New Statesman, The Independent and Times.
Comments
Post a Comment