A Review

I've just finished reading If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things By Jon McGregor.

I know this it isn't his latest novel, that being Only The Dogs which I saw him read an extract from at Book Slam and which disturbed me with its harrowing depiction of the heroin trade which he described in detail, from the poppy fields in Afghanistan to the heroin addict jacking up in a phone box no longer in control of his bodily functions. I digress and actually it is worth pointing out that If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things is not as dark as Only The Dogs, far from it in fact.

The opening lines from If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things are 'If you listen you can hear it. The city, it sings.', this description could be applied to McGregor's prose because this book, it sings. The residence of the street that is the focus of the novel are described in such exquisite detail that I felt I was there, with them, waiting for the impending tragedy that overshadows the story from the outset. There is a the dad with the disfigured face which we learn was burned when he tried to save his wife from a fire. There is the family who let their boys roam the streets playing havoc. There is the protagonist, a lonely girl who finds herself pregnant after a one night stand. Then there is the motif of twins that follows us through the novel and is crystallised in an ending that surprised me so much I had to read it a few times to take it in.

These stories are pieces of the collage that McGregor creates to give us insight into everyday lives. Indeed the 'remarkable things' of the title are the everyday occurrences that we take for granted. Simple acts, thoughts, encounters all play to this theme. Beautiful and nuanced this is a book worth reading.