Steven McC
Basic
- Oct 12, 2014
****Contains spoilers
I picked this up on a whim in my local library. I'd heard in the past that Boyd is a good author and particularly remember John Crace, who destroys books in the Guardian's Digested Read feature (http://www.theguardian.com/books/series/digestedread), highlighting Boyd as an author he actually enjoyed and found difficult to satirise.
The plot premise of Ordinary Thunderstorms seemed a bit familar - an ordinary, intelligent, civilised man stumbles upon a corpse, finds himself in the frame for murder and is pursued by both the law and the actual killers while trying to solve the mystery himself. After a few chapters I thought I was going to abandon the book. The prose was understated to the point of being bland and, combined with the cliched premise, made it feel like it was going through the motions
But I stuck with it and...it ended up being the most riveting read I've had for a while. What the novel lacks in stylistic flair it makes up for in imaginative power. Boyd's great strength is in inhabiting a character - Adam Kindred - who suddenly finds himself forced to forsake the comforts of civilisation and technology (bank accounts, mobile phones, etc) to become homeless and identity-less in central London in a bid to evade detection.
The revelation of the book, for me, was the way in which the civilised Kindred becomes increasingly primitive - sleeping rough, scavenging bins, killing and cooking gulls - before building himself back up again. He learns a way to earn a living begging, a cultish church where he can gain free meals and the criminal contacts to obtain a new identity and a job. This is all excellently conveyed by Boyd, with the reader able to sense the malleability of human identity as Kindred discovers new aspects of himself and ways of interacting with the world.
I don't want to give away too much but, in terms of inverting the cliched premise of the novel, I particularly liked the fact that Kindred, framed for murder and stricken by guilt, ultimately does commit a murder and feels almost no guilt. You sense that Boyd is testing the reader here, forcing them to ask difficult questions and to put themselves in the shoes of Kindred (whose name, after all, suggests we can see something of ourselves in him).
Overall I'd recommend this book and I'll definitely try more of Boyd's books. If anyone has read any I'd be grateful for recommendations. I imagine John Crace enjoys Boyd as he appears to have few stylistic pretentions and just wants to tell a story. The prose may be ordinary but there are thunderstorms...
I picked this up on a whim in my local library. I'd heard in the past that Boyd is a good author and particularly remember John Crace, who destroys books in the Guardian's Digested Read feature (http://www.theguardian.com/books/series/digestedread), highlighting Boyd as an author he actually enjoyed and found difficult to satirise.
The plot premise of Ordinary Thunderstorms seemed a bit familar - an ordinary, intelligent, civilised man stumbles upon a corpse, finds himself in the frame for murder and is pursued by both the law and the actual killers while trying to solve the mystery himself. After a few chapters I thought I was going to abandon the book. The prose was understated to the point of being bland and, combined with the cliched premise, made it feel like it was going through the motions
But I stuck with it and...it ended up being the most riveting read I've had for a while. What the novel lacks in stylistic flair it makes up for in imaginative power. Boyd's great strength is in inhabiting a character - Adam Kindred - who suddenly finds himself forced to forsake the comforts of civilisation and technology (bank accounts, mobile phones, etc) to become homeless and identity-less in central London in a bid to evade detection.
The revelation of the book, for me, was the way in which the civilised Kindred becomes increasingly primitive - sleeping rough, scavenging bins, killing and cooking gulls - before building himself back up again. He learns a way to earn a living begging, a cultish church where he can gain free meals and the criminal contacts to obtain a new identity and a job. This is all excellently conveyed by Boyd, with the reader able to sense the malleability of human identity as Kindred discovers new aspects of himself and ways of interacting with the world.
I don't want to give away too much but, in terms of inverting the cliched premise of the novel, I particularly liked the fact that Kindred, framed for murder and stricken by guilt, ultimately does commit a murder and feels almost no guilt. You sense that Boyd is testing the reader here, forcing them to ask difficult questions and to put themselves in the shoes of Kindred (whose name, after all, suggests we can see something of ourselves in him).
Overall I'd recommend this book and I'll definitely try more of Boyd's books. If anyone has read any I'd be grateful for recommendations. I imagine John Crace enjoys Boyd as he appears to have few stylistic pretentions and just wants to tell a story. The prose may be ordinary but there are thunderstorms...
