Hot Stew
by Fiona Mozley
A book review
Fiona Mozley’s debut novel Elmet surprisingly
but deservedly made it to the longlist – and then to the shortlist – of the 2017
Booker Prize. Set in a rural area of Yorkshire,
it told the story of a prize fighter living at the edge of legality, who ends
up embroiled in a violent tussle (both figurative and literal) between landowners
and exploited workers and tenants.
At the time of her Booker success, Mozley was
already working on her second novel which, as she stated in an interview at the
time, “contains similar themes to Elmet – property, ownership, gentrification. Indeed, one can note close similarities between
the subjects of the two works. In Hot
Stew, however, Mozley leaves the rural backdrop and moves to London, where
a block which houses a long-established brothel is going to be demolished and
redeveloped by its owner, Agatha, the millionaire heiress of a Soho “baron”. Sex
workers Precious and Tabitha become unlikely champions for themselves and their
fellow tenants in a class battle reminiscent of Elmet.
Despite the overlapping themes and the
similarities in plot details between Mozley’s two novels, Hot Stew marks
a stylistic departure for the author.
Where Elmet was taut and punchy, Hot Stew is more expansive. It
features a rich cast of characters whose stories, told in parallel segments from
their different perspectives, are all ultimately intertwined and linked to the
threatened Soho block. This “choral”
approach reminded me somewhat of Bernardine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other.
Mozley adopts a fairly simple,
matter-of-fact, sometimes borderline-bland narration, but the novel is still
gripping in the way the different storylines interlock like the pieces in a
puzzle. Elmet had an almost
fable-like feel to it, but in Hot Stew, Mozley largely eschews the
mythical in favour of a recognizable urban reality. Not completely though… some passages of the
novel delve deep into the earth and past of Soho, presenting a sort of “deep
time” perspective alongside the contemporary challenges faced by her cast. There are also some surreal characters (such
as the “Archbishop” who leads a group of down-and-outs) and passages which veer
on magical realism and/or urban Gothic (such as Debbie McGee’s adventures in the bowels of London
and the final apocalyptic denouement).
On a balance, I would say that Hot Stew
is less distinctive than Elmet.
However, it is undeniably the work of a skilled author and a socially-conscious
novel which is also an enjoyable read.
No comments:
Post a Comment