Friendly Fire (Paperback)

Themes recur as well as places: the outsider as the reference point for sanity (and often morality) and the use of a central character who is in some way freakish: Sophie, our protagonist here, has a bizarrely parent-less and yet multi-parented life and is reminiscent of Dido from A Sweet Obscurity in that though a child, she has a certain grave maturity which affects the lives of the adults around her.

These outsiders' stories may or may not carry some metaphorical representation of Gale's experiences as a gay man but what is fascinating is his ability to find the dystopic in the 'normal' and set it against the surer groundings which the freaks have managed to dredge out of their less-than-fortunate circumstances.

I've just read Kazuo Ishiguro's 'Never Let Me Go' and there are interesting comparisons: Ishiguro's narrative is also set in a boarding school, also focuses on the interplay between apparently unusual children and the adult world around them. But Gale's story is the subtler of the two in that he does the whole job with character, rather than needing to invent a sinister parallel reality in order to provide the metaphorical underpinnings for outsider-hood.

I noted in a previous review that Gale is often compared to Joanna Trollope and Iris Murdoch. In Friendly Fire, we get a good taste of Dickens too: When Dr Harestock announces the morning hymn he 'never treated the first line as a title but read until the first full stop.' In Great Expectations, Mr. Wopsle's announcements of the psalm always involve his 'giving the whole first verse.'

Dickensian too are the wonderful illustrations by Aidan Hicks: not only are they lovely in their own right, but they can also be used by the eagle-eyed as a way of foretelling the action as each chapter begins.

You get a lot with Gale: he's clearly read everything good in English Literature and knows how to play the magpie with it. But he is never less than original even in this, his thirteenth novel. I can't think of an intelligent person I know who could fail to enjoy it and to appreciate its subtle, lingering charm.

He has completely mastered the ability to portray the complexities of human nature in a most accessible way - the landscapes of his characters' emotions and motivations are laid out before us with considerable dexterity. Similarly the various UK locations of his novels are expertly depicted.

I would suggest that he has yet to produce a poor novel - and that is why I buy them on day of publication and read them in very few sittings. How many authors can create the same sense of expectation and maintain the mix of high standards and originality?

In Friendly Fire he brings to life those strains and fears of adolescence - via youths of widely differing backgrounds and set in juxtaposed locations of public school, children's home and bourgeois suburbia. I for one felt transported back to my early to mid teens.

And, finally, if you are heading for a beach this (like his others) will hit the spot. Not because it's simplistic literature - it just reads so well.

Sophie, the central character, becomes our guide to this rarefied, eccentric society. Her story is tantalisingly hinted at throughout and she is a heroine who invites sympathy. Her friendships and loyalties are all well tested and each relationship brings her the experience of differing families that she needs to help her to mature.

The drawings at the beginning of each chapter are exquisite. The ending is controlled and satisfying and just barely believable!