The Blue Book [Paperback]

Beth and Derek are on a cruise - the youngest people aboard by far. Derek has planned to propose but is miserable and confined to his cabin with seasickness, instead. Beth wanders the decks and meets up with Arthur, a successful fraudulent psychic. It soon becomes clear their meetings are not the result of chance: Beth and Art have a secret history, but what is the truth of it (and them) and will their future be together or apart?

I found this book quite infuriating. Large chunks of the narrative are told in the second person, which in itself was not a problem, but the laborious verbosity was: there are whole swathes of tortured, pretentious, pseudo-philosophising nonsense obscuring what is actually a good story. After the first 50 pages I was on the cusp of giving up. I managed to keep going, though, and by page 100 I had discovered enough of Beth and Arthur to want to learn what had and would happen to them.

As the novel progresses, more and more of their story emerges. It is captivating, and is interrupted by fewer and fewer of the irritating second person interludes which do not add anything to the story. They do, however, slow down the exposition and make the reader keener than ever to get back to the real `action'. This is not an action-packed story; it is about how people get under one another's skin, it's about guilt, power within relationships and it's about love. The tension is expertly built, and the ending leaves the reader hanging. I guessed the reason for Arthur and Beth's separation but its revelation was still wrenching and I was surprised how much I could care about these characters who were kept at such a distance for so long. The ending will not satisfy some readers: it is not perfectly rounded and does not tie off one big loose end, but in this instance & context, this worked.

Ultimately I did enjoy this book, but I found its power and poignancy was diluted a little by the long-winded, overwrought, over-thought passages which simply irritated me. The remainder of the story was sufficient to overcome my irritation but it felt like hard work to wade through to that point and I think unfortunately the style will put off a lot of readers before they reach it.

If terms like "post modern novel" send shivers down your spine, then AL Kennedy's "The Blue Book" won't be for you. It's intriguing, at times challenging and often frustrating, but at times brilliant and often very funny - as befits a writer whose other activities include stand-up comedy. The story takes place on a stormy transatlantic sea voyage, and while the obvious metaphor of the storm on the protagonists lives is clear, the metaphor also holds true for the reading experience - at times it feels like the author is on the crest of a wave and you are swept along with her skillful writing, while at others it's easy to get lost and feel, well, all at sea. Her writing style is, well, choppy. There were passages where I felt that this was one of the best things I've read in a long time, and others where it felt perhaps a little too clever for its own good and maybe even a tad pretentious. Ultimately the final twist hits you in an unexpected way though.

Beth Barber is taking a trip to New York with her boyfriend, Derek, who we believe plans to propose to her on the trip, but the encounter with an apparent stranger called Arthur, and the onset of a bout of seasickness rather destroy Derek's plans. Beth was formerly involved, romantically and professionally, in a con trick double act as fake mediums - of which poor Derek is completely unaware. It's here that Kennedy starts to really play with the reader's mind. She presents arguments that seem to morally justify Beth and her partner's efforts to provide reassurance to the living from the land of the dead. Can it ever be morally justified? Almost certainly not, but there are passages where Kennedy will have you wondering.

The con trick was carried out using a system of hidden codes and these feature throughout the book. One of the author's acknowledgments it to Derren Brown and we are never sure what is the truth or if we are being impacted by subliminal codes throughout the book. There's a duel page numbering thing going on and randomly pages will be numbered completely out of sequence. If there is a message here, then it was somewhat lost on me I have to confess. It is, however, a book that I suspect would benefit from a second read at some point.

For me the best passages are Beth's internal dialogue which are often hilariously funny and very well observed - very much in the manner of observational stand-up. Quite how truthful anything in this book is though is distinctly open to question. We know there are lies and deceptions throughout and that can be unsettling. It's far from clear, until very late on, what the book is or even whose story this is. Certainly here is much to dislike about both Beth and Arthur, though poor Derek is undoubtedly the victim of both their stories.

There is also some fairly strong language throughout, particularly the F-word and a fair dose of the C-word - which will probably put some people off. Just a warning that if that sounds like you, then probably best to avoid.

It's a book that is hard to be ambiguous about. It will either leave you with an adrenalin rush of surviving a storm or will leave you feeling somewhat seasick. Like the physical book itself, which is at least in the hardback version beautifully designed and presented with blue edged pages, the colour blue is either cool or will leave you cold. It's not an easy book to get a grip of, and the constant misdirections and symbols can get wearing. In general, I'm coming down on the side of this being really very good indeed - it made me think and ask questions, but it is also a little frustrating particularly in the back-story elements. However, I absolutely loved the present day elements on board the ship and the interaction of Beth and her fellow passengers.

A.L. Kennedy has already gained quite a following with her previous novels. The Blue Book will certainly not disappoint.

Set on a cruise ship, but filmically moving from past to present, The Blue Book is a complex novel which sets out to explore the nature of our relationships. The device of the ship serves to isolate the central three characters, Beth, our narrator, Derek, her remote partner, and Arthur, a Jungian figure from her past. The triangle thus created is haunted by a missing figure whose influence permeates the novel but is only fully present in the end.

A.L. Kennedy commands a spare prose style and skilfully uncovers the implicit deceits and lies that are central to the way we establish relationships. So why only 4 stars? As often with this gifted writer, it is hard to form a bond with any of her main characters. This is a deliberate authorial ploy: but it does make the novel sometimes a taxing read.

Despite the slight reservation above, this is an interesting novel that bears rereading: and I recommend it warmly.