“Meaning is often tantalizingly reticent…” Camden Review on Malarky

Before I spring to the matter of last night’s windstorm here is Kate Webb’s insightful piece of criticism on Malarky. I discovered Webb’s criticism in the TLS and beyond and her critical blog earlier this year and feel fortunate my novel was contemplated and reviewed by her, since I admire her critical work very much. So thank you to both Kate Webb and The Camden Review.

“READING Anakana Schofield’s anarchic debut novel, Malarky, I was reminded of the underrated mid-century writer, Jane Bowles. Her comedies are full of people whose ideas of propriety are at odds with one another, having flummoxing, cross-purpose conversations.

Much of her unsettling humour is born of female paradox: women may be the conservative bearers of culture, passing on standards between generations, but they are also “natural outlaws”, disrupting patriarchal rule with their nonsense and malarky.

In the hands of skilled writers, like Bowles and Schofield, the tension between these two positions can lead to great hilarity, with characters who appear to conform to acceptable norms also pursuing undercover lives of heroic eccentricity and dubious, self-invented meaning…”

To read the entire piece please click here

I must, in turn, read Jane Bowles. 

I am still reading Inglorious and really appreciating the language, humour and ideas.