RaveThe Arts Desk... a novel that throws its reader in at the deep end, where that end is made of \'streaks of bacteria\' and \'vigorous mycorrhizal networks\' that would take a biology degree (or a browser) to decipher. As is often the case, though, it’s worth it once you’re in. Double Blind is one of those rare books that does everything the blurb claims it will do. Humorous, philosophical, gripping and—yes—scientific in turn, this is a novel about finding charm and literary flair in the most unexpected of places ... This ever-changing tone is justified in its more self-reflexive moments ... This is, of course, still very much a novel, and a readable one too ... There\'s also that slightly irritating tendency of the modern novelist to give an in-depth commentary on business dealings and financial transactions – a mark of realist authenticity which instead feels like having to respond to an email while you’re in the middle of a TV series ... Above all, though, St Aubyn is an excellent chronicler of afflicted emotions. Submitting his characters to the extremes of experience (birth, mental illness, death), the author captures the musings and passions of his impressively neurodiverse set of protagonists with a skill founded on the clever use of free indirect discourse and some thorough psychoanalytical research. All novelists are to some extent amateur psychoanalysts. Certain passages in Double Blind, however, make us think that psychoanalysts might also make for proficient novelists.
Courttia Newland
PositiveThe Arts DeskImaginative fiction rubs shoulders with a naturalistic impulse to create the world of the Ark, an alternate reality in which African cultural influences represent the status quo. Rooted in a decolonised narrative style where every turn of phrase brings forth the weight of its cultural implications, A River Called Time is a deeply thoughtful, surprising and rewarding read ... The curious combination of naturalistic and mystical styles, too, overcomes its initial peculiarity to evoke the quasi-dystopian society of the Ark. The strangeness of this imagined world, moreover, moves the reader to consider the strangeness of their own, a mark of high-quality speculative fiction ... it shows us the literary, cultural and historical import not only of the story but also the \'making of\' that story.
William Boyd
RaveThe Arts DeskBoyd treats the triangular structure of character narratives with a welcome degree of flexibility ... he lets the story move organically along, avoiding any of the fragmentation that multiperspectivity can bring. The layering of detail, too, creates a distinctly three-dimensional world where real-life popular culture rubs shoulders with fictional creations ... his characters can never quite be confined to the page ...Though much of the novel treats this private/public theme with a quirky charm, there is an occasional tendency to overplay the detail. Trio is keenly aware of the paradoxical relationship to secrecy a novel brings. The author’s masterstroke here is to complicate this aspect further.
Katharina Volckmer
Positive3am MagazineFrom the very beginning, Katharina Volckmer’s début novel doesn’t pull its punches ... leaves little aside in its quest to throw taboo subjects under the microscope ... Her narration ranges from wilful provocation to pensive eloquence, often in the space of a single sentence. This conflictual style fully justifies those more provocative lines. Thanks to this brave authorial decision, the hypocrisy of modern British prudishness is displayed to the reader with unrelenting candour ... With bravery comes risk, though, and there is a danger that the reader may tire of this campaign of revelation even in a novel spanning no more than a hundred pages. The strength of The Appointment, however, is that it offers just enough of a plot to maintain its reader’s interest ... Gender is but one of many, many subjects broached in this book. The sheer scope of these is impressive — Nazism, technology, sexuality, memory, Catholicism among others — but such scope in such a short novel leaves little time for the significant moments of thoughtfulness to sink in. The narration aptly, breathlessly portrays a hyperactive imagination, but it seems at times as if the author has forgotten to bring the reader with her. By the time that we have processed one observation, our narrator is already giving us another on the attractive perversions of debauchery. There is nothing superficial about the sometimes shocking images presented to the reader throughout The Appointment, but the rapidity of their accumulation sometimes gives the impression of exactly that ... Key to appreciating everything The Appointment has to offer, then, is a refusal of its implicit recommendation to finish the book in one sitting. The reader must treat this monologue as the silent Dr Seligman does: not to respond to the provocations, but to listen thoughtfully for the moments in which the narrator is at her most philosophical before sitting back and considering. Paradoxically, perhaps, the novel is at its most effective when the reader is least tempted to press wilfully on. Given the patience it deserves, The Appointment proves a multi-layered and intelligent first novel.
