The
Wright Stuff
This
is the second book that I've read consecutively that features 'A Midsummer
Night's Dream', and it is the better book. I suppose that one can never
really be bored with the bard, and The Rebel Fairy updates Shakespeare's play
and gives it a fairly good shake.
It's Leila Clare in the book who attacks 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' as a play
for men. At first glance, it would appear that The Rebel Fairy is a book
for women. There's a romantic heart on the front cover, the back cover
describes the torturous relationships entrapped within, and there's a liberal
sprinkling of fairy dust. Deborah Wright bravely starts the book off with
Jack (the lad), a fairly unsympathetic bloke who's just had a one night stand
and is still trying to shake off the girl from the night before. Jack has
an internal debate over whether he should be decent to the girl and talk to her
like a human being, but is relieved when he's offered a game of snooker instead
(the Goat must be quite a big pub if it has a full sized table). However,
Jack is not relieved for too long, as his skills at hustling seem to have gone
to pot (even Stephen Hendry plays a bad frame every now and then). Having
foolishly taken on a rather large gamble, Jack turns up at his friend's house
(Katie), homeless, carless, creditless, and soon to be dogless. From
playwright to Wright, it seems that the whole world has gone topsy turvy:
instead of the women causing chaos (as in Shakespeare's day), the men cause
chaos in Deborah Wright's novel. Even Henry, the ex-public
schoolboy friend of Jack, who looks as though he wouldn't say boo to a
ghost, causes the odd degree of turbulence for his girlfriend, Leila
Clare. Puck, the Rebel Fairy of the title, knows a thing or two that can
spell trouble.
But it would not really be fair to Deborah Wright to say that The Rebel Fairy
is just for women. The portraits of the men within this book are very
lifelike and startling. Okay, so Jack starts off in a bad way, but he
does get far more likeable very soon. Henry is also very recognisable:
he's the kind of bloke who can't read women's body language, and who
unwittingly offends would-be beaus by trying to be decent. I suppose all
the characters in this book could be described as "types", but
Deborah Wright does breathe a whole deal of life into them. One of the
reasons why Jack's so unlikable in the first chapter is
because Deborah Wright does not flinch from portraying the more unsavoury
aspects of his character. But Jack is not the villain; on the contrary,
when his life is shattered by his stupid bet, he becomes very much the
hero. And he has always been idolised by Katie. The fact that
he frittered away most of his life until thirty heightens Jack's
sense that he has some untapped potential. Deborah Wright has a great
talent for writing about men (as she has shown in her short story First Kiss),
and can really get under their skins in more ways than one.
There are a few signs here and there that this is an early book in Deborah
Wright's career. Like the fact that Leila Clare is a literary agent
who delights in reading through her slush pile in search of hidden
talent (I wish that there were more Leila Clares out there!). The device
of employing two fairies who can read people's thoughts smacks of
the young writer's desire to be theoretically correct and to try to avoid
using the omniscient Author-God too much (I did much the same by having a ghost
in my first book). This ability to read human thoughts plays a pivotal
role in the book, but that does not help when much of what motivates these
particular human beings seems to be unconscious or hidden away in
denial. Having said that, Puck and Charlie, the two fairies in question, are
the raison d'etre for much of what happens in the book. They have been
charged by Titania and Oberon to undo a wrong done on Jack. Problem
is, they are rebel fairies, and it's debatable whether Jack prospers from
their assistance (although Puck and Charlie's relationship nicely echoes that
of Jack and Katie). It may seem that Deborah Wright has cheated with some
of the more dramatic occurrences, but as you read back, you will see that
she has definitely laid the ground work for these. Perhaps the
book is a tad too long; for as the novel progresses, Jack, like Bottom
in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', becomes steadily more of an ass and
even more unsavoury than he was in the beginning. There are one or
two loose ends: Deborah Wright says Jack only pretends to be a philistine
around Henry, and then seemingly contradicts this by saying that Jack spent
most of his English degree reading comics. And I do hope that Susie,
Katie's daughter, does not like sugar on her cereals in the morning...
All in all, this is a very enjoyable novel that will have you racing through to
see who ends up with who at the end of the book. There are a couple of
painful scenes to read through; 'painful' because Deborah Wright has
exquisitely got the mood and the words uncomfortably right. Deborah
Wright, whilst not exactly on the same par as Shakespeare (but then who is?),
proves herself to be a highly promising Wrighter in her own right. I do
hope that she does not publish her next novel (a nineteenth century gothic
mystery), under a pseudonym, and a male one at that. Too many talented
writers are forced to stick to the same groove for book after book nowadays,
and it is a great delight to see Deborah Wright trying to buck the
trend. Not that The Rebel Fairy is a bad book by any means, just
that, like Jack, I am sure Deborah Wright realises that she has some untapped
potential. I am sure that there is more of the Wright stuff to come.
Authortrek rating:
7/10
Kevin
Patrick Mahoney
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