James

“James” is an ambitious literary debut by a London author of notable (Angela Thirkell, grandmother; Colin MacInnes, uncle) literary pedigree. James is the story of a day in the life of a sensitive man about town on the brink of middle age. “It is coherent, rises to a climax and relaxes again, shapely as a uroborus” (according to its editor, Norma Meacock). It is a novel of the circumnavigation of James around his manor in contemporary London. It is existential in delivery but elliptical in its plot and open in its character structures; many colourful characters are introduced and some play parts throughout the story. Part One of a trilogy (a younger James will appear next year in his investigation of the hippy scene in Goa In “The Last Party”) in “James” we find him pacing his London pad, his cat wandering around his feet. He wends his way to Chelsea and meets characters and tries to make sense of his thoughts while going about his day. The pace picks up and by the mid section is comic and brisk as events become more and more farcical around him. Then he walks the streets of London reflecting more soberly. The novel climaxes in a vortex of events in which he is propelled to make a choice: between the two women in his life. What to make of all the ideas and sensations that carry him through the day to a climactical vortex which he resolves in a typical James-like way – by letting fate decide for him in the ‘choice’ he has to make. Throughout the text very subtle almost hidden allusions are made to other author’s work, and experimentation is made with the mixture of inner and outer world descriptions, including the seemless move between third and first persons. Symbolism and imagery are woven consistently into the text to be discovered by the reader. Be charmed.