FICTION: The Girl Who Was Going to Die By Glyn Maxwell Jonathan Cape, 352pp. £12.99DIALOGUE IS always a bit of a stickler. Some writers avoid it like the plague, others use it sparsely and with caution. Few, however, have written books told entirely through conversation - an ambitious project taken on by Glyn Maxwell in this edgy, ultra-contemporary novel, writes Sorcha Hamilton.
Set in London, The Girl Who Was Going To Die follows the story of a young tour guide, Susan, whose life is thrown into chaos after a fatal misunderstanding. Photographed while crying on a bench after 20/10, the latest terrorist attack, Susan becomes a symbol of hope in "a time of evil".
Her beautiful, anonymous face becomes famous overnight, seen on every news bulletin and front page from Sky news to the Guardian. But Susan is crying for other reasons - a psychic has just told her she is going to die.
What follows is a tale of media manipulation, terrorism, the cult of celebrity and the fear of mortality. Hounded by fans and journalists, who set up camp in her garden, Susan grows increasingly paranoid. Could the psychic's predictions - that she will become famous and rich, then meet a tall, dark stranger and die the day after - actually be happening?
This is the second novel from Maxwell, an English author who has won a number of prizes for his considerable collection of poetry and plays. His background in drama certainly shows in this novel, which at times feels like reading a screenplay.
Fascinatingly true to life, the dialogue echoes all the musings, interruptions and distractions that happen in reality but rarely find their way into fiction. When Susan chats on the phone to her father, for example, the conversation often flits - mid sentence - between a discussion about the journalists hassling Susan to the glass of Chablis her father is pouring or the relaying of some unrelated information on to her mother.
The frequent gossiping with her pal, Min, could have come straight off the set of Friends. Everything is SO this or that, with phrases like "earth to Suse" or "that's like stop the world". But perhaps this is part of Maxwell's point. Teeming with contemporary cultural references - everything from the Simpsons, Make Poverty History and Scarlett Johansson get a mention - the book explores the fragmented and shifting way that we now communicate.
This reality TV-type narrative, however, drives a frustrating distance between the reader and the characters. Because of the often sparse details provided by the conversations, the reader constantly seeks more of the particulars, especially from the protagonist's internal world. Susan's biting, sarcastic tone makes her unlikable at times and the sharp, slice-of-life dialogue often descends into drawn-out banter which, like Big Brother, is realistic but often tedious. While this is a thought-provoking tale that cleverly examines the era we now live in, ultimately The Girl Who Was Going To Die becomes ensnared by its dialogue-only format, a restrictive but admirable literary experiment.
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Sorcha Hamilton is an Irish Times journalist