03/02/2015
In this trenchant debut novel, poet and memoirist Clanchy (Antigona and Me) reveals her humor, humanity, and striking facility with language amid potentially tragic events. The felling of a onetime famous playwright, Phillip Prys, by a stroke in his London home mirrors the dismantling of authoritarian world powers in 1989. Earnest and sensitive 17-year-old Struan Robertson, persuaded by his English teacher to apply for a position as Phillip's caretaker, travels from central Scotland to meet Phillip's dysfunctional family—his children, Juliet and Jake; their mother, Myfanwy; and his current wife, Shirin—whose compassion for Phillip varies. The summer is exceptionally hot, and while their elders struggle variously to adjust to Phillip's incapacity, the younger generation is in heat. By the novel's end, all the characters have faced trials that uncover inner tenderness. Clanchy shifts the narrative perspective among Struan, Phillip, Juliet, and Myfanwy, interlacing poignant analogy, vivid description, and nuanced characterization with arresting metaphor. A glossary of English slang would be useful for most American readers, but this novel will amuse and captivate regardless. (Mar.)
“Lively, charming... There isn't a dull scene in Meeting the English.” —New York Times Book Review
“Fresh, funny, and at times piercing, Clanchy's novel introduces a savvy, impressive new voice.” —Kirkus
“In this trenchant debut novel, poet and memoirist Clanchy (Antigona and Me) reveals her humor, humanity, and striking facility with language amid potentially tragic events... Clanchy shifts the narrative perspective among Struan, Phillip, Juliet, and Myfanwy, interlacing poignant analogy, vivid description, and nuanced characterization with arresting metaphor.” —Publishers Weekly
“Clanchy is an established poet who brings her portrait of Thatcher-era London an assured beauty of language and acid detail. The effect is that of a brilliant, multicolored fireworks display illuminating the antics of the residents of the London Zoo.” —Library Journal, chosen as a Spring Best Debut 2015
“Readers who like comic British fiction will enjoy this antic, acerbic novel, which was shortlisted for the 2013 Costa First Novel Award.” —Booklist
“With wit and zest, Clanchy creates social comedy out of teeth-clenching situations . . . Clanchy's trenchant, often very funny prose also shimmers with sensual pleasures . . . Meeting the English is a richly conceived, original and very entertaining novel.” —Guardian (UK)
“A comedy of manners with a sharp edge . . . With its cast of artsy, highly strung, badly behaved north Londoners, Meeting the English feels like an updated Iris Murdoch novel, with sharper haircuts and more Laura Ashley furnishings.” —Independent on Sunday (UK)
“A charming comic novel with an appealing lightness of touch.” —Literary Review
“Meeting the English is a comedy of manners and a comedy of morals . . . [it] has a frothy charm. Moreover, in the rather appalling Myfanwy, Clanchy presents us with a character whom it is a pleasure to meet in a novel, though one would fly from her in real life.” —Scotsman (UK)
“Lacerating social observation mixed with Shakespearean comedy powers Kate Clanchy's first novel . . . her agility with language makes the sentences shimmer.” —Sunday Telegraph (UK)
“An exceptional first novel . . . Clanchy switches multi-viewpoints adroitly . . . she has a wincingly accurate eye for social comedy, a vivid descriptive sense, and profound understanding of her characters. This is a delectable read – it should certainly be on one or more of this year's awards lists.” —Daily Mail (UK)
“What unfolds is a long, hot summer with more than a little Midsummer Night's Dream about it. The gloriously heady heat, high-running tempers and emotions are offset by the cool lightness of Clanchy's prose, shot through with a wonderfully refreshing comedic breeze. Meeting the English is an utter delight.” —Observer (UK)
“A charming and comedic coming-of-age novel . . . very funny indeed; a literary novel that manages to pack an irreverent punch and take a wry look at the fashion and sensibilities of the late 1980s.” —Bookseller (UK)
“A bracingly trenchant romantic revenge comedy which ends in an orgy of poetic justice, its theme the overthrow of tyrants, its hero a seventeen-year-old Scot and its setting Hampstead in the long hot summer of 1989.” —Times Literary Supplement Books of the Year (UK)
“Powered by an addictively forward-marching narrative . . . Clanchy displays a verbal inventiveness that unlocks the alarming, delectable newness of the world Struan encounters.” —Times Literary Supplement (UK)
“Kate Clanchy's sharp and charming first novel Meeting the English is . . . an accomplished and lively work, good-natured - kindness is particularly prized - but also underwritten by a keen understanding of the way we live . . . Clanchy, who is a distinguished poet, writes prose to relish . . . this is a strong and rather gallant novel of family life and what (if anything) can be done about it.” —Financial Times
“Every so often, an author bursts onto the scene with a freshness and originality that make the reader give a metaphorical three cheers. Kate Clanchy, who has won awards for her poetry, is one such; her debut novel is funny and insightful and her empathetic, law-abiding hero is full of blinding common sense, a less wet version of Adrian Mole . . . Clanchy either knows a lot about seeing the funny side of a depressing domestic situation or she has an acute eye. Either way, you'll want to hear more from her.” —Country Life (UK)
“A riveting read.” —Oxford Times (UK)
“Utterly enchanting; naughty, funny, evocative.” —Patrick Gale, author of Rough Music
12/01/2014
Meet the Pryses, London's model family, circa 1989. The pater, Philip, is a literary lion who scored big with a play about life down in the Welsh mines, and then subsequently moved to Hampstead. A recent stroke has left him incapacitated. A former wife, an interior designer with designs on the Hampstead property, glides in and out of Philip's life, measuring the curtains, and coffins. Their two offspring are both right rotters. Philip's current trophy wife is Iranian, paints exquisite miniatures, and has a roving eye. Into this menagerie steps Struan Robertson, an upright, smart but naïve Scotsman who is hired to look after the invalid. After a full dose of the Pryse family, he might be excused for concluding: "Lord, what fools these Londoners be!" VERDICT Short-listed for 2013's Costa First Novel Award, this sharp-eyed satire of 1980s London is hardly the work of a novice. Clanchy is an established poet who brings to her portrait of Thatcher-era London an assured beauty of language and acid detail. The effect is that of a brilliant, multicolored fireworks display illuminating the antics of the residents of the London Zoo. [See Prepub Alert, 9/15/14.]—Bob Lunn, Kansas City, MO
2014-12-17
Tragedy and farce combine in a Scottish-born poet's notable debut novel, which follows an innocent abroad in London during one very hot, transformative summer.In a spiky modern comedy with dark undertones, the English whom Clanchy introduces are mainly Londoners, many of them with origins in other nations, like successful Welsh novelist and playwright Phillip Prys, felled by a stroke in the book's opening pages. Phillip's incapacity galvanizes his second wife, Myfanwy, and her children, drawing them—and their mixed motives—to Phillip's lovely and valuable home in Yewtree Row, now the residence of his third wife, beautiful Iranian artist Shirin. Into this complicated and unreliable family group walks Struan Robertson, a clever, upright but unworldly 17-year-old from Scotland, hired on the strength of experience gained in an old people's home, to take care of Phillip. Issues of life and death, money and sex swirl around the characters in the suffocating heat of the summer of 1989, which lends a sultry, sometimes-magical edge, especially in the sylvan setting of Hampstead Heath and its swimming ponds. Struan's coming-of-age will be matched by transformations near and far, several of the local ones involving mismatched young couples, reminiscent of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Clanchy's prose is striking, moving easily from sharp to lyrical, while the predicaments in Yewtree Row swoop from serious to slapstick. In particular, the passages devoted to Phillip's perspective—a larger-than-life character now trapped within a silent, slack body—movingly capture his new, remote, sometimes-terrifying dream world. As autumn arrives and the heat of this momentous year (think Berlin Wall, Tiananmen Square) dissipates, Clanchy pushes her characters forward in a final flourish both grave and graceful.Fresh, funny and at times piercing, Clanchy's novel introduces a savvy, impressive new voice.
