[ كتاب مقترح من Charlotte Hansen ] A Breathless Hush in the Close is Ann Morgan’s first novel and takes its title from Henry Newbolt’s well-known late nineteenth century poem Vitaï Lampada. The lines 'Play up! Play up! and play the game!' from this poem encapsulate the point towards the very end of the novel, at which its protagonist George French, finally decides to participate in the game of life. The end becomes the beginning for George French on his odyssey from boy to man in a story that has overtures of both Bildungsroman and contemporary satire.      

George French is a hapless and spoilt young graduate who fancies himself as a literary genius in the making much in the mould of his great literary hero Evelyn Waugh. Ann Morgan succeeds in making George French’s many references to Waugh both ridiculous and almost touching. Ostensibly, George is doing a literature diploma at the University of Lewisham and the South East Region, but all he really does is lounge around his parental home, watching mind numbing daytime television. Although he doesn’t actually do any writing he convinces himself that he does a lot of thinking. ‘Christ, it was a wonder his brain still worked, the high level of thinking he’d been putting it through these last weeks’. (39) His illusions of grandeur, however, are to be severely tested as this tongue in cheek story progresses. We follow George as he goes to see his tutor, John Worthy, who turns out to be not so worthy after all, when George actually attempts to show his responsible side. Like in all good fairytales John Worthy pops up three times throughout the novel and his character functions as a foreboding of what a man George is likely to become, if he does not start to play up and play the game.

Eventually, George moves away from home (it shall not be revealed why here, suffice to say that his fantasy goes into overdrive) and ends up living in an absolute dump, fit for a struggling artist. ’… He couldn’t help but feel a little proud. After all, he was doing it, wasn’t he? He had taken the first step. Let it not be said that George French was lazy, let it not be said that he was putting off life’. (93)  

And, of course there is a woman lurking in the background, or as it were here, two women. George passively lets himself by hunted down by the aptly named Emily Goodchild. This good child that George knows from university has been hovering around Porge as she refers to him for some time. She throws dinner parties a la Delia* and literally smothers her Porge with her ample bosom. Her caring manners hide control freakish tendencies.

And, then there is the one who got away, Jennifer. Or, maybe all is not lost on that front after all. Also thrown into the equation is a possible internship in a well-renowned law firm and George’s appearance on day time television, before he finally buckles down to the task in hand.    

Ann Morgan has a keen eye for the ridiculous and the pathetic which she manages to balance with many accurate cultural observations and references, especially to today’s obsession with fame. And, George French grows on you – whether you like it or not. Towards the end of the novel you want him to pick up that gauntlet, escape the passive-aggressive clutches of the insufferable Emily and finally abandon his vegetative state of being. And then the antihero will become the hero of his own story.      

* Delia Smith, English cook and television presenter and a bit of a national treasure

[ معلومات ] Morgan, Ann: A Breathless Hush in the Close. (original language: English) YouWriteOn, 2008 . ISBN: 1849231060.