It is hard not to approach any John McGregor novel without some excitement. Although he has won some minor literary prizes and has been longlisted for the Booker, McGregor remains an underrated and underappreciated author. Each of his novels is as unique as it is unconventional. The plot of So Many Ways to Begin is predictable enough: a man unexpectedly finds out that he has been adopted and subsequently has to deal with the consequences. But the way in which the story unfolds is quite unlike anything I have read. So Many Ways to Begin does not quite have the force of If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things, but both resonate long after reading. Like Reservoir 13, So Many Ways to Begin avoids closure. The consequences of prior actions endure and reverberate. The commonality across all of McGregor's work is his interest in the minutiae of everyday life: the mundane can become revelatory and vice versa. Multiple cliffhangers and false trails amplify the effect. David, the central character, could be any of us trying to cope with a world they don't fully understand.
By Jon McGregor