The End of Nightwork

This work was recommended by Dad and much lauded by the critics, proclaiming Cottrell-Boyce as an emerging literary talent. I wanted to like Nightwork more than I did, and felt it failed by trying to be too ambitious in its overall narrative. Plaudits to the author for his credible conception of Pol’s (the narrator's rare ageing disease), and his interest in the entirely fictitious Bartholomew Playfere. The former certainly permits for a unique perspective on the world. This disjunct for me came in the attempted marriage of the micro (Pol’s collapsing family) and the macro (the formation of a political movement that motivates the young to rise up against the old, per Playfere's predictions). Somehow the novel's events felt implausible. Better would have been to keep the focus narrower and depict poignantly a world spinning out of control. 6 out of 10.

By Aidan Cottrell-Boyce