Undercurrent

Similar to Jon McGregor, Norris is a talent to watch, both are young authors teaching creative writing and neither is afraid of taking risks. Undercurrent begins somewhat formulaically, appearing at first as a novel about thirty-somethings seeking meaning in life. However, it evolves to become a much more poignant meditation on origin, purpose and destiny. As the title may suggest, we are all informed by overlapping histories (or metaphorical currents of water) that trickle and cross from generation to generation. Life equally is non-linear; it ebbs and flows. Were all the above to sound somewhat hackneyed and platitudinous, then Norris escapes this charge through his elevated prose, sentences such as, ‘The loss of a mother was like all the lights going out on the shore, and I was left alone on the waves, turning back in the hope of receiving some encouragement, seeing only dark instead.’ Indeed, his writing on grief and loss is some of the best in the novel. Were there a criticism, then it would simply be that the narrator (or autobiographical author) is just a little too self-obsessed and solipsistic. Life goes on. Eight out of ten.

By Barney Norris