Tom’s Version
A sequel to Irwin’s 2021 novel The Runes Have Been Cast, which features several of the same characters. The story starts in 1970, so the characters from the earlier Sixties-set book are no longer university students. Lancelyn is now teaching English literature at St Andrews University. The new leading character, Tom, is an Irish poet working in a warehouse – he admires Yeats and quotes him frequently – who is introduced to this intellectual world through meeting (at a nude encounter group) Molly, who was previously involved with Lancelyn. Other characters include Molly’s long-vanished husband Bernard; a St Andrews lecturer named Jaimie who at times is stalking Molly; Mortimer, a thuggish fighter who happens to be a reviews editor for the Times Literary Supplement, and Marcus, Molly’s later protector. There are many more.
Tom is asked to act as Molly’s bodyguard, and in this way becomes the recipient of various other stories the characters tell each other – these stories, and some mild mystery about the legacy of deceased university tutor Edward Raven, form the plot of the book. The story takes numerous twists, turns and deviations, taking in interesting byways such as Robert Louis Stevenson’s time in Samoa, the levitating Saint Joseph of Copertino, the Spiritual Exercise of St Ignatius of Loyola, and many more.
The authorial voice is elegant and well-informed, though the dialogue offers little real distinction between one character and the next. Instead we are given epigrammatic thoughts, such as ‘If only the real world could be strictly nonfiction’. At times this is very amusing and the brilliance of everybody is reminiscent of Iris Murdoch, though the author never quite succeeds in corralling his coterie of clever characters, and weird incidents, into a narrative coherent enough to form a satisfying whole.