Burning Bright

The Costa Book of the year 2013, Nathan Filer’s novel opens with the disarmingly appealing phrase “I should say that I am not a nice person.  Sometimes I try to be, but often I’m not.”  This novel is the story of a young man who is being treated by his local Community Mental Health team in Bristol, who lives constantly with Simon (his dead brother) either present in his mind or in close proximity.  What has happened to Simon is revealed slowly.  We know very early on in the book that he has died but the tragedy of his death and its psychological and emotional consequences for our hero, Matthew, are revealed slowly.  Suspense is handled with real subtlety.

Much has been made of this book offering insights into mental illness but, for me, it is a beautifully written book about grief and memory and how time, imagination and love change and mingle.  How present our childhood seems.  How vivid.  The significance of small moments in our formation as people is also beautifully handled – shown, for example, in the heroic way Simon carries Matthew when he falls, or the memory of Annabelle’s kiss of her doll.  There’s also the well observed ironies about life on a psychiatric ward – that conveys the tedium and control, the drugs and unkindnesses without portraying the staff as villains (or at least doing so in an understated way, and appropriately.) The ‘writing behaviour’ incident is a gem, just as the discovery of his father’s about-to-be-camouflaged phrase tells a truth about love in the most difficult circumstances:                                                                We’ll beat this thing mon ami.  We’ll beat this thing together.

Beyond all else is the unsentimental recognition of love as the ultimate human endeavour.  It also uses a variety of forms to carry its plot and suspense.  The letters from the increasingly exasperated Denise Lovell, of the CMHT, are perfect.  The typewriter text is lovely too – not just to convey Matthew’s life but also the movement of his grief.  This is a very well written and hopeful book but put aside half a day because once you start reading it you’ll want to keep going to the end.