by Michael Dibdin
Thank God for 'Thanksgiving.' Or, more precisely, thank Michael Dibdin (b. 1947� now, is it just me - or do loads of great authors seem to have been in this same year?!).
This slice of drama is one of the easiest books I've read, and yet it's five 'episodes' are still challengingly presented.
The gist of the tale focuses on a middle-aged man called Anthony who's wife Lucy has just died. He's not known her long and is obviously bitter about the tragic accident. Wanting to know more about her life before they met each other, he sets out into the Nevada desert to meet, greet, chat and possibly kill (out of jealously - for all the good times they had shared as a couple, long before the Lucy-obsessed Ant came into her life) her first husband. And if you aren't captivated by the opening paragraph, well - I don't know!� 'At night in the desert you can see for ever, which is where Lucy first appears.'
Darryl Bob Allen is her first hubbie's name, and he taunts Ant like mad about the wild sex in particular they had when Lucy was in her 20's and nymphomaniacally primed to the max. He taunts Anthony deliberately to breaking point and it's a miracle he doesn't shoot Allen dead, but he refrains�
So it's a shock in chapter two - entitled 'Not Here' - when the police get in touch with Anthony after his meeting with him, relaying news of Allen's death - and suspecting Anthony. Who else?
Then the novel takes a fascinating, bewildering detour back in time through the middle 'Window Or Aisle?' section as Anthony tells all about how he and the wife of his dreams first met, on a nondescript plane flight to destiny.
As if that chapter isn't unexpected progression enough in the way the story unfolds, 'Here Comes The Night' which follows on is a conversation-only chapter revealing just how well the two got on and knew each other, the author Dibdin showing how even the smallest of quirky chit-chats can be affectionate and captivating� before the final chapter in the all-essential, absolutely brilliant 'Thanksgiving Day' brings a chill to the spine first, before a warm glow to the heart as Anthony - literally feeling haunted and a prisoner of his late, beloved wife - finally accepts that he's got to move on and make the most of the family that proudly remains around him. While the story touches on an intoxicating supernatural angle (is Lucy-the-ghost for real or is it all in his head?), it is only briefly, ensuring all is always utterly conceivable and believable and poignantly real� while the very final paragraph is a bold testament to Anthony's deep-down strong-willed character.
The moral of the story is� appreciate everything, and take nobody & nothing for granted. Oh, and giving thanks for all that is good is life shouldn't be a bind but a joy.
Thankyou indeed. (STEVE RUDD)
Details� 'Thanksgiving' first published by Faber & Faber, 2000. ISBN 0-571-20778-2
'Sexual ecstasy doesn't foster verbal inventiveness.'