In the Kingdom of Air

Here's a novel that doesn't get to the point until it's ready to, with a satisfying payoff for the patient reader. It's a confessional: A man who, on the surface, cares little for commitment. He strikes the reader initially as the shallowest of libertines. But gradually, Binding draws us closer to the center of his story -- the tragedy that existed behind the quiet walls of his childhood home and the seething restlessness of the ordinary working-folk who were his neighbors. The second half of the novel gels, picks up speed, and the reader forgets all the apparent blind alleys and red herrings of the first chapters. The flashbacks are relentless, but skillfully employed. Truthfully, this was probably meant to be several novels, or perhaps several short stories ... but they work together to paint a vivid portrait of English life in the post-war decades, up to the present time.

Tim Binding is spellbinding, or at least this book is. The story of a weatherman, shameless and without conscience, shielded from the events of his childhood untill Stella Muchmore's name suddenly appears, like a ghost from the past, leaving him with a need to come clean and to discover the real truth. Set against England's great storm of '87 this wonderfully written book is funny, tragic and disturbing, and left me anxious to discover what had happened to Stella Muchmore, so much so that I stayed in bed for most of the day, forgetting to breakfast and hardly daring to breathe. Quite brilliant.