The Northern Clemency

The Northern Clemency is the unabridged audiobook adaptation of Philip Hensher's Great English Novel, a portrait of the lives of ordinary people in Sheffield as the wheels of history turn from 1974 to the close of Thatcher's government in 1996. As England transforms from a manufacturing and industrial economy into one of shops, restaurants, and service industries, the families must adapt to the change; a dramatic point of this shift is revealed in the miners' strike of 1984. Skillfully read by Carole Boyd, with tracks every three minutes for easy bookmarking, The Northern Clemency is an unforgettably picturesque and revealing novel bringing the years of the last generation to life, highly recommended. 22 CDs, 25.5 hours.

Critically acclaimed and Booker-shortlisted "The Northern Clemency (NC)"'s low average three star rating reflects the polarized reaction of readers, with many professing a rather strong loathing for it due to its extraordinary length and slow paced narrative, using words like "slog" to describe their reading experience. So I was mentally prepared for the challenge. I tackled it in four leisurely sessions and happily, far from feeling "this is like watching paint dry", I found NC a very satisfying read indeed. You follow the quietly dysfunctional and muddled lives of two families - the long resident Glovers and the recently arrived Sellers - living opposite each other in Sheffield over the span of few decades which saw the transformation of industrial relations within the mining community. While nothing truly dramatic happens to any of them, we become privy to seemingly minor revelations with darker deeper seated origins and watch how they shape the undercurrents that alter the lives of ageing parents and maturing adults along the way. The reason Philip Hensher succeeds (while other lesser writers might fail) in this commercially risky venture lies in his supreme confidence in telling about ordinary lives, making us watch their daily personal struggles and over the time he takes to tell his story come to identify with, even empathize with if not like some of these not very likeable people. That's quite an achievement. He also gives us a community of memorable minor characters like the small town nosey gossip or the pregnant nurse, which gives context and roundedness to the existence of these people. The woven tapestry has many characters embedded in its fabric but each of them - even those who appear, disappear, then reappear after decades - is an essential and integral part of the whole. By the time we get to the end of the story, members of the Glover and Sellers households would have gone their separate ways but like the plump death defying fish in the secret pond at the back of the woods, you sense that their belonging to the community is timeless and that they will have their own personal histories written wordlessly forever in the annals of the town they call home. NC is serious fiction. It isn't remotely difficult or pretentious but will be a challenging read for those without the time or the patience to allow Hensher's slow magic to work on them. Not for everybody perhaps but I enjoyed it very much.

Set in Sheffield, The Northern Clemency weaves the lives of two families together, right at the dawn of the Thatcher Era. The Glover family is in turmoil, the father disappearing as a result of suspicions about his wife's fidelity. Across the street, the Sellers family is moving in, not prepared for the adjustment from London life, to that of Sheffield. The book revolves around the children of both families, but, primarily, how the events of that day affected 10-year-old Tim Glover. Tim is a budding herpetologist, his brother, Daniel, obsessed with sex, and his quiet sister, a reader and aspiring novelist. Francis Sellers is shy and musically oriented, his sister, Sandra, is wild, unconcerned about the consequences of her actions. The book leaps forward into the 80's, and then the 90's, keeping up with the families, as England and Sheffield change around them. The families grow and change as well, each of the children moving forward in the trajectory started on that day when they all met. Some of them are making a success of their lives, others being left behind, much as the changing English economy affected those in the North. Hensher really ties that English history into the day-to-day parts of the story; it never feels imposed, but just part of the scenery of life, necessary to know the changes of the seasons. Ultimately, Sandra is faced with the consequences of her actions that day--Tim never really having been able to overcome everything that happened, and needing some form of resolution. The Northern Clemency is one of those books you describe as slow, but not as a reason not to read it. The action is all in the language and words. There are slow moments in the traditional sense of the word, but the sweep of the story makes them inconsequential. The Northern Clemency was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and wasn't received in time for inclusion in last month's Booker reviews.

Don't let some of the words used to describe "The Northern Clemency," words like "epic," "rambling," or "stream of consciousness," discourage you from taking up this wonderful novel. It is none of these things. Certainly it is the complicated and intricate story of two English families, a story that is set mostly, but not entirely, in Sheffield, and extends from the Thatcher years to a time not far from the present. The members of the two families, the Sellerses and the Glovers, total nine characters, each of whom is gradually but fully developed, so the novel does, at first, feel like a Russian novel, except that there is no handy list of characters inside the front cover for consultation. So it's best to read this book when you have a little time, and slowly you'll be drawn in, until you can't put the book down. The novel does not ramble. It is intricately plotted, and even when it ranges as far abroad as Australia, its events seem natural and inevitable. As for "stream of consciousness," no, no, no. "Ulysses" it isn't---except in the sense that the writing is wonderful. In some ways, it will remind you of a John Updike novel in its evocation of the humble quotidian beauty of life in a suburb where people eat Coronation Chicken and fish pie, shop for groceries at the Gateway, and buy their children's school uniforms at Cole's. What's unusual about this novel is its sense of mystery. The two couples at the center of the novel, Katherine and Malcolm Glover and Alice and Bernie Sellers, have marriages that are complicated but somehow familiar in their arguments, joys, and disappointments. But who can account for the ways in which children spin away from their parents in ways unpredictable and strange? How do parents produce children whose only links to each other seem to be their last names and their DNA? It happens all the time, of course. With the phrase "So the garden" the ending of the novel circles back to its beginning. When I finished reading, I turned back to the opening pages, and in looking at the names of the characters, whose fate I now knew, I realized that I would read this book all over again.

The story is set in Sheffield, an industrial city 200 miles outside of London. It is told over 3 decades (1970's to 90's) and is centered on 2 families who live opposite from each other on same street. Malcolm and Katherine Glover and their family (teenagers Daniel and Jane and 10 year told Tim) were all born and raised in Sheffield and are portrayed as a dysfunctional family. Malcolm works for a building society, gardens in their backyard in his spare time and partakes in civil war re-enactments. While his wife Katherine decides it's time to get out of the house and take a part time job in a new florist shop - where she eventually falls for the owner. Their oldest son Daniel is handsome and spends his time in pursuit of girls. Jane is bookish and dreams of being an author and writing poetry. While young Timothy has an obsession with Snakes. In contrast, the Sellers' family is comparatively normal and is adjusting to the move to the decaying city of Sheffield from London. * The story is dense and thick on ordinary life. At 597 pages, this is not a breezy, page turning romp. Henser takes us inside the day-to-day life of each family and the relationship between the two families and their children. The book is dense with details of the daily lives of its characters - and it brings color to what goes on behind closed doors of the daily life of middle and working class Britons - - sharing marital problems - - teenagers going through adolescence - - neighbors trying to keep up to their neighbors - - families pretending everything is ok when reality is something altogether different - - gossip - - brutality of kids in school mistreating new kids and on and on. Normal, regular life - shared colorfully in minute detail and as some reviewers coin Henser's "forensic eye for detail and exactness." Here's an example: "Bernie was gritting his teeth: he was stuck between lorries, thundering along at a frustrating ten miles an hour below the speed limit, boxed in by faster lines of traffic solidly flowing to the right. He felt like a box on a conveyor belt." * This book tests your reading muscles. The book is separated into 5 sections with the story jumping around between families and individuals and then jumping forward in time - not fully filling in what happened in the gaps but enough to keep you connected, fully engaged and turning the pages. * The story is deeply introspective and gets you in the mind of the principal characters. Hensher has piercing insights into his characters and how they get through and cope with the day-to-day struggles of life - you become part of the community and the character's individual lives - the secrets, the misunderstandings, the dramas - and you see that those that should be so close as kin are so far away from truly understanding each other. Here's a passage about Jane on a family trip to the country: "But Jane's pleasure was being ruined by the noises and silences in the car. Her father's concentrati