York Ferry

Annie Dawid's York Ferry follows a couple of decades in the life of a 1960s family from the time that the father abandons the family forward. The format feels more like a group of related short stories than a novel, and, indeed, many of the chapters appeared in literary magazines as short stories. The book lacks the improbable MFA seminar "staginess" that can afflict this type of work. Instead, it is down to earth and in the main believable. The attempt to tie together a theme and some of the attempted "subtleties" of the plot seem a bit too pat. Certain of the more "clever" devices--the epistolary "presence" of the (highly dissatisying) father, the "neat" way in which the daughter's evolution is "connected back" into her family in the final chapter, might have been left on the cutting room floor, but Dawid still rates the five star ranking, because, stated simply, Dawid can write. Dawid can reallly write. Her characters are people whom you might wish to meet. The tone of this novel has an air of dysfunction and despair, but you never get the sense that these characters are wretches. Dawid makes these people interesting and real. If you like real reads about real people which neither get shrouded in cotton candy nor lost in despair, pick up York Ferry. It's a good read.