Douglas Stuart: John Of John book review – A masterclass in quiet devastation
The Shuggie Bain author’s latest novel simmers with repression, religion and longing
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‘Islands within islands’ is how Douglas Stuart describes the emotional boundaries we build around ourselves in John Of John, the Booker Prize-winning author’s third novel. The Isle Of Harris is home to returning son John-Calum after an abortive attempt at life in the big city. Hemmed in between the unwavering gaze of his god-fearing presbyterian father John, and his mercurial maternal grandmother Ella, Cal grasps for redemption while slowly being suffocated by a splintered past.
This book is the epitome of a slow burner. The discipline in Stuart’s writing, in how he conveys shame and desire while shepherding the rage and impotence of masculinity, is like keeping a thoroughbred on a short rein. It would be easy to ignite the central tension of Cal’s youthful recklessness and burgeoning sexuality butting against his father’s grim stoicism and forbidden yearning. But Stuart fully understands the power of restraint. When he finally does spur those flanks, the surge of urgency and emotion churns like the Corryvreckan at spring tide.
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It’s the little details that really get under the fingernails. The parochialism of island life and the delicate intensity of religious tradition colour the book throughout, outlined and filled in by the harsh reality of a crofter’s existence. Stuart’s sensitivity to the Gaelic language and the craft of the weaver’s loom swaddles his reader in a rich environment. This is the kind of novel that acts as a looking glass into the last glowing embers of a now unrecognisable way of life. Shuggie Bain may have won him all the plaudits, but here Douglas Stuart has matured into a writer of considered strength and self-control. The drama of distance, quiet longing and words left unsaid shouts louder and cuts deeper than any flashy excess. John Of John is a novel of secrets and lies.
John Of John is published by Picador on Thursday 21 May.