Book Review: "A Tidy Ending" by Joanna Cannon

“I’ve never taken anything stronger than an aspirin, but they give out all sorts from that trolley. Things to make you more happy, things to make you less happy. Except it’s someone else deciding exactly how happy you need to be, which is a flaw in the system no one else seems to acknowledge. The drugs trolley is very popular, at least with some. They’re queuing up ready for their turn long before it’s time, waiting for a tiny plastic cup containing just the right amount of happiness.”

I have read a few works by Joanna Cannon in my time. I remember that whilst I was doing my Master's Degree (some years' ago now) I heard there was a book coming out by her and so, I preordered it. Three Things About Elsie proved to be a comedy-crime blended classic of dark jokes and brilliant timing. Also, who doesn't like a book that looks like Battenberg Cake? This was after I had read The Trouble with Goats and Sheep whilst I was on my undergraduate degree (maybe somewhere in the middle). Both of those books had been a blast and so, I have been really looking forward to this ever since I found it.

The book begins with Joanna Cannon's usual light-hearted introduction of some self-depricating protagonist who tells their own story through the lenses of other people. "How would (X) think about me..." is a question that may seem narcissistic and banal but generates some very interesting and funny answers. This sets the reader up quite nicely to start asking their own questions of Linda - a woman unhappily married to the bleak and boring Terry. Linda - who has a mother she makes random jokes about now and again. Linda - who doesn't think too much of herself apart from the fact that she can't stop talking about herself.

The book develops to revolve around a strange series of crimes in which Linda notices things around her start to change. People become distant whilst others become closer, she starts to notice her husband acting strangely and changes in herself are also visible. I think that the only thing people everywhere didn't particularly like about this book was the ending but I personally thought it was an apt way to end the story (nice try, I'm not going to tell you what it is). Let's take a look at the clear advantages of the novel apart from its powerful dark humour and disaffected, unreliable protagonist.

The narrative takes place in two different time states "Now" which is the present and "Then" which is the past. I like this style but starting off with four chapters in "Now" can make the reading of the story and becoming engrossed in it really disjointed. Joanna Cannon does it really well though I do think that the "Now" at the beginning would have been better as a simple prologue just to get the reader going. The "Then" chapters are the ones you really need to be paying attention to before both of these timelines begin to converge. It will give you all the information that helps with understanding the background to the whole thing.

Joanna Cannon's witty writing style helps the reader on their journey to reading this book because of its readability. The kinds of crimes that are within the text are more than often quite difficult and heavy to read, however with a little bit of comic relief, Cannon makes the easier to digest. This can also be easier to digest alongside very dull characters like Terry and the fact that sometimes, our main character can come to weird conclusions based on only half of the evidence. These keep misleading the reader and also make for a bit of a jittery narrative. So whilst the wit is very useful, the overtalking and over-the-top nature of Linda can make for a difficulty in understanding what is actually going through her head. Otherwise, it is simply that thinking is not Linda's strong suit. (Also, when you get to the end you will probably realise why this is).

All in all, I thought Joanna Cannon's book Three Things About Elsie was a little bit better than this but then again, who could possibly top that? Witty and interesting, thought-provoking and current - I thought that this book had some very interesting concept apart from some minor annoyances with the writing style and structure.