It’s nine years since I reviewed Nicola Barker’s The Cauliflower® describing it as a Marmite novel – love it or hate it for those not acquainted with the expression. Her new one, TonyInterruptor, is more conventional although not a novel that lends itself to an easy synopsis, tossing around ideas between its small cast of characters as it explores the fallout from an interruption at a jazz improvisation gig which goes viral.
Doesn’t someone have to take things seriously, though? Does the ENTIRE FUCKING WORLD need to spend all its spare time idly watching cat videos on TikTok?
The question which interrupts the concert’s flow is inadvertently filmed by sixteen-year-old India who posts it on her Instagram, thrilled by the number of likes and followers it attracts. Alerted to this in the backroom postmortem after the gig, Sasha Keyes lets forth a diatribe, dubbing the questioner TonyInterrruptor, covertly filmed by a band member who hashtags his post with it. The usual hysteria, hateful comments and brief fame ensues from the posts sending fault lines through the lives of those involved. India’s father finds himself entranced by Fi, a fellow academic and the band member who attracts the worst vitriol, her embarrassed fiddling with her hair accidentally sparking an artistic collaboration between them. His wife’s obsession with TonyInterruptor results in an accident, a heavy dose of painkillers and an apparently profound and life-changing exchange. Three years later, several lives have undergone surprising transformations not least John Lincoln Braithwaite’s aka TonyInterruptor.
It pretends to be all cuddly – marching under the banner of “inclusion” and a deep concern for other people’s “well-being” – but if you dare to tilt that friendly mask by so much as an inch, you’re staring straight into the face of a New Fundamentalism, an obsession with self and the protection of self at all or any cost
Although the fallout from a social media post is hardly an original premise, Barker approaches it in her own inimitable way, turning her book into a novel of ideas while amusing her readers with her characters’ reactions, pontifications and behaviour. TonyInterruptor doesn’t play much of a part in proceedings until the final section which sees him consulting on the setting up of an art installation inadvertently triggered by his famous interruption. Barker’s novel is very funny at times, smartly skewering artistic and intellectual pretensions. Her work is never easy to review, and I’ve certainly not done this one justice. It offers her readers much to contemplate about honesty, the influence of social media, authenticity and relationships, at the same time making them laugh and wince in recognition.
Granta Books: London 9781803512549 224 pages Hardback (read via NetGalley)
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I think that it is good to remind us that social media is something to be treated with caution.
I agree. It’s all too easy to get sucked into it.
I agree. Especially with the advent of AI, social media is something we should all be very wary of. An item I read on the news yesterday, gave a truly scary vision of what the future might hold.
There are many positives but we all need to be well aware of the opposite.
I bounced hard off the only Nicola Barker I’ve tried (Burley Cross Postbox Theft) and I haven’t quite dared to try her again since, though I’m sure I’m missing out.
I’ve not enjoyed everything I’ve read by her but I admire her wacky inventiveness. This one is much more accessible.
Love Nicola Barker – and this is waiting to be read next.
I’m sure you’ll enjoy this one, Annabel. She left me with lots to think about.
Started it last night – and I am loving it. There are similarities with Universality by Natasha Brown in that she takes one event and spirals out with it (but in a totally different style) with many (asides) that are making me chuckle.
She’s such a smart thinker, isn’t she, and entertaining with it. A real one-off! I’m looking forward to reading Universality.
I don’t know Barker’s work, but I’m intrigued by this one. You’re right that the fallout from a social media post is not a new premise, but I think there’s plenty of ground to explore. Whether it’s cyber-bullying of kids or racial/misogynistic abuse of celebrities, there are so many stories of people seeming to forget that the profiles they see on social media conceal real human beings who may suffer real harms from a few casually typed words of abuse or ridicule.
Exactly that! Barker’s an acquired taste but this is one of her more accessble novels. It’s the exploration of the aftermath of the post over time that marks it out from other books with a similar theme.
I’ve read a couple of books by Barker and really enjoyed them so very much looking forward to this. I know what you mean about her being hard to categorise/ review!
I hope you like it, Cathy. I have the feeling her head is buzzing with ideas.
I haven’t read any of Barker but the topic sounds really interesting. Reminds of the Australian book The Slap, where one instantaneous incident spirals.
That’s a good comparison. I seem to remember The Slap caused quite a kerfuffle!
This sounds very interesting–especially the cringe and laugh at the pretentious stuff.
She’s a very idiosyncratic writer. I like the way she makes her readers think while entertaining them.
I was such a fan of Barker and then I completely lost track of her. I really must pick her up again, you’ve reminded me how idiosyncratic she is.
She’s truly original, isn’t she; a rare thing.
I’ve only read one of Barker’s (she’s not quite as easy to find over here) but found in it all that you’ve highlighted here too. She reminds me a little of the American writer Lionel Shriver (if you’ve read her, maybe she doesn’t cross your way!), but I think Shriver is a little more traditional style-wise maybe and more consistent in that regard too, across her oeuvre?
Oh, yes, she lived in the UK for quite a while. I’m not a fan, I’m afraid, although I remember being impressed by Ordinary Decent Criminals, one of her early ones.