KEY POINTS:
A more well-rounded work than Jon Canter's highly acclaimed first novel, Seeds of Greatness, A Short Gentleman is an intelligent, laugh-out-loud page-turner - the reader is literally swept along by the well-plotted prose.
The novel is cleverly populated with a cast of well-crafted characters and all manner of red herrings, and the reader is offered equal parts humour and drama as the story unfolds.
Robert Purcell committed a crime and was sent to prison. His wife, Elizabeth, has urged him to put his life on paper so he can work through his "issues" one at a time, and, therefore, gain some perspective on who he is and what he has become.
But this novel is not written as an apology, nor is it an attempt to legitimise and rationalise his behaviour - it is, in his own words, a confession. Purcell leads us through his overly ordered and fastidiously planned life: he attends good schools, achieves excellent marks, has an impressive career as a barrister, marries a beautiful and intelligent woman, has wonderful children, and ever-supportive parents.
Along the way, however, we learn that he is an intense snob who has absolutely no idea how to be happy - he can neither relax nor, it seems, love. Meanwhile, all the men about him, the ridiculous dreamer Bell, the dog-snogging bully Pilkington, and the market savvy "Guy the Guy", are not only his antagonists, but his antitheses - while they all lack a moral compass, they do know how to "feel" and how to "love", which ultimately gives them an advantage over our emotionally illiterate hero.
Although they are more "human" than Purcell, he is ultimately the one the reader empathises with. He might be wooden and robotic, but he always does the right thing no matter how disadvantageous this may be, and we cannot but admire him for that.
Through Purcell's story we learn that all of our actions, no matter how small or insignificant, can impact on us further down the line. Purcell does not understand this: he believes that his planning and attention to detail will allow him to overcome all that life throws in his way. For the most part, he is right.
But when the bad luck arrives, it comes in spades - he is, unwittingly, it transpires, the architect of his own downfall. A Short Gentleman is one part morality tale, one part tragedy, two parts comedy, and one part love story.
It takes the reader on a journey into one man's seemingly normal life and lights up all his idiosyncrasies for the world to witness. What we see is a little piece of ourselves in the strangeness of Robert Purcell, and while it is certain to make us laugh it may also bring the odd tear.
* Steve Scott is an Auckland reviewer.
A Short Gentleman - By Jon Canter
(Jonathan Cape $54.99)
- NZ Herald
