I’ve just finished reading ‘True Things About Me’, a debut novel by Deborah Kay Davies. One of World Book Night’s favourite new novelists, I thought I would give this a go as I was fascinated by the comparison to Sylvia Plath’s ‘The Bell Jar.’ And I’m so glad I did. This book shocked, amazed and entertained me – probably in that order. It’s a dark tale exploring the blackest elements of the protagonist’s psyche – and that of all of us. Lonely, desperate and actually, suprisingly normal, the book follows one woman’s rapid decline from thirty-something, single, suburban office worker to depressed, lonely, isolated woman trapped in a mentally and physically abusive relationship. Yet there is humour inter-woven with the bleakness and a sense that the protagonist ( whose name we never learn ) is mocking her newly-found destructive life style, looking in on herself and becoming fascinated at what she finds. The writing is short and snappy with clipped sentances and some wonderful imagery simply told although some of the brutally stark descriptions make reading difficult and sometimes hard to bear. Their simplicity, however, somehow gives them a kind of dark and mournful beauty. A book I just couldn’t put down, I found myself wondering just how far we will go to attain a sense of belonging and acceptance with others. Just how self-destructive can we knowingly be ? And how close are we prepared to teeter on the brink of the crumbling precipice before backing off and seeking the security of solid ground ? Read ‘True Things About Me’ and you may or may not find out…
