Mark Henshaw (1) (1951–)

Mark Henshaw published his first novel in 1988; it was willfully metafictional (it was the '80s, and he is Australian), but beautifully written and great fun.

Then, nothing.

And here we have his second novel (not counting two crime novels), a mere twenty-seven years later.

And he's learned a lot from those two crime novels. The metafiction here is buried, but all the more fun for that: we have Inspector Jovert (whom I like to imagine as a particularly grizzled Russell Crowe). We have a novel of love and Japanese university life, involving trips to and from the provinces, and a character called Natsumi (cf: Natsume Soseki, and his Sanshiro). We have echoes of everything you've ever read about the French and the war in Algeria.

He's also learned that readers enjoy suspense, but the suspense here is astonishingly strange, and requires a lot of trust in the author. What we can't wait to find out, in short, is why we're hearing the stories we hear at all. What looks like it will be a policier or noir suddenly turns into one of those "then so and so sat down and told me this story" tales, but with no indication whatsoever why we, or Inspector Jovert, is listening to what he's hearing. Rest assured, dear reader, it is made clear (pace some other reviewers), though it's not at all easy to piece everything together.

The form is by far the best thing about this wonderful book, but there are also some harrowing moments, particularly if, like me, you have a brand new child.

Anyway, despite the rather cheesy opening sentence, you should all go and read this book.… (altro)

Ah, back when you could write a perfectly realistic story and surround it with a meta-narrative framework and felt fresh! I don't remember the days, but I'm sure they existed, and Henshaw writes so cleanly and amusingly that I can even forgive him the genuinely precious moments. I have no idea how this novel would sit with someone even less familiar than I am with Henshaw's discussion group (Musil, Calvino, Kant, etc...) But if you have some idea what those fellows were up to, you might enjoy this book.

I enjoyed it, I think, because its *positive* about literature's unreliability etc., rater than bemoaning the inability of words to adequately represent reality. Also, it has a gleefully scurrilous 'plot' and very funny set-pieces. I've been reading a lot of Sebald lately, in an attempt to work out why people like him, and I see a lot of Henshaw and Sebald in each other, with the important caveat that Henshaw seems smart, is funny, and, implausibly enough given the sections on German idealism and how it developed or was challenged by phenomenology and Heideggerian thought, *less* pretentious.

So if you like Sebald, or don't like him that much but do like the whole "is it him or isn't it? how much of this is real, and how much is not?" thing, try Henshaw.… (altro)

discussed as a pair with https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2367510614

What a fascinating pair to read back to back. Payment Deferred is a very modern psychological thriller which hooks the reader in from the start: an astonishing work to come up with in the 1920s by a young man at the start of his career. The Snow Kimono might also be defined as a psychological thriller, as long and meandering as Forester's is to the point. And, again in contrast, Henshaw's novel is the first he'd written for 25 years, having a normal career after realising that there would be no money in writing for him.

I suspect that Henshaw is too clever for me. I spent too much time wondering what I was doing. Whereas CS Forester knows exactly what you are doing. Following the journey this simple question takes you on: will the murderer get away with his deed? And despite - or perhaps because of - the implications of the title, the reader is sort of barracking (in the Australian usage of the word) for the petty man who acts on this big idea.

https://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpress.com/2018/04/20/payment-deferred-by-cs-fo...… (altro)

discussed as a pair with https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2367510614

What a fascinating pair to read back to back. Payment Deferred is a very modern psychological thriller which hooks the reader in from the start: an astonishing work to come up with in the 1920s by a young man at the start of his career. The Snow Kimono might also be defined as a psychological thriller, as long and meandering as Forester's is to the point. And, again in contrast, Henshaw's novel is the first he'd written for 25 years, having a normal career after realising that there would be no money in writing for him.

I suspect that Henshaw is too clever for me. I spent too much time wondering what I was doing. Whereas CS Forester knows exactly what you are doing. Following the journey this simple question takes you on: will the murderer get away with his deed? And despite - or perhaps because of - the implications of the title, the reader is sort of barracking (in the Australian usage of the word) for the petty man who acts on this big idea.

https://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpress.com/2018/04/20/payment-deferred-by-cs-fo...… (altro)