It's hard to pinpoint exactly what I like about Waidner's books, and I recognise very much the ways they might frustrate and confuse other people. I think it's like, the dreamscapes they make are both very appealing to me in themselves and also recontextualise real world issues in a way that skips my defences about things being too cringe or sincere or whatever by taking something weird sincerely but in a way that also obviously analogises to real life. I think it's something you either instantly warm to or you find alienating. I like it. It's sentimental and sincere and meaningful and fascinating ( )

The Fun in Fah
Review of the Hamish Hamilton hardcover edition (July 13, 2023).

Was I in the wrong place, I wondered. Had I misunderstood the instructions. Detail had, I want to say, not been forthcoming. More like, withheld. 'It'll be self-explanatory,' the prize coordinator had said. The assumption had been that a winner would know how to collect. That prize culture etiquette, its unwritten rules and regulations, would be second nature to them. But I didn't, know how to collect, and they weren't, second nature to me. I'd not won an award before, and neither had anybody I knew.

In a future world, writer Corey Fah wins a literary award, but faces a Catch-22 where they can't collect the prize money until they have the physical trophy in hand. The trophy is unfortunately airborne and subject to teleportation. Trying to capitalize on their overnight success Fah goes on a TV show "St Orton Gets to the Bottom of It" (a show that attempts to find the truth about the existence of wormholes), where their appearance is ruined by Fah's mutant 8-legged spider/deer Bambi Pavok. The host St. Orton disappears and Fah agrees to become a replacement with their own show "Corey Fah Does Social Mobility." Fah is able to find a solution to it all in the end.

See photo at https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/f23d5548cb942e9a63284b261f7471c01c725efa/139_633_...
A photograph of the author Isabel Waidner by Karen Robinson, The Observer. Image sourced from The Guardian (see link below).

This mind-bending fantasy adventure from author Isabel Waidner follows their own Goldsmith's Prize winner Sterling Karat Gold (2021) which I reviewed as a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ star Solid Gold Fun. This time the inspiration is Waidner's own inability to collect an actual trophy for the Goldsmith's (due to the pandemic) with a further science fiction slant of turning London into a future international capital where Czech appears to be the new lingua franca and the existence of wormholes transports characters such as playwright Joe Orton (1933-1967) into a future where he is rescued from his own murder. And I'm not even getting into the mutant creatures inspired by Disney movies and the bizarre venison-burger chain "Frikadellen".

See photo at https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/5/7/139947...
A photograph of the playwright Joe Orton. Image sourced from Joe Orton: his brief but brilliant theatre career - in pictures at The Guardian, May 7, 2014.

This was an entertaining novel from Waidner which combined science-fiction with parody and commentary on social issues and phenomena. I've enjoyed everything from Waidner since their first books Gaudy Bauble (2017) and We Are Made Of Diamond Stuff (2019), which I was introduced to thanks to the Republic of Consciousness Prize, where they have been consistently nominated.

Other Reviews
A Surreal Journey by Lara Pawson, The Guardian, July 7, 2023.
Playfully Surreal Dark Fable by Em Strang, The Observer, July 16, 2023. ( )