Novel of the week Jake Kerridge
IN THE SEEING HANDS OF OTHERS
★★★★☆
To begin with the afterword, Nat Ogle’s debut novel ends with an essay on why writing it may not have been a good idea. Coming from a family of healthcare professionals, he is beset by guilt at having become an author instead of something useful like a nurse, and has “misgivings about the utility of literature in the face of material hardship and suffering”.
As the novel is about a woman coming to terms with being raped, he also frets about having appropriated as his subject “a form of suffering that I myself… cannot experience”, and hopes that the book justifies its existence by “cast[ing] a light on the social and economic causes of certain forms of suffering”. If it fails on that score, he muses, “maybe I’ll look for another, more honourable career”. But I hope Ogle sticks with the dishonourable business of literature for now; he looks set to be a damn good novelist.
The bulk of the book comprises extracts from the blog of Corina, a nurse, and from the journals of her ex-boyfriend Cameron, whom Corina has accused of raping her. The rest is made up of documents – police interview transcripts, character reference letters, and so on – collectively suggesting that people become more rather than less of a mystery the more “evidence” you accumulate about them. You can tell Cameron is not to be trusted because he has an artsy, non-useful job (he’s an actor) but although it quickly becomes apparent that his psyche is a very dark place, Ogle manages to make him a convincing, sympathetic and entertaining character. Even more impressively, he does the same for the virtuous and compassionate Corina.
It’s Ogle’s ability to create characters who hold the attention that stands out here, rather than his analysis of the social and economic causes of suffering. Let us hope that, rather than downing tools, he comes to think that’s worth doing for its own sake.