Shena Mackay's latest novel "Heligoland" has been shortlisted for several prestigious UK book awards including the Orange Prize. That comes as no surprise as Mackay's pedigree is quite impeccable and "Heligoland" is just the sort of novel that's aimed at book critics to win heaps of prizes but will be challenged to sell ten copies to the great reading public inside (let alone outside) the Great Britain. Put simply, it is too writer-ly, obscure, quirky and parochial in its orientation and for that reason won't be a natural candidate for any reader's recommended reading list.
Mackay's story about a bunch of socially inept, period outcasts, antiquated relics and leftovers from the last world war, squatting and living uncomfortably together in a clamber-shell shaped building in South London called the Nautilus doesn't offer a very promising premise for an interesting story. It wouldn't be so bad to have the plot randomly overrun by a wide cast of tedious, colourless and instantly forgettable minor characters if we had solid central characters to serve as anchor for the story. The truth is that neither Rowena Snow - the novel's heroine - Celeste Zylberstein, Francis Campion, nor Gus Crabb make compelling characters. They're drab and boring and they don't leave any impression and that's the crux of the problem.
Mackay's prose is flawless, beautifully crafted and vividly imagined in fine descriptive language but it is also economical to a fault. Dialogue is used so sparingly there's a distinct lack of immediacy to the plot, causing the scenes to run into each other. Besides, Mackay makes no concession to the foreign reader, so you're likely to be lost (like me) in the face of constant references to landmarks, places and objects that will have no meaning to anyone living outside of the locale. It's not until you reach the final 30 pages or so that things start to happen, some measure of coherence is established and you begin to see the point of it all. By then, it's too late and you're just relieved you've made it to the end. And it's a short book.
Book prize nominee or not, I really didn't enjoy "Heligoland". The critics seem to love it. They have made their case but I cannot honestly imagine it having much of an appeal to the general reading public.
