Precipiceby Jay Mandal
Published by BeWrite Books 2005
ISBN: 1-904492-74-6
Regular readers of The Independent Gay Writer will know that Jay Mandal has a humorous take on life. As his soon to be re-released collection of short stories, Slubberdegullion, demonstrates, he is a dab hand at exploring the comic possibilities of misunderstandings and false assumptions. Even so, his first novel, The Dandelion Clock, demonstrated that he is not afraid to tackle difficult subjects. Not only is he not afraid, he does it with great sensitivity and total conviction.
So it was with pleasurable expectation that I took up his latest novel, Precipice. The opening word, “Cancer”, was rather ominous and left me wondering what was coming next. Would it all prove too much? I need not have worried: I was in the hands of a master. Although Precipice explores a potentially melodramatic theme – bereavement and recovery – it does so deftly and sensitively, engaging the reader from the first page. What in less capable hands could have been a self-indulgent wallow, here becomes an uplifting story of love lost and love found. All too often, when an author deals with an emotionally demanding theme, the reader ends up feeling alienated and abused. Such is not the case with Precipice.
It is the story of a gay couple, Matt and Jamie, and the precipice of the title is an emotional one. Their relationship is put to the test when one of them is diagnosed as having cancer. It is easy to imagine what Hollywood would do with this theme; there would be celestial choirs and violins and we would be manipulated into wallowing in sentimentality. Our thinking would be done for us, our expected responses clearly signposted. Jay Mandal is too skilled a writer to treat his readers in this way. This is not to say that certain scenes in Precipice do not require the reader to have a box of Kleenex handy but ultimately this is an engaging and encouraging book. Lovers of happy endings will not be disappointed – “the deeper the darkness, the brighter the morn.”
Mr. Mandal develops his theme with consummate skill, unflinchingly exploring the lacerating experience that is grief and describing its inevitable emotional consequences with a forensic realism that wholly engages the reader and is utterly compelling. The psychological states of both Matt, who has the cancer, and of his partner, Jamie, are described movingly and convincingly. Anyone who has experienced the loss of someone close will note with sad recognition Matt’s anxiety to shield his partner, always with humour, from the worst. Grief renders us all incoherent at the deepest level of our being. We spend its aftermath trying to impose order on our traumatic experiences in an attempt to cope with their aftermath, repeatedly re-telling the tale until it satisfies our need for closure. Jamie’s attempts to navigate this process and the way that grief can creep up from nowhere and overwhelm one are movingly dealt with.
Of course, the book is not all doom and gloom. That would be insupportable. The reader is treated to flashbacks to happier times and accompanies Jamie on his journey to acceptance and healing. Comic relief is provided in the shape of their mutual friend, Richard, a cynic who, like all cynics, is a disappointed romantic. His flippancy is simply his armour and, eventually, he proves his worth. Family members, friends and colleagues are all brought into the story and their reactions also have an immediately recognisable honesty about them. The inadequacy and incomprehension of straight society in the face of gay relationships is not shirked.
In short, Precipice is a remarkable book. It is a rare author who can take his readers through the gamut of emotions and not leave them feeling in some way cheated. This story is wholly absorbing from the first until the last page and, far from being led by the nose, the reader is taken by the hand on a journey of emotional discovery. I am lost in admiration at Jay Mandal’s skill and cannot recommend this book too highly – a remark he would no doubt find ambiguous but meant in the best sense. Jay Mandal’s steadily growing reputation as a writer of considerable wit and emotional honesty can only be enhanced by his latest novel. Not to be missed!
That is not all. As a bonus the book concludes with a selection of nine short stories, ranging from the comic to the sad. Various types of relationship from the rocky to the rock solid are anatomised with as much skill as the weightier novel. I hope it will not be long before Mr. Mandal turns his attention to another, equally as absorbing a tale as Precipice. There are all too few novels as finely honed as his.
Tony Heyes