BR: Surrender (Sonya Hartnett)

Amazon Link: Surrender

One word describes this book: bleak.

There is not one single shred of happiness in the entire story, not even anything that comes remotely close. From the opening lines:

I am dying: it's a beautiful world. Like the long slow sigh of a cello: dying. But the sound of it is the only beautiful thing about it.

it goes downhill for Anwell, the protagonist who in the opening chapter is twenty years old and dying. As the story progresses, he imagines events from his past that have led him here, and driven him to what he must do.

This book won the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for fiction in 2005. Sonya Hartnett is a gifted writer, her style is enviable and polished, but this book didn't work for me. Don't get me wrong, I adore depressing stories, I hunt those suckers down and consume them like candy, but this goes beyond depressing, it's downright awful -- so awful as to be unbelievable.

It's soon obvious that Anwell (who for part of the book calls himself Gabriel), is mentally ill. Schitzophrenic, I suspect, or something more pathologically unstable than that. The reader relies on him as narrator, but he is patently unreliable and at the end of the book I am uncertain as to what was truth and what was imagined, which I actually do like and one of the reasons why I'm not rating this book lower.

Anwell's upbringing was one of neglect and abuse. His older brother, a boy with serious mental retardation, is left in Anwell's care when their mother retreats to her room and their father escapes the house. Anwell is seven years old. The outcome is tragic and Anwell's future is cursed from that point on (though, arguably, he was cursed from the moment he was born).

As a young teen, he is hounded in school, hated by the townsfolk, misunderstood and belittled by his parents, physically punished for even the mildest of indiscretions. He has no friends, no hope, nothing but misery and anguish... until Finnigan comes along.

Finnigan is a wild boy, dark eyed, dark haired, full of mischief and evil intent. He plays the role of the dark avenger, seeking retribution for anyone who errs against Anwell (who refers to himself as Gabriel, an angel). When the small town is plagued by a series of arson attacks, Anwell knows that Finnigan is responsible and it both thrills and scares him. Over the following years, Finnigan comes and goes, living in the dark forest nearby, a force unto himself and beyond Anwell's influence.

Surrender is Gabriel's dog, but later he becomes Finnigan's. You'll have to read the book to see how and why that happens, and similarly, I won't say anything more about the plot because to do so will give it away.

Unfortunately, I can't say I will recommend this book. It is well written, though I felt that the poeticism of Sonya's writing was heavy handed, and the bleakness over done. Every chance she had to draw the mood into darkness, she took it. I became numb to it, desensitized, like relying on a tool that has lost its shine and sharp edge through overuse.

In reading about the novel, I learn that comparisons are made to 'I am the Cheese', by Robert Cormier. I have read that book and I enjoyed it, and yes, in reflection there are similarities, however Cormier's book worked for me, this one didn't.

I didn't find the story depressing, unsetting or objectionable, just... consistently bleak. There were no high points, and no low points because the book started out pretty much as low as one can go. It doesn't get much worse than a character who is paper thin and coughing up blood. In reading this book, I have learned that I need for there to be hope in a story, even if it's misguided (as in 'I am the Cheese') and eventually thwarted, it doesn't matter, I need there to be a reason for me to be drawn through the book. Surrender lacked that, and for all the beautiful writing (because, yes, Sonya really is gifted), without hope there is no point.

As an aside, Spider worked well for me as a film-based example of this type of story -- an unreliable narrator on a platform of crippling mental illness. That film was intricate, sombre, moody and dark, and unashamedly bleak... but it had hope, even if that was all dashed at the end, while it lasted, it kept me connected.

Rating: ***1/2 out of five.