I Am Sovereign by Nicola Barker
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Self-Help and Its Discontents

Nicola Barker is a master of literary slapstick - psychological as well as physical. The choreography of her set pieces (packed into 20 minutes of a house viewing in Llandudno) is excelled by no one. She is Chaplin with a pen (or touch pad). She could have written scripts for Peter Sellers or Rowan Atkinson. And she has no hesitation about inviting the reader into rehearsals either. Her characters are inadequate in all the right ways - too much or too little motherly love, striving to be anything other than what they are, and, of course, unrelentingly hapless. They are determined to improve themselves. But this means fighting against the very selves which they are. They are ridiculously neurotic, therefore, which makes them... well, lovable.

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