Review: The Underwharf by Gaby Naher

I found a copy Naher's debut novel from buried amongst a pile of books at my local secondhand store. Something about the front cover, with its colouring that is as garish as it is dark and lack of capital letters anywhere, made it clear that this one was a relic from the mid-1990s a long-forgotten era in Australian publishing, where publishers tried to appeal to a younger market by making their books look a bit different and a bit more hardcore than what the adults were reading, drew me to the book. What the hell was this old thing? Would it be any good. And, frankly, it's kind of a shame that this book has such a strange cover and the unusual font used inside (Rotis Semi Serif,) is a bit distracting because the story itself is bloody brilliant.

The Underwarf switches between the past, present and future to tell the story of Sophia, daughter of Zelda--an ambitious publisher and single mother--and her quest to learn the identity of her father, a journey which eventually takes her to London, before a reunion in New York. Through the narrative of the past, we learn about Sophia's youth in Sydney, summers spent with her sparkly grandmother Nella and best friend Sam, her leaving school and the events that help to shape both Sophia and Sam as people and their friendships with Jake. The present takes through London, as a promiscuous and emotionally damaged Sophia fails to find her father but succeeds in finding someone much more important--herself--before returning to Sydney to make amends with Zelda and Sam. The final (and shortest of the narratives,) takes Sophia through the lead up to her eventual meeting with her father.

Author Gaby Naher (who was in her twenties when this book was published, and has since gone on release a memoir titled The Truth About My Fathers, and who now works as a literary agent,) does a brilliant job of demonstrating how Sophia is shaped by the events of her past and her relationships with Nella, Zelda and Sam. Much of Sophia's promiscuity is not graphic, though frightening at times and always very fitting for the story. It is also wonderful to watch her grow as a character--from an immature and demanding girl, to a capable young woman. 

This one was a real surprise treat for me and I enjoyed it more than I expected to. Recommended. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Peppermint Patty: I Cried and Cried and Cried

Image
Unrequited love is a common theme in the Peanuts Comics and is one that I have previously explored on this blog. We know that Lucy loves Schroeder, Sally loves Linus and Charlie Brown has a crush on the unseen, unnamed and utterly unattainable Little Redhaired Girl. But perhaps the saddest unrequited love stories from the comic is that which ran in late June 1972. It was the series of strips where the usually self-confident Peppermint Patty came face-to-face with the Little Redhaired Girl with the intention of thumping her and then something surprising happened: Here we have a usually self-confident girl, who is funny, unashamedly herself and talented at sports reduced to tears by the realisation of who she is not and never can be. I really feel for her in this series of comic strips. She knows that Charlie Brown can never love her, when he is so hung up over a girl who represents a supposedly ideal feminine beauty. Fortunately Linus, the most spiritual member of the Pean
Read more

Phrases and Idioms: Tickets on Himself

To have tickets on himself: (Australian slang.) To be conceited or vain. To have an overinflated opinion of oneself.  He's got tickets on himself if he thinks that any woman would fall for that. I was thinking about this particular bit of Australian slang the other day, after my boss said, "He's got tickets on himself," to describe the actions of a particular individual. At the time, I smiled, knowing exactly what the boss meant. Later on, I started to ponder on this unusual phrase and wondered where it might have come from. A search on google helped me find the definition, but that was about all. There are no references to it being used in pop culture or literature (if you find one, let me know,) and at the time of writing this post, Tickets on Himself was not listed on Urban Dictionary. (I tried to add it, but the fuckers rejected my definition. They probably think I have tickets on myself or something for trying to add a relatively common piece of A
Read more

Who Else Writes Like V.C. Andrews?

Image
Are there any other authors out there who write similar novels to V.C. Andrews? This is a question I see asked frequently in excellent fan run V.C. Andrews Facebook groups like Attic Secrets and The Dolls Club. In times gone by, The Complete V.C. Andrews webpage (which is no more, but the best bits are archived by Lorraine at the Attic Secrets blog,) had a comprehensive list. Today, I thought I would put forward a few of my own thoughts and recommendations. (Note: This will focus mainly on the series and novels written by the actual V.C. Andrews and not ghostwriter Andrew Neiderman, who has a distinctive writing style of his own.) The Classics This is probably the best place to start, as it is likely that some of these novels influenced V.C. Andrews herself. Andrews was a fan of Charles Dickens, mentioning the author in the prologue of her most famous novel Flowers in the Attic. I have yet to read all of Dickens novels (I've read about half,) but I can feel a slight V.C. Andrews vi
Read more