Advertisement
Books

A Lonely Man by Chris Power: Short story star had more in his locker

Chris Power’s intriguing debut novel A Lonely Man is packed with drama and humour but Chris Deerin wishes it would let loose a little

In literary circles, Chris Power is synonymous with the short story. He is the writer of an insightful and exhaustive 14-year series for The Guardian called (surely ironically) A brief survey of the short story, covering, well, everyone really: from JL Borges to JG Ballard, from Lydia Davis to Elizabeth Taylor, from Carver to Cheever. If there is a thing to be thought about fiction’s short form, Power has thunk it.

It was inevitable that his first book, Mothers, would be a collection of stories. It was good, too: taut, unornamented and often pleasingly absurd, it wore its learning lightly and was deservedly well received.

Lockdowns have taken income away from hundreds of Big Issue sellers. Support The Big Issue and our vendors by signing up for a subscription.

There was the sense however that Power had more in his locker, and so it proves with his intriguing debut novel, A Lonely Man. Like Mothers, it arrives garlanded with praise from ‘serious’ authors, anointing him that rarefied – and sometimes dreaded – beast, a writer’s writer.

The tale moves between the Berlin apartment and Swedish lakeside summerhouse that Robert Prowe shares with his wife and daughters. Robert is a blocked novelist, but thanks to a chance meeting with a drunk man in a bookshop finds himself with a ready-made story. The man, Patrick, has fled from the UK to Berlin following the death of a Russian oligarch whose biography he was writing – he believes his subject was murdered by Vladimir Putin’s goons and that they are now on his trail.

Power excels at capturing the small details and at nudging subtle shifts in relationships between his characters: the tensions in Robert’s marriage and with his children; his uneasy alliance with Patrick, who is unaware he is providing material for a planned novel.

Advertisement
Advertisement

There is drama, but also humour. A brief return to London for the funeral of a friend who has killed himself is booze-soaked and eventful. Robert refuses to believe there is any truth to Patrick’s tales of hitmen and harassment until events prove him wrong. Power’s powers of description are arresting – a statue of a weeping woman has “a line of thin, solemn poplars at her back like mourners at a grave”; water dripping through tree branches sounds like “the snap of a fire”.

This is a book freighted with moral choices, with the biggest saved till last. I loved it, even if at times I found myself wishing Power would cut loose a little and bust through the restrictions imposed by his own good taste.

A Lonely Man by Chris Power is out now (Faber & Faber, £14.99)

Advertisement

Change a vendor's life this Christmas

This Christmas, 3.8 million people across the UK will be facing extreme poverty. Thousands of those struggling will turn to selling the Big Issue as a vital source of income - they need your support to earn and lift themselves out of poverty.

Recommended for you

Read All
If Only by Vigdis Hjorth review – a purging of a volatile affair
If Only by Vigdis Hjorth cover
Review

If Only by Vigdis Hjorth review – a purging of a volatile affair

A Spring of Love by Celia Dale review – disturbances in suburbia
A Spring of Love by Celia Dale cover
Books

A Spring of Love by Celia Dale review – disturbances in suburbia

Every family has a secret. By uncovering mine, I liberated my grandmother's sorrowful story
Family secrets

Every family has a secret. By uncovering mine, I liberated my grandmother's sorrowful story

Top 5 revolutionary books, chosen by historian and author Alice Hunt
Books

Top 5 revolutionary books, chosen by historian and author Alice Hunt

Most Popular

Read All
Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits
Renters: A mortgage lender's window advertising buy-to-let products
1.

Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal
Pound coins on a piece of paper with disability living allowancve
2.

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over
next dwp cost of living payment 2023
3.

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue
4.

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue