Advertisement
Books

The Perfect Golden Circle review: Not just another take on the cultural fights of the ’80s

Benjamin Myers’ novel is comic at heart, even though jokes themselves are hard to come by, writes Patrick Maxwell.

The Perfect Golden Circle by
Benjamin Myers is out now (Bloomsbury)

There is a reason why most novelists stick to the bits of life their readers will be familiar with. Break-up tales, crime thrillers and historical journeys are genres in their own right because we instantly know the remit, we know how it feels, what we’re in for. So Benjamin Myers has been typically daring in employing his florid pen to crop circles in the English countryside of the ’80s, for his scintillating The Perfect Golden Circle

That he manages to keep the reader’s attention throughout within such an esoteric field is an achievement in itself. The book’s two protagonists, Redbone and Calvert, are the perfect company the reader needs. They have come together for the summer months with a plan to create the most impressive, developed and artistic crop circles the world has seen, with the help of a rickety van, spiritual inspiration, drunk aristocrats and weak cider. It is, we should be clear, a comic novel at heart, even though jokes themselves are hard to come by. As in the best English fiction, we laugh with and at our characters, seeing through their sardonic, cynical lens. The trace of long-drawn melancholy is never fully absent either; it’s no wonder we are taken to the silent fields of the English summer and its fading sunlight. 

If this wonderfully strange book does have a structure, it’s the succession of ever-magnifying crop circles, from the intermediate Alton Kellet Pathway to the earth-shattering Honeycomb Double Helix. Interspersed with these are a series of hilarious newspaper reports, describing the chaos and wonder left behind by Redbone and Calvert as they continue on their quest. Every once in a while, we see Calvert sitting in his tiny hovel of a home, watching the TV reports of his latest creation. Parts of this novel are palpably funny, yet I was often unsure whether to laugh or cry. That Myers can conjure up such empathy with his two middle-aged recluses is a measure of his particular skill.  

That melancholy is what makes this book more than just another take on the cultural fights of the ’80s. Calvert is a veteran of the Falklands War, but his mental state is not that of the eternally cursed soldier. He is at times pensive, bitter, laconic and verbose. When we read of how “existence is there until it isn’t”, or summer described as a “cold-blooded lizard beast sitting deep in the ancient dust of an ancient island”, it’s the ambiguity, the deceptive simplicity, that hits home. Most of all, it works, and that’s enough. 

Patrick Maxwell is a journalist and writer

You can buy The Perfect Golden Circle from The Big Issue shop on Bookshop.org, which helps to support The Big Issue and independent bookshops.

Advertisement
Advertisement

This article is taken from The Big Issue magazine. If you cannot reach your local vendor, you can still click HERE to subscribe to The Big Issue today or give a gift subscription to a friend or family member.You can also purchase one-off issues from The Big Issue Shop or The Big Issue app, available now from the App Store or Google Play.

Advertisement

Support the Big Issue

For over 30 years, the Big Issue has been committed to ending poverty in the UK. In 2024, our work is needed more than ever. Find out how you can support the Big Issue today.
Vendor martin Hawes

Recommended for you

Read All
Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel review – a depth of feeling like a punch to the guts
Books

Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel review – a depth of feeling like a punch to the guts

Clear by Carys Davies review – a wonderful, poetic reminder that no man is an island
Books

Clear by Carys Davies review – a wonderful, poetic reminder that no man is an island

Top 5 books about early modern witchcraft, chosen by author Ramie Targoff
Books

Top 5 books about early modern witchcraft, chosen by author Ramie Targoff

Why walking is such a great way to see, sense and stake a claim in the world
Books

Why walking is such a great way to see, sense and stake a claim in the world

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

Here's when UK households to start receiving last cost of living payments
next dwp cost of living payment 2023
3.

Here's when UK households to start receiving last cost of living payments

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