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Thames Gateway #1
Wide Open
Winner of IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 2000, Wide Open is the first of Nicola Barker's Thames Gateway novels. Poking out of the River Thames estuary, the strange Isle of Sheppey is home to a nudist beach, a nature reserve, a wild boar farm and not much else. The landscape is bleak, but the people are interesting. There's Luke, who specialises in join-the-dots pornography and lippy, outraged Lily. They are joined by Jim, the 8-year-old Nathan and the mysterious, dark-eyed Ronnie. Each one floats adrift in turbulent currents, fighting the rip tide of a past that swims with secrets. Only if they see through the lies and prejudice will they gain redemption. Wide Open is about coming to terms with the past, and the fantasies people construct in order to protect their fragile inner selves.
304 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1998
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2329 people want to read
About the author
Nicola Barker
34 books305 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Nicola Barker is an English writer.
Nicola Barker’s eight previous novels include Darkmans (short-listed for the 2007 Man Booker and Ondaatje prizes, and winner of the Hawthornden Prize), Wide Open (winner of the 2000 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award), and Clear (long-listed for the Man Booker Prize in 2004). She has also written two prize-winning collections of short stories, and her work has been translated into more than twenty languages. She lives in East London.
Nicola Barker is an English writer.
Nicola Barker’s eight previous novels include Darkmans (short-listed for the 2007 Man Booker and Ondaatje prizes, and winner of the Hawthornden Prize), Wide Open (winner of the 2000 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award), and Clear (long-listed for the Man Booker Prize in 2004). She has also written two prize-winning collections of short stories, and her work has been translated into more than twenty languages. She lives in East London.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 107 reviews
May 24, 2021
Island Life
The Isle of Sheppey, set in the mudflats of the Thames estuary, has limited appeal as a tourist destination. But according to Nicola Barker, its attraction lies not in its scenery but its intriguing population of eccentric summer-folk who find it just right for escaping what might be called normality. Most don’t know who they are; some even swap identities. Others are genetically defective with odd behavioural consequences. At least two are psychotic; but one of them may not even be real. Still others are simply confused by the circumstances of life and prefer the isolation.
Barker enmeshes the reader in this confusing melange of Sheppey from the outset. The backstories of each of the characters are connected to some bizarre family tragedy in which they all are involved. The slow revelation of this tragedy is the substance of the novel. Magical coincidence reigns throughout as the various symbols laid down like gingerbread crumbs coalesce.
The technique is that of a sort of literary fan dance. The narrative twists and turns suggest what’s there, but no more. As one of the characters says: “That the thing you are most interested in is the thing no one gets to see.” Each of the tics, and foibles, and stray comments increases the reader’s eagerness for more. It’s cheaply seductive; and it works.
The Isle of Sheppey, set in the mudflats of the Thames estuary, has limited appeal as a tourist destination. But according to Nicola Barker, its attraction lies not in its scenery but its intriguing population of eccentric summer-folk who find it just right for escaping what might be called normality. Most don’t know who they are; some even swap identities. Others are genetically defective with odd behavioural consequences. At least two are psychotic; but one of them may not even be real. Still others are simply confused by the circumstances of life and prefer the isolation.
Barker enmeshes the reader in this confusing melange of Sheppey from the outset. The backstories of each of the characters are connected to some bizarre family tragedy in which they all are involved. The slow revelation of this tragedy is the substance of the novel. Magical coincidence reigns throughout as the various symbols laid down like gingerbread crumbs coalesce.
The technique is that of a sort of literary fan dance. The narrative twists and turns suggest what’s there, but no more. As one of the characters says: “That the thing you are most interested in is the thing no one gets to see.” Each of the tics, and foibles, and stray comments increases the reader’s eagerness for more. It’s cheaply seductive; and it works.
March 13, 2022
Did you ever have one of your friends invite you somewhere and tell you you HAVE to meet this other friend of theirs, you'll get on like a house on fire, you'll absolutely love him/her, and then you meet this other friend of theirs, and you can't see why your friend thought you might possibly like this person, in fact this person is a FOOL and has a BAD SCREECHY LAUGH and wait a minute - WHAT DOES THAT MEAN YOUR FRIEND THINKS YOU'RE LIKE?
Well, I should like Nicola Barker, I can quite see why we were introduced, and I really kind of don't. She's English and not afraid to set her novels in modern England as 99% of contemporary English writers are (invisible subtitle of English novels published in the last 40 years : Anywhere But Here) And she has a voice, that mysterious unique thing good writers can create when they only have at their disposal the SAME words that we all do, so how do they work that magic, must be like painters all starting off with the same three colours, you'd think there would be more, anyway, where was I. Ah. You know Nicola Barker would be a right laugh to have a few pints with, I just know. If she rang me up tomorrow I'd say well I was going to stay in and watch a depressing Russian film but you talked me out of that, see you in The Gladstone at 8.17! And we'd have a great evening. But her books are mad. And maddening. I was in full throw-it-at-the-wall mode on several occasions but every time some genius twist of phrase or glint of greatness flashed out from the page zzzzammm pzow ouch - like that. I'm glad I finished it but I wish that Miss Barker had too. At the end there is a catastrophe of sorts but unlike in tragedies it resolves NOTHING and makes NO sense, not even metaphorical sense although it could be I was too dense to spot that. The characters are barmy, unappealing and are never ever explained.
But she has such a rare style. Her style almost makes her insane non-plot worth dragging through.
Note - after this one I tried Miss Barker's giant bookernominee'd darkmans and as readers of that review will know we parted on bad terms. So now if I find myself sitting next to Nicola at the table under the stuffed parakeet I'll say my name is Derek, what do you do? Novelist? very nice. No, I never read them. I know I should, but i just don't seem to have the time.
Well, I should like Nicola Barker, I can quite see why we were introduced, and I really kind of don't. She's English and not afraid to set her novels in modern England as 99% of contemporary English writers are (invisible subtitle of English novels published in the last 40 years : Anywhere But Here) And she has a voice, that mysterious unique thing good writers can create when they only have at their disposal the SAME words that we all do, so how do they work that magic, must be like painters all starting off with the same three colours, you'd think there would be more, anyway, where was I. Ah. You know Nicola Barker would be a right laugh to have a few pints with, I just know. If she rang me up tomorrow I'd say well I was going to stay in and watch a depressing Russian film but you talked me out of that, see you in The Gladstone at 8.17! And we'd have a great evening. But her books are mad. And maddening. I was in full throw-it-at-the-wall mode on several occasions but every time some genius twist of phrase or glint of greatness flashed out from the page zzzzammm pzow ouch - like that. I'm glad I finished it but I wish that Miss Barker had too. At the end there is a catastrophe of sorts but unlike in tragedies it resolves NOTHING and makes NO sense, not even metaphorical sense although it could be I was too dense to spot that. The characters are barmy, unappealing and are never ever explained.
But she has such a rare style. Her style almost makes her insane non-plot worth dragging through.
Note - after this one I tried Miss Barker's giant bookernominee'd darkmans and as readers of that review will know we parted on bad terms. So now if I find myself sitting next to Nicola at the table under the stuffed parakeet I'll say my name is Derek, what do you do? Novelist? very nice. No, I never read them. I know I should, but i just don't seem to have the time.
July 18, 2012
I wrote a cool review for this but the stupid fucking internet connection here is basically two pieces of shit tied together with dental floss, and it got erased. Anyway, great book.
January 11, 2019
This book is weird, fascinating, creepy, amazing, gross, compelling, bizarre, and nearly impossible to put down.
It is a quirky, dark story of various damaged people, how their lives connect, and what happens when they do.
Ronny who becomes Jim, the other Ronny, Nathan, Connie, Sara, Luke, and Lily. The names all sound so innocent and simple, don't they? Don't you believe it!
These are all fragile beings, severely affected by various events in their past. Or even by current events in their present. Or by their dreams of the future. And let's not forget the boars. Not pigs, boars. Sara and her daughter Lily raise them. I'm sure they are supposed to Stand For Something, but I just read for the story, and that was complex enough without trying to read Meanings into every single thing.
The characters are flawed when compared to 'normal' people, and as we read we slowly learn why. Sometimes this knowledge can be disturbing. But I for one came to care for each person, hoping for them to work their way through the issues facing them. Except Lily. I couldn't stand Lily. She was just too creepy for me, even though I could understand how she became so creepy. I think Lily was a bit over the top, but she gave the story a bizarre otherworldly effect that really ramped up the tension, especially towards the end.
The interactions as this cast of misfits come together can be blackly funny and sometimes even tender. The final third of the book is so fast, so furious, so eerie that I nearly forgot to breathe while reading it. Did everything work out for the best? Does anyone else in their world ever understand any of these people? Do they manage to work their way through the wide open door that confronts each of them at some point? And what will they find on the other side?
This is the first book I've read by Barker, but my second time reading it. I want to see more of her work. The gloomy intensity of her imagination is incredible, and I am curious about her other titles.
It is a quirky, dark story of various damaged people, how their lives connect, and what happens when they do.
Ronny who becomes Jim, the other Ronny, Nathan, Connie, Sara, Luke, and Lily. The names all sound so innocent and simple, don't they? Don't you believe it!
These are all fragile beings, severely affected by various events in their past. Or even by current events in their present. Or by their dreams of the future. And let's not forget the boars. Not pigs, boars. Sara and her daughter Lily raise them. I'm sure they are supposed to Stand For Something, but I just read for the story, and that was complex enough without trying to read Meanings into every single thing.
The characters are flawed when compared to 'normal' people, and as we read we slowly learn why. Sometimes this knowledge can be disturbing. But I for one came to care for each person, hoping for them to work their way through the issues facing them. Except Lily. I couldn't stand Lily. She was just too creepy for me, even though I could understand how she became so creepy. I think Lily was a bit over the top, but she gave the story a bizarre otherworldly effect that really ramped up the tension, especially towards the end.
The interactions as this cast of misfits come together can be blackly funny and sometimes even tender. The final third of the book is so fast, so furious, so eerie that I nearly forgot to breathe while reading it. Did everything work out for the best? Does anyone else in their world ever understand any of these people? Do they manage to work their way through the wide open door that confronts each of them at some point? And what will they find on the other side?
This is the first book I've read by Barker, but my second time reading it. I want to see more of her work. The gloomy intensity of her imagination is incredible, and I am curious about her other titles.
September 7, 2016
Having rugby-tackled Behindlings and found its descent into incoherence off-putting, I tried earlier works from Barker: Small Holdings and Reversed Forecast. The results were favorable, but it is with Wide Open that I have come to understand her particular brand of genius.
Barker is Queen of the Freaks. Her novels are contrived on a grand scale with a large cast of characters who revolve around one enigmatic weirdo, in this case the shell-obsessed Ronnie. Throughout the course of the novel we come to learn the significance of a batch of letters addressed to him from former lover Monica, and learn the mystery of her disappearance.
On the whole though, the book is mainly an excuse to befriend the charming and warped batch of engaging and affecting characters that populate Barker's mental landscape. From fat pornographer Luke to an outspoken teenager Lily, the dialogue seethes with originality and the prose is infectious, original and moving.
Bravo.
Barker is Queen of the Freaks. Her novels are contrived on a grand scale with a large cast of characters who revolve around one enigmatic weirdo, in this case the shell-obsessed Ronnie. Throughout the course of the novel we come to learn the significance of a batch of letters addressed to him from former lover Monica, and learn the mystery of her disappearance.
On the whole though, the book is mainly an excuse to befriend the charming and warped batch of engaging and affecting characters that populate Barker's mental landscape. From fat pornographer Luke to an outspoken teenager Lily, the dialogue seethes with originality and the prose is infectious, original and moving.
Bravo.
April 24, 2008
I love Nicola Barker. This book definitely feels like a precursor to the later and longer DARKMANS. If the description on the back appeals to you, you may be unpleasantly surprised by what you find inside; for some reason they put really innocuous jacket copy on this very dark work (I'm speaking of the US paperback edition). I was just reading some of the other comments where reviewers wrote this book felt incomplete or flailing and so forth and while this may be the case (again, I read DARKMANS before this which did feel more thorough), I just really appreciate the effort - flailing or not - that this author puts forth in creating books that feel new and unique on the level of both language and narrative.
February 22, 2023
*Re-read February 2023- this remains a story of the beautifully grotesque. There is something terribly askew and off about everything pertaining to this story but it works so so well. I just love this book and the setting of Sheppey just comes to life in Barker's hands. I can literally smell the salt of the sea while I'm reading. Genius writing.
Original review:- Having read the synopsis for this book, I was completely unprepared for how deliciously dark this story was, with vile undertones that made it utterly compelling to read. It was like reading an episode of Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror, wandering through a waste ground of broken, battered and tortured humans. Nicola Barker has a knack of creating unease and discord which build throughout this freakish and unusual tale. If you're a fan of the grotesque vulnerability in humans, then you'll definitely enjoy this read.
Original review:- Having read the synopsis for this book, I was completely unprepared for how deliciously dark this story was, with vile undertones that made it utterly compelling to read. It was like reading an episode of Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror, wandering through a waste ground of broken, battered and tortured humans. Nicola Barker has a knack of creating unease and discord which build throughout this freakish and unusual tale. If you're a fan of the grotesque vulnerability in humans, then you'll definitely enjoy this read.
February 1, 2009
I’m speechless. This is probably the most bizarre book I’ve ever read, and yet I have this feeling if I spent enough time on it, I could find a deeper meaning. It has the makings of metaphor, but it’s like an extremely complex poem—it requires too much effort on that level.
Read
February 6, 2013This book cannot be trusted. It lures you in by being ostensibly a British comedy filled with endearingly eccentric characters and funny dialogue and then, once you are completely drawn in, begins to peel back the layers and to bit by bit reveal the darkness that lies at the core of all that apparent quirkiness. But then, the novel keeps you on your toes right from the start, beginning with the way it presents a parade of apparently unrelated characters, sending the reader to hunt for clues on how they might be connected, to scower the novel for hints, which are collected and then arranged in more or less meaningful patterns – much like one of the novel’s character’s does with shells he finds on the beach.
It is not just the relation of the characters to each other that is a puzzle but also their relation to themselves – I’m not sure how to even refer to two of the novel’s main protagonists, as they exchange names at one point and the novel and everyone else calls them by their new name from their on, as if they had indeed become the other person. But it is not as easy as that, because they both have a past that sticks with them even after the name change. And it does not help that those histories also have to be pieced together by the reader from scattered scraps and throwaway mentions - and remain so to some part even after the end of the novel, not every thread is neatly tied up by the finale. Or that is how it seemed to me, maybe I just need to dig deeper, search more thoroughly, try out different patterns…
Eventually, everything converges in the somewhat unlikely location of the Isle of Sheppey in Kent; everyone is brought together for a grand finale, and things get quite dramatic, there are even gunshots fired. At the same time, nothing is really resolved, but each of the characters have had their inner selves revealed to each other and to the reader, have been laid wide open. The catalyst for that, Jim/Ronny (not to be confused with Ronny /Jim), however, even though we find out some things about him and even though he is in some respects the most vulnerable of all the novel’s protagonists, remains largely a mystery even by the end.
Wide Open is a novel that is both very funny and deeply disturbing. Interestingly though – and this, I think, is what makes this novel special – it does not follow the strategy of making us laugh at something essentially horrifying in order to enhance the horror (like, to just take the first example that enters my mind, Catch 22 does). The funny and the frightening connect in a quite different way in Wide Open, or rather they connect by not really connecting at all – the quirkiness of the novel’s characters, their lovable oddities conceal the darkness underneath, a world of hurts received and given, of mental scars and unresolved trauma, of a potential for cruelty and violence that can burst forth every moment given the right provocation. But even as it lays bare its characters’ dark core, the novel still remains very funny, containing lots of genuinely comic dialogue and not shying back from outright slapstick humour either – in a way, the horror here is as deadpan as the humour.
All in all, it makes for a very disconcerting, at times even positively uncomfortable reading experience, also a very unique one. I can’t really think of anyone to compare her to - maybe Robert Walser, but in a very remote way and mostly due to his works inducing a similarly unsettling sensation in me. This was the first book by Nicola Barker I have read, and while I wouldn’t say that I exactly liked it, I found it very intriguing and will likely be reading more of her work.
It is not just the relation of the characters to each other that is a puzzle but also their relation to themselves – I’m not sure how to even refer to two of the novel’s main protagonists, as they exchange names at one point and the novel and everyone else calls them by their new name from their on, as if they had indeed become the other person. But it is not as easy as that, because they both have a past that sticks with them even after the name change. And it does not help that those histories also have to be pieced together by the reader from scattered scraps and throwaway mentions - and remain so to some part even after the end of the novel, not every thread is neatly tied up by the finale. Or that is how it seemed to me, maybe I just need to dig deeper, search more thoroughly, try out different patterns…
Eventually, everything converges in the somewhat unlikely location of the Isle of Sheppey in Kent; everyone is brought together for a grand finale, and things get quite dramatic, there are even gunshots fired. At the same time, nothing is really resolved, but each of the characters have had their inner selves revealed to each other and to the reader, have been laid wide open. The catalyst for that, Jim/Ronny (not to be confused with Ronny /Jim), however, even though we find out some things about him and even though he is in some respects the most vulnerable of all the novel’s protagonists, remains largely a mystery even by the end.
Wide Open is a novel that is both very funny and deeply disturbing. Interestingly though – and this, I think, is what makes this novel special – it does not follow the strategy of making us laugh at something essentially horrifying in order to enhance the horror (like, to just take the first example that enters my mind, Catch 22 does). The funny and the frightening connect in a quite different way in Wide Open, or rather they connect by not really connecting at all – the quirkiness of the novel’s characters, their lovable oddities conceal the darkness underneath, a world of hurts received and given, of mental scars and unresolved trauma, of a potential for cruelty and violence that can burst forth every moment given the right provocation. But even as it lays bare its characters’ dark core, the novel still remains very funny, containing lots of genuinely comic dialogue and not shying back from outright slapstick humour either – in a way, the horror here is as deadpan as the humour.
All in all, it makes for a very disconcerting, at times even positively uncomfortable reading experience, also a very unique one. I can’t really think of anyone to compare her to - maybe Robert Walser, but in a very remote way and mostly due to his works inducing a similarly unsettling sensation in me. This was the first book by Nicola Barker I have read, and while I wouldn’t say that I exactly liked it, I found it very intriguing and will likely be reading more of her work.
October 23, 2017
Every time Ronny drives to work, he sees a man standing on a bridge waving at the cars passing under. One day he stops his car and goes to meet the man. The man says he has the same name as him. He gives Ronny a new name, which is really his name, and they both go back to Ronny 1’s prefab on the isle of Sheppey by a nudist beach and sort through shells together.
If you think that sounds totally random and bizarre, you’re right and it’s just the beginning for this book. It is very strange. There is a lot going on, and you have to work quite hard to figure out exactly what. It is extremely dark, visceral and frequently disturbing.
What I like about Nicola Barker’s work is that she exploits fiction’s ‘made-upness’— it’s just a story after all, so anything can happen, and it does here. She doesn’t seem to worry about it being realistic or logical. I respect that, though with this book it is especially strange and had questions that I still hadn’t figured out the answers to by the end e.g. what was the whole Monica thing about? What was the relationship between Connie’s father and Ronny? If you know, please enlighten me!
There’s no doubt that Barker is a talented writer but her style grated on me a little in this book. It seems to be composed mainly of groups of three or so sentences that mean exactly the same thing, with the repetition not adding anything, e.g.:
‘It was as though he was restraining something huge inside him. An uncertainty. A monstrous indecision. A blankness.’
By itself it may not seem irritating but she does that every other paragraph, and it creeps in to the way her characters speak e.g this from one of the letters:
‘Because if I were a scale I’d be tipping, Ronny. I’d be all lopsided. I’d be tilting.’
It struck me as totally unnecessary throughout, a kind of puking of words that made the book much longer than it needed to be.
It’s probably a book you have to think about and discuss with other readers to work out fully, which I haven’t had a chance to do.
If you think that sounds totally random and bizarre, you’re right and it’s just the beginning for this book. It is very strange. There is a lot going on, and you have to work quite hard to figure out exactly what. It is extremely dark, visceral and frequently disturbing.
What I like about Nicola Barker’s work is that she exploits fiction’s ‘made-upness’— it’s just a story after all, so anything can happen, and it does here. She doesn’t seem to worry about it being realistic or logical. I respect that, though with this book it is especially strange and had questions that I still hadn’t figured out the answers to by the end e.g. what was the whole Monica thing about? What was the relationship between Connie’s father and Ronny? If you know, please enlighten me!
There’s no doubt that Barker is a talented writer but her style grated on me a little in this book. It seems to be composed mainly of groups of three or so sentences that mean exactly the same thing, with the repetition not adding anything, e.g.:
‘It was as though he was restraining something huge inside him. An uncertainty. A monstrous indecision. A blankness.’
By itself it may not seem irritating but she does that every other paragraph, and it creeps in to the way her characters speak e.g this from one of the letters:
‘Because if I were a scale I’d be tipping, Ronny. I’d be all lopsided. I’d be tilting.’
It struck me as totally unnecessary throughout, a kind of puking of words that made the book much longer than it needed to be.
It’s probably a book you have to think about and discuss with other readers to work out fully, which I haven’t had a chance to do.
June 26, 2025
According to the book blurb ”the lanscape is bleak, but the people are interesting”. If by “interesting”, you mean damaged, complicated and unpredictable - and with intertwined connections to the point that they seem to be swapping or even merging personas in a way that would make David Lynch perplexed, then it’s spot on. The story made me recall JCO at her bleakest and darkest or a mix between “Where the Crawdad’s Sing”, “Winter’s Bone” and “Eden Lake”.
It’s weird, mystifying and quite excellent. The missing star is for a couple of chapters where the weirdness got too drawn out and it felt we were treading water a bit, covering same ground over again. All in all, very readable and I’ll be back for more. Not immediately though, need a break and to restore sanity first.
It’s weird, mystifying and quite excellent. The missing star is for a couple of chapters where the weirdness got too drawn out and it felt we were treading water a bit, covering same ground over again. All in all, very readable and I’ll be back for more. Not immediately though, need a break and to restore sanity first.
May 26, 2018
This is fairly well-written, and it does have an engaging, immersive quality. But as I read I simply cannot stop wondering why everyone, literally everyone, in the book has to be so fucking crazy. Like not one person in the book can be even remotely normal? Isn't that a bit....much?
I also feel like it's trying to have both the butter and the butter money on the dramatic reveal of a tragic backstory traditional suspense narrative front. I keep wanting to track the author down, shake her by the shoulders and demand that she either be explicit or stop fucking hinting around.
I also feel like it's trying to have both the butter and the butter money on the dramatic reveal of a tragic backstory traditional suspense narrative front. I keep wanting to track the author down, shake her by the shoulders and demand that she either be explicit or stop fucking hinting around.
September 7, 2018
I dreamed I saw you dead in a place by the water. A ravaged place. All flat and empty and wide open.
This is a very odd book. Everyone in Nicola Barker's world appears to be insane. Maybe they all ingested the same hallucinogen.
This was unusual, and brilliantly written, but I can't really say that I thought it was "good," if the definition of "good" is: "I enjoyed reading this."
There's not really much of a plot here, but there is plenty of content. What is this book about? Maybe it's about how the past lives within us, and how it can affect us in the present. Maybe it's about finding inner peace or joy no matter what your circumstances. Maybe it's about truth and perception of truth. Maybe it's about individuality and existensialism. Maybe it's about salvation. Maybe it's about existing on the border of open/closed, sane/insane, waking/dreaming, you/me. Maybe it's about sex. Maybe it's about God. Maybe it's just a mindfuck.
Maybe it's about masturbating Jesus.
Perhaps he had finally found his own true salvation in the strange, tarnished image of this masturbating Christ?
There are a lot of different characters, some of them interact. Nothing makes sense, but it feels like it should make sense, because although the people speaking are saying nonsensical things, they seem to understand themselves and they don't act confused.
‘If you want to do me a favour…’ his mouth said —his eyes showing the shock of it —‘I mean if you want to repay me for the watch then you could drive me home. My eye’s sore and I feel nauseous. I’m in a hurry to get the car back. You said you knew someone in Sheppey…’
‘You.’
Ronny frowned. ‘What?’
‘You’re the person I know in Sheppey.’
‘But we only just met.’
The other Ronny cleared his throat. ‘Same people,’ he said, ‘different lives.’
I decided the best approach would be to keep wading through the muddy waves and hope it all eventually became clear to me.
The title is interesting, because it appears several times in the text (fourteen times, to be exact), each time with a (slightly) different meaning. Doors can be wide open. Eyes can be wide open. Books can be wide open. People can be wide open, emotionally. Being wide open can be vulnerable, or it can be brave, or it can be stupid, or it can be instructive, or it can be freeing.
I should have been cautious. I should have been canny. But I was spoiled and dumb. I left myself wide open.
This book out-weirds my previous weirdest-book-of-the-year read, Rules for Werewolves. At first I really enjoyed this, because it was so weird. The weirdness was energizing! But then I realized there was nothing else behind it, no there there, just more weirdness.
It never really coalesced. This was compelling, oddly compelling, but ultimately not engaging. Eventually I became bored. It didn't really seem to be going any where, it just existed to exist, and be weird.
Also, Volvos must be different in England. I had a Volvo sedan, I nevernotonce thought: "these are really wide bumpers!"
May 30, 2020
Just finished rereading Nicola Barker's Wide Open, and in a lot of ways, I do love this book, I love how richly populated the world she creates is, how she manages to make such a spectrum of different and distinctive characters with just a few strokes of her writer's pen. (Ronny, Jim, Lily, Sara, Connie, Luke, Nathan, Margery, Laura, Monica, Louis, ... in a 300-page book)
I even enjoyed, for a while at least, the fact that nearly every character gets to say something (in some cases, many things) that is more or less inscrutable ... although after a while, this becomes sufficiently unsettling that one begins to wonder if one is really "following" what's going on ... which is why I read it the second time. I don't mind being a little confused by a book; but there are more and less satisfying kinds of confusion, and it's because Wide Open falls closer to the "less" side of the scale that I give it only four rather than five stars. (Really 4.2, but don't get me started on how GR mindlessly impoverishes our expressive power with regard to simple numerical evaluations.)
(Oh, and since GR has also been unable or unwilling to figure out a simple mechanism for allowing readers to do "rereads" of a book, I here mention in this clunky inelegant way: I have just [re]read Wide Open for the second [first] time, beginning 9-3-16 and finishing today, 9-6-16.)
ADDENDUM mere hours later: Reading over other people's reviews, I want to cite a shared experience, that the narrative seems to fall off the track a bit in the last 20-25% of the book. That this happened to me, even on second reading, is also part of the reason the book gained only 4(point 2) stars. Like other readers, however, I also felt like I needed to take responsibility for not "picking up" everything that Ms Barker may have been "putting in" to the book. Especially, I feel this way in light of having read the following remark from the author: " ‘I really believe that an artwork should be a complete artifact,’ she says, of the intricacy of her fiction. ‘It should fit together perfectly.’ ” Now, I don't take this to mean (and potential readers of this or other books of hers, take note) that she intends to "tie up loose ends", because she demonstrably does not do that. But I just couldn't conceive of how the phrase "fits together perfectly" genuinely applies to this book. However, I will say that the experience of reading it was rich and rewarding enough that I very well might find myself reading it yet again sometime in the future, and when I do, I will take special care to pay attention to the way things are "fitting together" in the final 20-25% of the book.
I even enjoyed, for a while at least, the fact that nearly every character gets to say something (in some cases, many things) that is more or less inscrutable ... although after a while, this becomes sufficiently unsettling that one begins to wonder if one is really "following" what's going on ... which is why I read it the second time. I don't mind being a little confused by a book; but there are more and less satisfying kinds of confusion, and it's because Wide Open falls closer to the "less" side of the scale that I give it only four rather than five stars. (Really 4.2, but don't get me started on how GR mindlessly impoverishes our expressive power with regard to simple numerical evaluations.)
(Oh, and since GR has also been unable or unwilling to figure out a simple mechanism for allowing readers to do "rereads" of a book, I here mention in this clunky inelegant way: I have just [re]read Wide Open for the second [first] time, beginning 9-3-16 and finishing today, 9-6-16.)
ADDENDUM mere hours later: Reading over other people's reviews, I want to cite a shared experience, that the narrative seems to fall off the track a bit in the last 20-25% of the book. That this happened to me, even on second reading, is also part of the reason the book gained only 4(point 2) stars. Like other readers, however, I also felt like I needed to take responsibility for not "picking up" everything that Ms Barker may have been "putting in" to the book. Especially, I feel this way in light of having read the following remark from the author: " ‘I really believe that an artwork should be a complete artifact,’ she says, of the intricacy of her fiction. ‘It should fit together perfectly.’ ” Now, I don't take this to mean (and potential readers of this or other books of hers, take note) that she intends to "tie up loose ends", because she demonstrably does not do that. But I just couldn't conceive of how the phrase "fits together perfectly" genuinely applies to this book. However, I will say that the experience of reading it was rich and rewarding enough that I very well might find myself reading it yet again sometime in the future, and when I do, I will take special care to pay attention to the way things are "fitting together" in the final 20-25% of the book.
February 9, 2024
To date the only two Nicola Barker books I have read are H(A)PPY and I am Sovereign . Yet I feel that I have still not grapsed what she is about. The former book is , apparently a departure from her usual style and the latter novella is just a stopgap book, even though I enjoyed it thoroughly. Thus Wide Open is my first proper Barker novel.
The book begins with Ronny noticing a man on a bridge waving at him. Finally he meets him only to discover his name is Ronny as well. In order to avoid confusion the first Ronny is renamed Jim, which also helps him escape his troubled past. Jim also has a brother called Nathan who works in a lost and found office.
Jim then invites Ronny to live with him and they meet an eccentric cast of neigbours : Sara and her daughter Lily, who run a wild boar farm , Luke who is a pornographer and Connie who is related to Sara and has to find Jim because her father left a sum of money for him in his will and discover her connection with Jim. There’s also a series of mysterious letters Jim receives by someone called Monica.
The relationship between these characters becomes complex as more secrets reveal themselves, until the final climax involving a runaway boar occurs. Then all the characters break free in various ways. In a way Ronny is the catalyst for how all the characters behave. His constant fascination with shells, could easily be a metaphor for all the main protagonists before and after meeting him.
Wide Open is like a game. The reader has to untangle plots, find clues and figure out how the plot twists will affect the book. It’s a playful novel and like all puzzles or games, the ultimate satisfaction lies in reaching the end. As I suspected Wide Open’s concluding pages are one for reflection.
Despite the use of post modern techniques, Wide Open also has a tangled set of themes : mental health, identity, the working world, and as mentioned before, breaking free. Like the book’s characters, the themes become apparent when Nicola Barker drops more information about her protagonists.
Like Ali Smith, Nicola Barker never ceases to surprise and comes out with an end product which is unique. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book like Wide Open and can now say that I am an official Nicola Barker fan.
The book begins with Ronny noticing a man on a bridge waving at him. Finally he meets him only to discover his name is Ronny as well. In order to avoid confusion the first Ronny is renamed Jim, which also helps him escape his troubled past. Jim also has a brother called Nathan who works in a lost and found office.
Jim then invites Ronny to live with him and they meet an eccentric cast of neigbours : Sara and her daughter Lily, who run a wild boar farm , Luke who is a pornographer and Connie who is related to Sara and has to find Jim because her father left a sum of money for him in his will and discover her connection with Jim. There’s also a series of mysterious letters Jim receives by someone called Monica.
The relationship between these characters becomes complex as more secrets reveal themselves, until the final climax involving a runaway boar occurs. Then all the characters break free in various ways. In a way Ronny is the catalyst for how all the characters behave. His constant fascination with shells, could easily be a metaphor for all the main protagonists before and after meeting him.
Wide Open is like a game. The reader has to untangle plots, find clues and figure out how the plot twists will affect the book. It’s a playful novel and like all puzzles or games, the ultimate satisfaction lies in reaching the end. As I suspected Wide Open’s concluding pages are one for reflection.
Despite the use of post modern techniques, Wide Open also has a tangled set of themes : mental health, identity, the working world, and as mentioned before, breaking free. Like the book’s characters, the themes become apparent when Nicola Barker drops more information about her protagonists.
Like Ali Smith, Nicola Barker never ceases to surprise and comes out with an end product which is unique. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book like Wide Open and can now say that I am an official Nicola Barker fan.
August 6, 2011
This was an oddly compelling literary experience, repellent yet fascinating, like rifling through the neighbours’ dustbin just for the hell of it. Electric, daring prose from start to finish, and a highly original novel.
I doubt whether it did much for tourism on the Isle of Sheppey, rather giving the impression that everyone there is sad, mad, bad or quite possibly all three. The most sane character of the lot appears to be a pornographer. It wasn’t long before I desperately wanted to slap the character Ronny (repeatedly and quite hard as it happens) but had to wait and hope that one of the other characters would do it for me.
In the first half of the novel, an intricate framework of links between the various characters is built up, and every time the narrative threatens to cross the line that separates tantalising from baffling, facts are dropped in to keep things on the level. Unfortunately in the last quarter of the book I started to lose the thread, and by the end I found I couldn’t pinpoint what it was that had brought the various characters to their ultimate salvation. I suspect I would need multiple re-readings to really understand it properly.
I doubt whether it did much for tourism on the Isle of Sheppey, rather giving the impression that everyone there is sad, mad, bad or quite possibly all three. The most sane character of the lot appears to be a pornographer. It wasn’t long before I desperately wanted to slap the character Ronny (repeatedly and quite hard as it happens) but had to wait and hope that one of the other characters would do it for me.
In the first half of the novel, an intricate framework of links between the various characters is built up, and every time the narrative threatens to cross the line that separates tantalising from baffling, facts are dropped in to keep things on the level. Unfortunately in the last quarter of the book I started to lose the thread, and by the end I found I couldn’t pinpoint what it was that had brought the various characters to their ultimate salvation. I suspect I would need multiple re-readings to really understand it properly.
January 26, 2008
I missed something somewhere that would have made me super love this book. I take full responsibility for missing it, I think this could have really moved me if I had been paying closer attention or something. The writing style is really affecting, it holds you in a state of very delicate tension. Overall the book made me feel really weird, and the fact that I felt anything at all is saying something. But still... I didn't quite get it. I got the underlying Christ thing, but I feel pretty unsure about the rest of it. I'm really glad I don't have to do a book report on this.
January 26, 2009
Still on my Nicola Barker kick -- this book was an easier read than Darkmans but not as well crafted or bizarre. That said, it was a brilliant work and very moving. The metaphor of being 'wide open' to life's chaos and ramblings was one of the central themes and there was a bit of mystery and surprise towards the end. Again, a book about the human condition and the trouble of relating to other people. Coastal, British, the usual it seems from Barker but far from being dull or boring. A great read!
January 21, 2018
This is probably the best book I've not been able to finish. I loved it, the characters are unique and jump off the page with tics and quirks, and yet..... I couldn't understand what the hell was going on, and who was related to who and how and why. I came to Goodreads to see if anyone could explain it with a chart or something but no. At least I'm not the only one. It's not us, it's her. Still one of the best narrative voices I've ever read, but not enough structure, not enough clues.
February 16, 2015
I really couldn't see why I would keep reading this book, when after halfway through it, I still was not enjoying it, didn't care about any of the characters, and there was no point. The only thing that I thought while reading it is that everyone in the book is crazy. So I gave up finally - cut my losses and moving on.
September 4, 2021
Weird Shit Indeed.
What is it about the Thames Estuary that produces both legions of nutters and scribes of authors attempting to somehow convey this liminal happenstance of humanity to normal people?
Nicola Barker is obviously one gell who is both unafraid and equipped to wade into this quagmire. Caught between tides of both water and synchronicity she deftly weaves a path over this unstable firmament.
So let's start with Ronny 1 who meets Ronny 2 and Ronny 1 makes a joke about "The Two Ronnies" which goes over the head of Ronny 2 so Ronnie 2 says to Ronny 1 lets call you Jim from now. So Ronny 1 has a brother called Nathan who goes looking for Ronny 1 and when he asks for Ronny 1 he gets directed to Ronny 2 who is known as Ronny but instead sees Jim who is in fact Ronny 1. But Nathan never talks to Ronny 1 anyway. You with me so far?
Meanwhile, everyone in the story so far is treading on egg shells, all the bloody time.
If you are looking for something for normal people like Gone Girl or Woman on a Train you will realise very early on that you are well and truly on the wrong road completely.
If, however, you start to enjoy this story you will no doubt realise that you are on the wrong road in life, a realisation that brings no comfort except for the fact that this is the first book in a trilogy.
So where does all this go? It ventures into other marginal lives along the way but never strays far from the main line of the narrative. I loved it.
One of the characters is a photographer/pornographer who made his money producing porno photos with the juicy bits removed and replaced with a series of dots to produce "join the dots" porno images. His revelation is that many things are defined/described/understood, not by what's there, but by what's not there.
Which brings us back to the Thames Estuary, which is the main character in the story, has very little presence but is, at the same time, all pervasive.
Would you like this? Depends on your latitude for difference and other. Actually, just looking at you, you probably wouldn't. You should just go back to your Girl On A Train life and just stay the fuck away from the Thames Estuary.
What is it about the Thames Estuary that produces both legions of nutters and scribes of authors attempting to somehow convey this liminal happenstance of humanity to normal people?
Nicola Barker is obviously one gell who is both unafraid and equipped to wade into this quagmire. Caught between tides of both water and synchronicity she deftly weaves a path over this unstable firmament.
So let's start with Ronny 1 who meets Ronny 2 and Ronny 1 makes a joke about "The Two Ronnies" which goes over the head of Ronny 2 so Ronnie 2 says to Ronny 1 lets call you Jim from now. So Ronny 1 has a brother called Nathan who goes looking for Ronny 1 and when he asks for Ronny 1 he gets directed to Ronny 2 who is known as Ronny but instead sees Jim who is in fact Ronny 1. But Nathan never talks to Ronny 1 anyway. You with me so far?
Meanwhile, everyone in the story so far is treading on egg shells, all the bloody time.
If you are looking for something for normal people like Gone Girl or Woman on a Train you will realise very early on that you are well and truly on the wrong road completely.
If, however, you start to enjoy this story you will no doubt realise that you are on the wrong road in life, a realisation that brings no comfort except for the fact that this is the first book in a trilogy.
So where does all this go? It ventures into other marginal lives along the way but never strays far from the main line of the narrative. I loved it.
One of the characters is a photographer/pornographer who made his money producing porno photos with the juicy bits removed and replaced with a series of dots to produce "join the dots" porno images. His revelation is that many things are defined/described/understood, not by what's there, but by what's not there.
Which brings us back to the Thames Estuary, which is the main character in the story, has very little presence but is, at the same time, all pervasive.
Would you like this? Depends on your latitude for difference and other. Actually, just looking at you, you probably wouldn't. You should just go back to your Girl On A Train life and just stay the fuck away from the Thames Estuary.
May 18, 2019
I originally read this novel in about 2000. More than ten years later I added a review here, as follows, with a four star rating: “Rather odd novel set mainly on the Isle Of Sheppey - which is quite possibly unique and was the main reason why I read it. Knowing the island fairly well I have to say that it is really much much weirder than this in "real life".”
I had lost this book but then saw it, the exact same book,on someone’s bookshelf. I asked for it back. Now I’ve reread it.
In the intervening years I’ve read most of Nicola Barker’s books, enjoyed them all (though The Yips was marginal) but returning now to Wide Open I feel perfectly relaxed about acclaiming it as a masterpiece. The prose is so beautiful, on a par with Rushdie’s best writing, but not as self conscious, not concerned to say the right thing, as dear Salman is. He’s so concerned to stay within acceptable limits and to remain adored by his social justice warrior mates. I doubt that Nicola Barker gives two fucks about that, she wrote, then, that way, in any case. This makes her compassion more apparent and the awkwardness and uncertainty and hesitancy displayed by her characters are what make them vivid and real.
It’s a beautiful book which I’m very pleased I could read again and appreciate much more than before. A privilege, in fact.
If you want neat lines and clear connections then this novel will piss you off but life is not like that, though maybe in Salman Rushdie novels (and let me stress he _is_ a great writer, but he knows it, and he wants readers of the New Yorker to know it, the big drip).
I had lost this book but then saw it, the exact same book,on someone’s bookshelf. I asked for it back. Now I’ve reread it.
In the intervening years I’ve read most of Nicola Barker’s books, enjoyed them all (though The Yips was marginal) but returning now to Wide Open I feel perfectly relaxed about acclaiming it as a masterpiece. The prose is so beautiful, on a par with Rushdie’s best writing, but not as self conscious, not concerned to say the right thing, as dear Salman is. He’s so concerned to stay within acceptable limits and to remain adored by his social justice warrior mates. I doubt that Nicola Barker gives two fucks about that, she wrote, then, that way, in any case. This makes her compassion more apparent and the awkwardness and uncertainty and hesitancy displayed by her characters are what make them vivid and real.
It’s a beautiful book which I’m very pleased I could read again and appreciate much more than before. A privilege, in fact.
If you want neat lines and clear connections then this novel will piss you off but life is not like that, though maybe in Salman Rushdie novels (and let me stress he _is_ a great writer, but he knows it, and he wants readers of the New Yorker to know it, the big drip).
December 4, 2016
Set in in the (unfashionable in British literature) contemporary Kent, on the somewhat remote/wild isle of Sheppey, this is a fine novel indeed, well drawn with a plot that draws you through the book. The accomplishment is all the more fine for making you care about a cast of characters so unlikeable that you'd root for the lions against them in the Coliseum. I'm definitely going to read the other two parts of the Thames Gateway trilogy.
April 16, 2025
wtf? I admire a lot of this but can't really say I got it or if it's to be got..
(2003 notebook: a strange tale of damaged and (Word obscure) perpendicular busts and bats and lost property and nudist beaches and boar farming on the Isle of Sheppey. Strange and compelling.)
Not sure if I should revise my star rating upward...
(2003 notebook: a strange tale of damaged and (Word obscure) perpendicular busts and bats and lost property and nudist beaches and boar farming on the Isle of Sheppey. Strange and compelling.)
Not sure if I should revise my star rating upward...
January 4, 2018
A friend bought me Darkmans as a present which I loved. Wide Open is equally as magnificent, however I struggled with this book because I hadn’t expected a sub plot to involve child sexual abuse. It is an incredible book but couldn’t give it 5 stars solely because of my visceral reaction to that story line.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 19, 2008
A strange book, but in a good way.
November 18, 2008
amazing! couldn´t put it down! anything she writes is fantastic...
November 3, 2012
Very dark, very beautiful, often funny. Barker's a genius.
August 16, 2025
Well this is quite a strange book. I saw some intriguing reviews of Darkman’s which is a later book by Nicola Barker and forms a loose trilogy called Thames Gateway based around the Medway river and estuary at the mouth of the river Thames. I thought I should read Wide Open first as it is the initial book in the series but that is not necessary because all three novels stand alone and there seem to be no shared characters.
The plot, inasmuch as there is one, consists of a possible number of 7 or 8 main characters who all find themselves thrown together on Sheppey island on the shore of the estuary between a nature reserve, a nudist beach and a wild boar farm. The characters including: a clerk,Nathan, working in the lost property department on the Underground and his partner Margery; the deserted wife, Sue, of a wild boar farmer; Sue’s daughter Lilly who has a mysterious blood disorder and is at best somewhat mentally unstable; Luke who specialises in pornographic photography and has fled to escape a broken marriage; Connie the barristers daughter who is also an optician but is also one of Nathan’s coworkers; Ronny or Jim and the other Ronny who may or may not be two people and have escaped from prison and now work in weed killing in public places. The story is a bewildering sequence of coincidences which bring these disparate characters together in scenes that are often amusing, frequently weird and sometimes harrowing. As the novel progresses it becomes apparent that the link between these people is a historic case of child sexual abuse, which thankfully is not dealt with in any detail at all.
Overall this is a very quirky book and unlike anything I can remember reading before. An antidote to mainstream literature.
P.S. I have bought Darkmans but at 850 pages it represents quite a project.
The plot, inasmuch as there is one, consists of a possible number of 7 or 8 main characters who all find themselves thrown together on Sheppey island on the shore of the estuary between a nature reserve, a nudist beach and a wild boar farm. The characters including: a clerk,Nathan, working in the lost property department on the Underground and his partner Margery; the deserted wife, Sue, of a wild boar farmer; Sue’s daughter Lilly who has a mysterious blood disorder and is at best somewhat mentally unstable; Luke who specialises in pornographic photography and has fled to escape a broken marriage; Connie the barristers daughter who is also an optician but is also one of Nathan’s coworkers; Ronny or Jim and the other Ronny who may or may not be two people and have escaped from prison and now work in weed killing in public places. The story is a bewildering sequence of coincidences which bring these disparate characters together in scenes that are often amusing, frequently weird and sometimes harrowing. As the novel progresses it becomes apparent that the link between these people is a historic case of child sexual abuse, which thankfully is not dealt with in any detail at all.
Overall this is a very quirky book and unlike anything I can remember reading before. An antidote to mainstream literature.
P.S. I have bought Darkmans but at 850 pages it represents quite a project.
April 3, 2022
Fairly inventive, with a nicely constructed intricate plot line, but the further I got into it, the more I had to force myself to keep going and wished it would just end. When it did end, I felt too much was unexplained, or barely hinted at. The writing was annoying, full of bizarre similes and repetitive groupings of reworded phrases in groups of three. The characters were either very or mildly strange, in a way that seemed forced. The whole thing seemed forced, written for effect rather than for a true reflection of ordinary people caught in extraordinary fates. Carl Hiassen delivers freakish characters and story lines too, but the strangeness in his novels has a satirical point: it sharply mirrors life in Florida, and U.S. popular culture. Barker's work seems like freakishness served up just for the sake of outrageous appearance. It may be that some writers (including writers of movies and TV shows) feel they need to stand out from the crowd and deliver jolts of intensity these days; the overall effect is to come across as conventional and uninteresting. A 2-star rating might be justified but I'll go for 3 because the book shows real effort went into it.
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