Meridian

by David Rose

MERIDIAN is 'heteroglossia' which pulls none of its punches. It is as comfortable delivering a disquisition on the semiotics of architectural absence as it is relaying the dialogue between the builders of the conservatory next door. It is truly not glibly, multi-layered, and in its concerns asks much of its readers and by extension, of the literary forms available to the writer in the 21st. century. In a literary landscape of conformity and ardent replication, MERIDIAN is undoubtedly and confidently 'stand alone.' It also manages to be a lot of fun.

Genres: Novels

Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[MJ Nicholls · Rating 4 out of 5]

This impressive second novel from late-starter David Rose concerns an architect and his impressions of the world and his work and, in a similar if less punnilinguistic manner to Brooke-Rose’s Amalgamenmon, makes the “discourses run together”, introducing an alphabetised stream of narratives in a form of existential baton-pass and, later in the narrative, bold-faced and italicised sections are weaved into the architect’s narration (chock full of informative architectural and etymological trivia) to form a multitude of tongues (“heteroglossia” the blurb boldly proclaims), in an engaging and intricate novel that manages to be simultaneously complex and none-too-tricky to digest and appreciate.

[A.J. Ashworth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an intriguing novel of ideas which is never heavy but is often playful and very humorous. Meridian – A Day in the Life with Incidental Voices is the second novel by David Rose and focuses on an architect who records his day in hourly sections starting from 5am through to the late evening. As Rose himself said in an article on Unthank Books’ website: ‘I decided on an updated ‘Ulysses’ in that it would be an hour-by-hour account of a single day’ (for the full piece go to: http://unthankbooks.com/blog/?p=532). And even though the mention of ‘Ulysses’ might put off those who think this will be a difficult book, in my opinion it never is: that’s not to say, the reader doesn’t have to do any work to make meaning here – they do. But it is enjoyable work, and rewarding.
The narrator records his day in detail. He takes photos, he uses public transport, he goes into work and reflects on his life. But then, when this narrative reaches 12pm – the meridian of the title – it is interrupted by a series of ‘incidental voices’, presented in an ‘a to z’ format. And once we are back at ‘a’ again, the main narrative starts up once more ‘post-meridian’.
I enjoyed the architect’s story, in particular his insights into architecture, for which Rose (who worked in the Post Office rather than as an architect) must have undertaken an impressive amount of research. I also enjoyed many of the ‘incidental voices’ – but two in particular stood out for me: one about someone who appeared as a contestant on Countdown and one about an Olympic diver, who reflects that ‘Parts of your past become more vivid. And your possible futures, I mean, your deaths, likewise’: he then goes on to imagine such a possible future and we are left with this at the end of his story.
The language in the novel is beautiful as with Rose’s earlier books. For example, jam on a biscuit is described as being like ‘lava’. A tree has ‘smooth paper-grained bark, [is] lichen-bossed, silvery green in the filtered light’.
There are some interesting ideas about randomness and chaos in this novel too and they are there not only in the structure of the book but in its content. Randomness is referred to numerous times, for example, when the architect mentions fingermarks on the office wall: ‘I find myself conjecturing as to how they got there, reconstructing plausible scenarios for their random cause.’ And later, the idea is explored with regard to a school playground: ‘the randomness of movement, a space of allowed anarchy between the straits of discipline’.
With regard to chaos in the structure itself, the architect’s narrative is interrupted by the seemingly random incidental voices. But the ‘a to z’ of voices is not left in order either: there are two P’s followed by R and Q before order resumes. (Also, none of the incidental voices are repeated in the middle section, except for one.) Then, when the architect’s narrative resumes post-meridian, some of the incidental voices return to disrupt that narrative.
For me, the key to understanding the incidental voices section – and the wider novel – lies in the section on page 80: ‘Cosmologists talk about wormholes in space, short-cuts to other universes. Words are wormholes in time. Etymology is archaeology.’ Rose uses homonyms in this central section to link one voice to the next. For example, in the ‘b’ narrative the word ‘bent is used at the beginning and ‘cant’ is used at the end – ‘cant’ is then used at the beginning of ‘c’ and ‘dust’ at the end, which then leads to ‘dust’ being used in ‘d’, and so on. These homonyms provide the wormhole into the universe of each subsequent narrative, all of which are fascinating and very different in style and theme.
It’s important to remember the novel is not an intellectual exercise - there’s lots of humour in it too. In the Countdown vignette, for example, the main character recalls seeing a woman in a Post Office queue who said she’d been saving for her sons. She then says, ‘Oh yes, both my sons are well-endowed’. Later, one of the other incidental voices refers to what he watches on television: ‘Film noir. I watch a lot of films noir. My television’s still black and white.’
A very enjoyable and engaging novel which is rich with ideas and beautifully written. To read an extract, visit: http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/meridian/

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was a big fan of Rose's first novel Vault, so was honored to be asked to provide a blurb for his second — here's what I said (and meant):

Meridian is that richest of literature pleasures, a book that teaches us to read as we read it. Like the meditative architect at the heart of the story we inspect its shapes and its structures, probing the novel’s tensions and cracks as David Rose spins his web of voices and brings each of them alive with its own idiosyncratic eye on the world. But mostly we marvel as one does when faced with what should be an impossible construction standing solid before us, insisting we rethink quite what the world is.

[Charlie Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I couldn't possibly describe this book any better than the author (links to an interview have been posted by other reviewers, but here it is again, in case you're wondering: http://unthankbooks.com/blog/?p=532 ). What I would say is that the intricacies of its structure contribute much to what is a truly exhilarating read.