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Slipping
When Albert Jackson, a middle-aged school teacher, catches a glimpse of the infinite universe and his own tiny insignificance he cannot shake himself free of regret for a life all but squandered. In a blind and demented attempt to salvage something from his life, he sets off, half-lucidly, on a libertine mission to reclaim life, to live it exclusively on his terms. But the wild and sinister crime he plots, so characterised by delusion, sets him on a path to irreversible destruction.
Incarcerated after his crime, at the once prestigious Reil Institute, and in a bid to make spiritual and cosmic amends, Albert Jackson employs the guile of a local novelist, Charlie Vaughan, to tell his story. In the telling of Albert's story, Charlie drives the narrative onward and backward, forcing Albert to confront the horrors of his crime. When the inadequacy of Albert's initial confession forces Charlie to search further afield, he must cede control of the narrative to a range of other narrators too, among them key witnesses to the events leading up to Albert's crime and a strange third-person account composed by Albert himself.
Slipping is a darkly humorous novel about life and love, ambition, bitter disappointment and the cost of committing the unforgivable.
Incarcerated after his crime, at the once prestigious Reil Institute, and in a bid to make spiritual and cosmic amends, Albert Jackson employs the guile of a local novelist, Charlie Vaughan, to tell his story. In the telling of Albert's story, Charlie drives the narrative onward and backward, forcing Albert to confront the horrors of his crime. When the inadequacy of Albert's initial confession forces Charlie to search further afield, he must cede control of the narrative to a range of other narrators too, among them key witnesses to the events leading up to Albert's crime and a strange third-person account composed by Albert himself.
Slipping is a darkly humorous novel about life and love, ambition, bitter disappointment and the cost of committing the unforgivable.
168 pages, Paperback
Published March 24, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
May 5, 2017
A meta-murder narrative. Local novelist Charlie Vaughan is hired to write the events leading up to the murder of Val Jackson by her husband Albert for reasons not explained until a final confrontation with the killer. Moving between ‘reports’ from the scene of the quiet murder, the novelist’s run-ins with Albert’s head-doctor, and straight narrative probing the brain of a schoolteacher sick of his wife, Slipping slips and slides from intriguing internal probing of one man’s humble and miserable life, to interruptive elements that add little to the plot’s oomph. The final account, as narrated by the killer, lunges too far into histrionics for this reader, although the prose is accomplished, and the form an inventive twist to ho-hum crime narratives.
August 2, 2017
Winner of the Rubery Book Award for Fiction 2017
What has ‘slipped’ in John Toomey’s excellent novel is any sense of reality in the mind of its subject, Albert Jackson. As he goes about his daily life as a teacher, Albert appears normal enough, but contemptuous and distorted thoughts seethe in his brain as he pursues his delusion of love for a pretty young teacher on whose account he (partly) decides he must murder his wife. While serving his sentence in the local psychiatric hospital, he enlists the aid of a young fiction writer, Charlie Vaughan, to help him present his view of this event. Albert’s account, sent in episodes, makes compelling reading, both for Charlie and ourselves. Albert is clearly insane, but his fierce intellect, playful humour and tender observations both intrigue and disarm us as he draws us into the complex workings of his mind. At the end, Charlie is not sure if Albert deserves a public voice. There is something self-serving about Albert’s request, something that makes us feel uneasy, even complicit. And yet the story is told. And we can’t help but be thoroughly entertained. The prose is beautiful and the whole thing is a superb tour de force.
ruberybookaward.com
What has ‘slipped’ in John Toomey’s excellent novel is any sense of reality in the mind of its subject, Albert Jackson. As he goes about his daily life as a teacher, Albert appears normal enough, but contemptuous and distorted thoughts seethe in his brain as he pursues his delusion of love for a pretty young teacher on whose account he (partly) decides he must murder his wife. While serving his sentence in the local psychiatric hospital, he enlists the aid of a young fiction writer, Charlie Vaughan, to help him present his view of this event. Albert’s account, sent in episodes, makes compelling reading, both for Charlie and ourselves. Albert is clearly insane, but his fierce intellect, playful humour and tender observations both intrigue and disarm us as he draws us into the complex workings of his mind. At the end, Charlie is not sure if Albert deserves a public voice. There is something self-serving about Albert’s request, something that makes us feel uneasy, even complicit. And yet the story is told. And we can’t help but be thoroughly entertained. The prose is beautiful and the whole thing is a superb tour de force.
ruberybookaward.com
November 5, 2017
What an incredibly twisted and well written tale, which examines the madness of impulse and the regret of other lives unlived. The rich language forces you to read the horror slowly and really drink in the scene. Not for those who enjoy a quick mystery, but if you enjoy following a deliciously dark trail into the motives of those meant to be closest to you, this book will beckon you down into the menagerie of one man's twisted thoughts. Highly recommend.
May 5, 2017
A well written book that probes the mind of someone criminally insane. When you read about the quiet people in the news that suddenly do some horrendous act and you wonder how, this book answers that question. How can a person both love someone and plot to kill them at the same time- how can those two opposites be inside one person. Read this little book and see.
August 5, 2017
An interesting premise that didn't go far enough into the main character's mind or his relationship with the author. I don't think he comes off as criminally insane, just narcissistic and insufferable. Also creepy.
February 4, 2021
decent! i enjoyed it enough, i liked all the witness accounts.
April 30, 2017
Excellent writing, book for those who are interested in probing psychological behavior.
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July 28, 2017Kirkus
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews