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The Cut
The Cut is a commissioned novel responding to Brexit. Published on the first anniversary of the EU referendum on June 23rd 2017, it will be a fictional exploration of the forces that split Britain apart.
The Cut is a wound, of course, but it is more than that. Cairo Jukes walks the towpaths of "the cut", the Black Country term for the canals that web this small region of England, the open veins of an old industrial order. And then there is Dudley -a town at the heart of the Black Country - where a young woman runs through the market-place with her clothes on fire. Who she is? Why is she burning? And what part has Cairo played in her life? We follow these two characters across a single day in Brexit-era Britain.
The Cut is a wound, of course, but it is more than that. Cairo Jukes walks the towpaths of "the cut", the Black Country term for the canals that web this small region of England, the open veins of an old industrial order. And then there is Dudley -a town at the heart of the Black Country - where a young woman runs through the market-place with her clothes on fire. Who she is? Why is she burning? And what part has Cairo played in her life? We follow these two characters across a single day in Brexit-era Britain.
129 pages, Paperback
Published June 8, 2017
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July 28, 2017
People were sick and tired of being told what to think and not think. He would try to explain that to her.
Peirene Press is another of the UK's small independent publishers. They are best known for focusing on Contemporary European Literature. Thought provoking, well designed, short. and indeed they managed an incredible run of 6 consecutive longlist places for the Independent Foreign Fiction (and it's reincarnation as the Man Booker International) Prize with 2016: White Hunger, 2015: The Dead Lake, 2014: The Mussel Feast, 2013: The Murder of Halland, 2012: Next World Novella, 2011: Beside the Sea, particularly impressive as they only published 3 such books each year.
But The Cut is an English-language original and comes from their new 'Peirene Now!' series where they directly 'commission writers to respond with fiction to current political topics'.
As with the translated fiction, it is short - more of a novella. The TLS described Peirene's books as 'two hour books to be devoured in a single sitting for those fatigued by film', a tag-line which the Press has adopted as their own.
One could indeed imagine The Cut as a script for a movie - or perhaps a TV special - but unfortunately it failed to hold my interest even for those requisite two hours.
Peirene Press had actively campaigned for Remain in the EU referendum, indeed had orchestrated a campaign of cultural figures in its favour https://www.peirenepress.com/peirenes...
Although my personal sympathies lie with this letter, one suspects interventions like this (rather like the Guardian's ill-starred intervention in the swing-state of Ohio in the 2004 US Presidential election (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/3981823.stm) would, if it had any effect at all, have had the opposite to that intended.
The head of the press, Meike Ziervogel, admitted to being shocked at the result and this book was the result
also of Sam Allardyce, the rather short-lived England manager who famously and rather relevantly (although with tongue firmly in cheek) once said his career had been held back "because I’m not called Allardici, just Allardyce", and of course of Lenny Henry.
Cartwright's story is of a brief relationship between Grace, a documentary film maker from London, and Cairo Jukes a retired boxer (although in his mind more resting) working as a casual labourer. Grace comes to Dudley pre the referendum looking for vox-pops in an area expected, even when conventional wisdom expected Remain to win nationally, to vote strongly Leave (in practice Dudley voted 68%-32% for Leave). Cairo proves - to her - to be surprisingly eloquent in his rationale for supporting Leave, not as an anti-immigrant sentiment, or even because he is particularly persuaded by the Leave campaign and the, locally popular, UK Independence Party, but rather as a form of protest against being taken for granted and being told what to think.
The Cut has some nice character sketches - for example when Grace meets Cairo's daughter (albeit coincidentally):
The story itself hinges round an arresting opening - a girl running through Dudley marketplace her hair on fire - which the plot then jumps back and forth through the weeks either side of 23 June 2016 to explain, except that the eventual denouement involved a rather unconvincing melodramatic act.
The Cut is not the first Brexit novel. Two obvious peers are Ali Smith's Autumn published in 2016, and Jack Robinson's Robinson (the book I read immediately before The Cut). In both of these books the Brexit element is more incidental and to an extent tagged-on: Smith already had a book planned and largely written about Pauline Boty, Profumo etc, and Jack Robinson similarly had a long-standing plan to write a novel about the literary descendants of Robinson Crusoe, and just needed the Brexit vote to give the impetus to write it. But actually the books were the better for that - there was obvious literary merit there which will remain after the immediacy of the Brexit vote has faded: indeed I've been struck by how those who re-read Autumn recently have said it actually reads better with distance. In contrast The Cut feels like what it is - something written purely in response to a passing event and with little stand-alone literary merit.
And the political insights of the novel - the divided nation - have been dealt with much better, and earlier, in the non-fiction world. While I disagree with his prescriptions, David Goodhart had diagnosed a culturally divided Britain several years earlier, and his The Road to Somewhere: The Populist Revolt and the Future of Politics stands alongside Steve Richard's The Rise of the Outsiders: How the Anti-Establishment is on the March as the definitive accounts of the era.
Which left me finding the intention behind this novel admirable, but the execution rather unfulfilling.
Peirene Press is another of the UK's small independent publishers. They are best known for focusing on Contemporary European Literature. Thought provoking, well designed, short. and indeed they managed an incredible run of 6 consecutive longlist places for the Independent Foreign Fiction (and it's reincarnation as the Man Booker International) Prize with 2016: White Hunger, 2015: The Dead Lake, 2014: The Mussel Feast, 2013: The Murder of Halland, 2012: Next World Novella, 2011: Beside the Sea, particularly impressive as they only published 3 such books each year.
But The Cut is an English-language original and comes from their new 'Peirene Now!' series where they directly 'commission writers to respond with fiction to current political topics'.
As with the translated fiction, it is short - more of a novella. The TLS described Peirene's books as 'two hour books to be devoured in a single sitting for those fatigued by film', a tag-line which the Press has adopted as their own.
One could indeed imagine The Cut as a script for a movie - or perhaps a TV special - but unfortunately it failed to hold my interest even for those requisite two hours.
Peirene Press had actively campaigned for Remain in the EU referendum, indeed had orchestrated a campaign of cultural figures in its favour https://www.peirenepress.com/peirenes...
We, the undersigned, representing a range of literary arts and institutions, believe that Britain should remain within the EU. The In/Out debate often neglects arguments from culture. We maintain that an isolationist step away from Europe is a step away from our own heritage. It is a step towards an insular position antithetical to the open interchange of ideas and support that has defined European culture.even enlisting the help of the Gruffalo's illustrator:
Although my personal sympathies lie with this letter, one suspects interventions like this (rather like the Guardian's ill-starred intervention in the swing-state of Ohio in the 2004 US Presidential election (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/3981823.stm) would, if it had any effect at all, have had the opposite to that intended.
The head of the press, Meike Ziervogel, admitted to being shocked at the result and this book was the result
I realized that I had been living in one part of a divided country. What fears – and what hopes – drove my fellow citizens to vote for brexit? I commissioned Anthony Cartwright to build a fictional bridge between the two Britains that opposed each other on referendum day.The author's own motivation he explained:
I wanted to write this book because, like many people, in the days after the referendum I felt angry. But I quickly realized that my anger was different. I was outraged at a reaction which labelled seventeen and a half million people “stupid” or “racist” or simply lacking (too poor, too old, too far away from london, too white). In the cut, I wanted to analyse the complex divisions undermining british society. We’ve been offered too many answers already, this is a story built on questionsThe Cut is set in Dudley, birthplace of Duncan Edwards, who statue features in the early pages,
also of Sam Allardyce, the rather short-lived England manager who famously and rather relevantly (although with tongue firmly in cheek) once said his career had been held back "because I’m not called Allardici, just Allardyce", and of course of Lenny Henry.
Cartwright's story is of a brief relationship between Grace, a documentary film maker from London, and Cairo Jukes a retired boxer (although in his mind more resting) working as a casual labourer. Grace comes to Dudley pre the referendum looking for vox-pops in an area expected, even when conventional wisdom expected Remain to win nationally, to vote strongly Leave (in practice Dudley voted 68%-32% for Leave). Cairo proves - to her - to be surprisingly eloquent in his rationale for supporting Leave, not as an anti-immigrant sentiment, or even because he is particularly persuaded by the Leave campaign and the, locally popular, UK Independence Party, but rather as a form of protest against being taken for granted and being told what to think.
The Cut has some nice character sketches - for example when Grace meets Cairo's daughter (albeit coincidentally):
She told her that her name was Ann, realised too late it was because she wanted to impress this woman, was ashamed of the way Stacey-Ann might sound to a woman like Grace. Realised the irony that she was sitting in the clinic, nineteen years old, with a baby on her lap, thrown out of her mother's house and no sign of the dad, so if anyone wanted to make judgements it wasn't her name she need worry about. And Grace gave her a card with her name on it and email and number, like that was the most natural thing in the world.However, too much was a little cliched for my taste - the Vote Leave sticker in the German car of the man wearing an Italian suit, the local UKIP branch that meet at the Indian restaurant, the colleague of Grace who spends most of his time in warzones but thinks Dudley is the biggest dump he's ever visited.
The story itself hinges round an arresting opening - a girl running through Dudley marketplace her hair on fire - which the plot then jumps back and forth through the weeks either side of 23 June 2016 to explain, except that the eventual denouement involved a rather unconvincing melodramatic act.
The Cut is not the first Brexit novel. Two obvious peers are Ali Smith's Autumn published in 2016, and Jack Robinson's Robinson (the book I read immediately before The Cut). In both of these books the Brexit element is more incidental and to an extent tagged-on: Smith already had a book planned and largely written about Pauline Boty, Profumo etc, and Jack Robinson similarly had a long-standing plan to write a novel about the literary descendants of Robinson Crusoe, and just needed the Brexit vote to give the impetus to write it. But actually the books were the better for that - there was obvious literary merit there which will remain after the immediacy of the Brexit vote has faded: indeed I've been struck by how those who re-read Autumn recently have said it actually reads better with distance. In contrast The Cut feels like what it is - something written purely in response to a passing event and with little stand-alone literary merit.
And the political insights of the novel - the divided nation - have been dealt with much better, and earlier, in the non-fiction world. While I disagree with his prescriptions, David Goodhart had diagnosed a culturally divided Britain several years earlier, and his The Road to Somewhere: The Populist Revolt and the Future of Politics stands alongside Steve Richard's The Rise of the Outsiders: How the Anti-Establishment is on the March as the definitive accounts of the era.
Which left me finding the intention behind this novel admirable, but the execution rather unfulfilling.
August 3, 2017
Peirene Press is "an award-winning boutique publishing house with an extra twist, based in London". It’s mission is described on its website as "Two-hour books to be devoured in a single sitting: literary cinema for those fatigued by film".
The Cut is a specially commissioned Brexit novel published on the anniversary of the referendum. It is possibly a British book: I am not sure what other nationalities will make of it. It is recommended reading for Brits, though, whichever way you voted.
There were many surprising things for British people on the morning after the Brexit referendum. The result was the main one, of course. But there was an underlying surprise that, in some ways, is more disturbing. Meike Ziervogel of Peirene Press puts it this way when explaining why Peirene commissioned this book: "The result of the EU referendum shocked me. I realised that I had been living in one part of a divided country. What fears – and what hopes – drove my fellow citizens to vote for Brexit? I commissioned Anthony Cartwright to build a fictional bridge between the Britains that opposed each other on referendum day."
It is the story of two characters: Cairo and Grace. Cairo lives in Dudley in the Midlands. He was born there. His ancestors helped to build the infrastructure of canals and tunnels, they worked in the factories. All the jobs they did have disappeared. Cairo feels "indivisible from the land" (words he uses that surprise him when he says them). He works when and where he can on the infamous "zero hours contracts" to put food on the table for his family (there are 4 generations living in his house - his parents, him, his daughter and his grandson). Grace, on the other hand, is a successful documentary maker. She arrives in Dudley to make a film about the locals' views on the upcoming referendum. When she happens across Cairo and he agrees to be interviewed, the story picks up from there and follows their developing relationship.
The story switches between two different times. Alternate chapters are called Before and After. It is cleverly put together to keep feeding you with clues to make you keep reading to see the reveal that follows. Some come quickly. Some are slower (you have to wait to the very last pages to understand exactly what the first page is about).
For a short novella, the characters are fully fleshed out. In fact, the reason the story works so well is, I think, because the author manages in just a few pages to take us under the skin of both his main characters (and some of the side-characters, too). Sometimes, telling points are made almost as an aside:
Tony Clancey in his German car and his Leave sticker, in his Italian shirts, with his English attitudes...
As we get to know the characters, we see that Grace is an enigma to Cairo’s family and friends. They do not know what to make of her, how to talk to her. There is a gap between her and them and they do not know how to bridge it. This, then, is the central idea of the novel using this relationship as a picture of Britain divided by the Brexit vote. The story attempts to show that Brexit isn’t a simple protest about immigration or EU "interference": it is far more complex than that. What pushed the nation to vote Leave? Cairo tries to explain his feelings:
"People are tired. Tired of clammed-up factory gates, but not even them any more, because look where they are working now, digging trenches to tat out the last of whatever metal was left. Tired of change, tired of the world passing by, tired of other people getting things that you and people like you had made for them, tired of being told you were no good, tired of being told that what you believed to be true was wrong, tired of being told to stop complaining, tired of being told what to eat, what to throw away, what to do and what not to do, what was right and wrong when you were always in the wrong."
Later, he says
"A lot of it is gone, erased. The industrial past. And a lot of it is hidden away. The point is the people here built the country as it was to become. Now you act – we act – like there’s some sort of shame to it all. The rest of the country is ashamed of us. You want us gone in one way or the other. It’ll end in camps, it’ll end in walls, you watch, and it won’t be my people who build them, Grace, it’ll be yours. It’s already happening, in your well-meaning ways."
Grace tries to understand but never really succeeds. Cairo gradually feels less and less significant and begins to despair. When events with Grace appear to offer him some hope and she withdraws that hope, something inside him breaks. The book ends by explaining the imagery we see on the first page and it is a shocking finale. Almost too shocking. I finished the book and my first thought was that the ending was over the top. On reflection, I am not so sure, but the jury is perhaps still out.
The writing is often beautiful. It is often insightful. Cartwright can get us inside people in just a few words.
My recommendation is to do as the publisher suggests: set aside two hours and read this in one sitting - a literary movie.
My thanks to Peirene Press for a free copy of the ebook.
UPDATE (3/8/17): The ending IS way over the top, so I have reduced my rating.
The Cut is a specially commissioned Brexit novel published on the anniversary of the referendum. It is possibly a British book: I am not sure what other nationalities will make of it. It is recommended reading for Brits, though, whichever way you voted.
There were many surprising things for British people on the morning after the Brexit referendum. The result was the main one, of course. But there was an underlying surprise that, in some ways, is more disturbing. Meike Ziervogel of Peirene Press puts it this way when explaining why Peirene commissioned this book: "The result of the EU referendum shocked me. I realised that I had been living in one part of a divided country. What fears – and what hopes – drove my fellow citizens to vote for Brexit? I commissioned Anthony Cartwright to build a fictional bridge between the Britains that opposed each other on referendum day."
It is the story of two characters: Cairo and Grace. Cairo lives in Dudley in the Midlands. He was born there. His ancestors helped to build the infrastructure of canals and tunnels, they worked in the factories. All the jobs they did have disappeared. Cairo feels "indivisible from the land" (words he uses that surprise him when he says them). He works when and where he can on the infamous "zero hours contracts" to put food on the table for his family (there are 4 generations living in his house - his parents, him, his daughter and his grandson). Grace, on the other hand, is a successful documentary maker. She arrives in Dudley to make a film about the locals' views on the upcoming referendum. When she happens across Cairo and he agrees to be interviewed, the story picks up from there and follows their developing relationship.
The story switches between two different times. Alternate chapters are called Before and After. It is cleverly put together to keep feeding you with clues to make you keep reading to see the reveal that follows. Some come quickly. Some are slower (you have to wait to the very last pages to understand exactly what the first page is about).
For a short novella, the characters are fully fleshed out. In fact, the reason the story works so well is, I think, because the author manages in just a few pages to take us under the skin of both his main characters (and some of the side-characters, too). Sometimes, telling points are made almost as an aside:
Tony Clancey in his German car and his Leave sticker, in his Italian shirts, with his English attitudes...
As we get to know the characters, we see that Grace is an enigma to Cairo’s family and friends. They do not know what to make of her, how to talk to her. There is a gap between her and them and they do not know how to bridge it. This, then, is the central idea of the novel using this relationship as a picture of Britain divided by the Brexit vote. The story attempts to show that Brexit isn’t a simple protest about immigration or EU "interference": it is far more complex than that. What pushed the nation to vote Leave? Cairo tries to explain his feelings:
"People are tired. Tired of clammed-up factory gates, but not even them any more, because look where they are working now, digging trenches to tat out the last of whatever metal was left. Tired of change, tired of the world passing by, tired of other people getting things that you and people like you had made for them, tired of being told you were no good, tired of being told that what you believed to be true was wrong, tired of being told to stop complaining, tired of being told what to eat, what to throw away, what to do and what not to do, what was right and wrong when you were always in the wrong."
Later, he says
"A lot of it is gone, erased. The industrial past. And a lot of it is hidden away. The point is the people here built the country as it was to become. Now you act – we act – like there’s some sort of shame to it all. The rest of the country is ashamed of us. You want us gone in one way or the other. It’ll end in camps, it’ll end in walls, you watch, and it won’t be my people who build them, Grace, it’ll be yours. It’s already happening, in your well-meaning ways."
Grace tries to understand but never really succeeds. Cairo gradually feels less and less significant and begins to despair. When events with Grace appear to offer him some hope and she withdraws that hope, something inside him breaks. The book ends by explaining the imagery we see on the first page and it is a shocking finale. Almost too shocking. I finished the book and my first thought was that the ending was over the top. On reflection, I am not so sure, but the jury is perhaps still out.
The writing is often beautiful. It is often insightful. Cartwright can get us inside people in just a few words.
My recommendation is to do as the publisher suggests: set aside two hours and read this in one sitting - a literary movie.
My thanks to Peirene Press for a free copy of the ebook.
UPDATE (3/8/17): The ending IS way over the top, so I have reduced my rating.
May 16, 2021
It’s 2016 and the EU referendum is coming.
Cairo Jukes is from Dudley in the West Midlands. He’s an ex-boxer in early middle age, scraping a living as a labourer digging up abandoned factories and other sites; when we meet him, he’s working in an abandoned abattoir. Grace is a film-maker making a documentary about the referendum, and wants to find out why people might vote for Brexit. She decides to film in Dudley. They meet. It’s an ill-starred romance. In The Cut, author Anthony Cartwright uses it as a vehicle to show the gulf between those who voted for either side, and tries to show us why it is there.
Jukes is a working man who votes for Brexit. Many Remainers would judge him as someone who does this simply out of resentment and ignorance, but Cartwright won’t let us get off that easily. Jukes is a nice man. He does have something to say, but it’s said subtly. There’s no racist raving against foreigners here, just someone who reckons his class has given more than they have got in return. The industrial wasteland he digs up is a metaphor for the rest of Britain; it used everything towns like Dudley could produce and more, and now they scratch a living picking at the mess left behind, feeling that they are despised and seen as stupid. In one memorable passage, Jukes ponders that people are tired - “tired of being told you were no good, tired of being told that what you believed to be true was wrong, tired of being told to stop complaining, tired of being told what to eat, what to throw away, what to do and what not to do, what was right and wrong when you were always in the wrong.”
This does strike a chord. The day after the referendum there was a pic doing the rounds on social media that showed lots of supposedly delicious European food on one side, and on the other, a solitary can of baked beans. I grew up on a traditional British diet, and my mother was a wonderful cook. I am a (fairly) posh Remainer, but I am English, and I found the picture insulting. If I were Jukes, I think I’d have found it deeply offensive. Ignorant peasants, your food is s**t. Your identity is s**t. “The rest of the country is ashamed of us,” thinks Jukes. “You want us gone in one way or the other.” Tired of being told what to eat… what was right and wrong when you were always in the wrong.
This novella was probably written quickly, and there are some flaws. Jukes is vividly drawn and very sympathetic, but Grace, the film-maker, isn’t. It clearly wasn’t her that Cartwright wanted to write about. And I found the end of the novella (which I won’t give away) a bit melodramatic; from other readers’ reviews, I’m not alone in that. But I think Cartwright meant it to represent the pain inflicted on two people who have misunderstood each other – as Jukes and Grace do, tragically, at the end. Some will find it over the top, but others will see it as a metaphor for the painful mutual self-destruction that is Brexit.
Cartwright was commissioned (by Peirene Press) to write this novella as a response to the Brexit vote. That might make one expect the worst sort of didactic crap, the sort that Orwell warned us against in Inside the Whale. But The Cut is much better than that. What it doesn’t do, is tell us where we go from here. But it does help us know where we are starting from.
Cairo Jukes is from Dudley in the West Midlands. He’s an ex-boxer in early middle age, scraping a living as a labourer digging up abandoned factories and other sites; when we meet him, he’s working in an abandoned abattoir. Grace is a film-maker making a documentary about the referendum, and wants to find out why people might vote for Brexit. She decides to film in Dudley. They meet. It’s an ill-starred romance. In The Cut, author Anthony Cartwright uses it as a vehicle to show the gulf between those who voted for either side, and tries to show us why it is there.
Jukes is a working man who votes for Brexit. Many Remainers would judge him as someone who does this simply out of resentment and ignorance, but Cartwright won’t let us get off that easily. Jukes is a nice man. He does have something to say, but it’s said subtly. There’s no racist raving against foreigners here, just someone who reckons his class has given more than they have got in return. The industrial wasteland he digs up is a metaphor for the rest of Britain; it used everything towns like Dudley could produce and more, and now they scratch a living picking at the mess left behind, feeling that they are despised and seen as stupid. In one memorable passage, Jukes ponders that people are tired - “tired of being told you were no good, tired of being told that what you believed to be true was wrong, tired of being told to stop complaining, tired of being told what to eat, what to throw away, what to do and what not to do, what was right and wrong when you were always in the wrong.”
This does strike a chord. The day after the referendum there was a pic doing the rounds on social media that showed lots of supposedly delicious European food on one side, and on the other, a solitary can of baked beans. I grew up on a traditional British diet, and my mother was a wonderful cook. I am a (fairly) posh Remainer, but I am English, and I found the picture insulting. If I were Jukes, I think I’d have found it deeply offensive. Ignorant peasants, your food is s**t. Your identity is s**t. “The rest of the country is ashamed of us,” thinks Jukes. “You want us gone in one way or the other.” Tired of being told what to eat… what was right and wrong when you were always in the wrong.
This novella was probably written quickly, and there are some flaws. Jukes is vividly drawn and very sympathetic, but Grace, the film-maker, isn’t. It clearly wasn’t her that Cartwright wanted to write about. And I found the end of the novella (which I won’t give away) a bit melodramatic; from other readers’ reviews, I’m not alone in that. But I think Cartwright meant it to represent the pain inflicted on two people who have misunderstood each other – as Jukes and Grace do, tragically, at the end. Some will find it over the top, but others will see it as a metaphor for the painful mutual self-destruction that is Brexit.
Cartwright was commissioned (by Peirene Press) to write this novella as a response to the Brexit vote. That might make one expect the worst sort of didactic crap, the sort that Orwell warned us against in Inside the Whale. But The Cut is much better than that. What it doesn’t do, is tell us where we go from here. But it does help us know where we are starting from.
August 3, 2017
People are tired. Tired of clammed-up factory gates, but not even them any more, because look where they are working now, digging trenches to tat out the last of whatever metal was left. Tired of change, tired of the world passing by, tired of other people getting things that you and people like you had made for them, tired of being told you were no good, tired of being told that what you believed to be true was wrong, tired of being told to stop complaining, tired of being told what to eat, what to throw away, what to do and what not to do, what was right and wrong when you were always in the wrong.
This book was published by Peirene Press “a boutique publishing house with a traditional commitment to first class European literature in high-quality translation”.
In 2015 they decided to launch a new series, in which they work closely with selected writers, commissioning non-translated fiction on current political topics – the first based on interviews at “The Jungle” refugee camp in Calais.
This book (the second in the series) was commissioned in the immediate wake of the EU vote “to build a fictional bridge between the two Britains that opposed each other on referendum day”.
The two key characters in the book are the early 40’s Cairo Jukes, who lives in Dudley, once the heart of the industrial revolution, now heart of a Britain which feels left behind or as Cairo puts it in this exchange, has been left behind:
“I doh think that feel like they’ve lost out. They have lost out”
“Isn’t that the same thing”
“No, thass part of the problem, thinking that it is. We’m sitting on one of the places we’ve lost [the old County Ground in Dudley, once a venue for Warwickshire matches]. You make out like it’s our problem, it’s only about how we feel. But we have los tit, it doh really matter what we feel about it. It’s a fact. You can prove it”
“What can you prove”
“The loss, actual jobs. Jobs, houses, security all them things … But maybe yome right that there’s feelings as well, of loss, of having lost”
In his youth he was a boxer (and still aspiring to return to boxing, despite even at his peak being known more as a reliable opponent for an up and coming boxer to use to boost their record – reliable both for putting on a good show and lasting the distance, but also for almost certainly losing).
Cairo now makes a hand to mouth living “tatting”, doing zero-hour contractual labour digging up copper pipes from long disused industrial sites, and living in a house with four generations: his elderly parents, his daughter (who was thrown out by his wife – who now lives with Cairo’s boss - when his daughter became pregnant) and his mixed-race baby grandson.
As an aside it is clearly an example of my own place in the Brexit divide that I was initially confused as to how a man in his 40s could be a grandfather, when most fathers of primary school children I know are that age.
The exchange above it between Cairo and Grace – a documentary maker who we first meet swimming in the open air in the Ladies Pond on Hampstead Heath. She has travelled to Dudley to film a documentary ahead of the Brexit vote, to capture the voice of (what everyone assumes to be) the losing side in the vote – and Cairo on a whim agrees to talk to her, the two then having a brief affair. In a telling detail her interview with him is subtitled when played on British news.
The book alternates in Before and After chapters, referring the vote, but also to the breakdown in their relationship that occurred on the same day.
The huge strength of the book is Cartwright’s ability to conjure up the life and character of the Dudley based characters (not just Cairo but his colleagues and family) in a few deft strokes and to bring to life their world. I felt that the book was too one-sided in this respect though, Alice remained an enigmatic and unexplored character to me – this may have been a deliberate choice given the expected anti-Brexit readership of the novel, but that in itself seems a prejudiced assumption.
Another strength is the way that Cartwright coveys the inability of Alice and Cairo to really communicate or understand each other, with their best attempts not being able to overcome mutual guilt and the cultural gap between them. And this of course serves as an image of a society divided by Brexit. However the book begins dramatically with a women running on fire across a market place and much of the After sections lead up to why this occurred – and unfortunately this a melodramatic/unrealistic incident which I felt undermined much of Cartwright’s deft build-up and careful characterisation and did not fit the premise of the book (albeit the Grenfell Tower tragedy has given a tragic spin to the finale).
The endpapers feature a quote from TLS about the publisher’s style “Two-hour books to be devoured in a single sitting; literary cinema for those fatigued by film” and this perhaps gets partly to the heart of why the book was not entirely for me. Film is one of my least favourite mediums (I watch on average between DVD and Cinema around 1 film a year, in contrast to reading 80+ books) precisely because of its brevity, lack of depth and requirement for externalised dialogue and action over internal musings – and overall this book did I think suffer from some of the same traits.
December 8, 2019
La Brexit vista attraverso la breve storia d’amore tra due personaggi molto diversi per classe sociale, storia personale e posizione politica.
Sarebbe una bella idea e l’autore riesce a dipingere un quadro abbastanza chiaro (per quanto parziale) del contesto che ha portato al malcontento che ha poi innescato il processo separatista.
È tutto il resto a essere confuso.
La narrazione, già di per sé alternata di continuo tra un “prima” e un “dopo” il voto, si complica in mille modi pretenziosi e inutili, e se devo essere sincera non ho capito neanche bene il finale (e se si ricongiunge con la scena iniziale o semplicemente la ricorda).
Che fatica.
Sarebbe una bella idea e l’autore riesce a dipingere un quadro abbastanza chiaro (per quanto parziale) del contesto che ha portato al malcontento che ha poi innescato il processo separatista.
È tutto il resto a essere confuso.
La narrazione, già di per sé alternata di continuo tra un “prima” e un “dopo” il voto, si complica in mille modi pretenziosi e inutili, e se devo essere sincera non ho capito neanche bene il finale (e se si ricongiunge con la scena iniziale o semplicemente la ricorda).
Che fatica.
May 24, 2020
"La gent està cansada. Cansada de portes de fàbriques tancades i barrades, però ara ja ni tan sols això, perquè mira on estan treballant, cavant rases per treure les últimes restes de metall que puguin quedar. Cansada de canviar, cansada que el món passi de llarg, cansada que altra gent es quedi les coses que tu i la gent com tu havíeu fet per a ells, cansada que et diguin que no vals res, cansada que et diguin que el que creies que era veritat no estava bé, cansada que et diguin què menjar i què no, què fer i què no fer, què està bé i què malament quan tu sempre ets el que acabes equivocat. Cansada de feines en supermercats i magatzems i feines de vigilant en centres comercials. La feina sempre havia deixat la gent esgotada, l'escalfor dels forns, el repic de ferro, però això és un cansament d'una altra mena, un cansament que no es cura amb descans, com una plaga que se'ls està menjant a tots"
Ken Loach, Kate Tempest, Anna Burns i Fassbinder a l'encop. Llegiu-lo i pregunteu-vos si hauríeu votat l'UKIP.
Ken Loach, Kate Tempest, Anna Burns i Fassbinder a l'encop. Llegiu-lo i pregunteu-vos si hauríeu votat l'UKIP.
September 18, 2017
The founder of the publisher of The Cut Meike Ziervogel :Peirene Press opens the book with a screaming 30 point typeface stating
"The result of the EU referendum shocked me....What fears-and what hopes-drove my fellow citizens to vote for Brexit? I commissioned Anthony Cartwright to build a fictional bridge between the two Britain's that have opposed each other since that referendum day "
The blurb on the rear of the book also starts off: "The cut is a Brexit novel"
So that’s it then, this is one of the first works of Brexit fiction (Booker nominated Autumn by Ali Smith being the highest profile "Brexit book).
The book is perfectly good for a quick read (its avowed intention), but chronically spoiled by the wretched, unnecessary ending (and start). Some other reviews here on Goodreads are of the same view of the finale. This unfortunately made the overall experience reading the Cut an unsatisfactory one for me.
Two separate themes run through the book, and neither of them is a Brexit theme.
Theme one is a story of boy/girl attraction, despite the odds against the relationship. Think DH Lawrence and countless other stories where a couple from opposite sides of the tracks get drawn into something they both know is destined to fail. That’s the overriding story of Cairo Jukes and Grace Trevithick. There’s little more than physical attraction and in Grace’s case “the feeling she’s done this before nagged at her.. that brief romance with Marko, the fixer in Belgrade ” (92)
Theme two is the story of ageing, and the wistful remembrances of better times, of youth. It’s rare not to look back to a time of youth and not remember this time as being better than the present day. In the case of Cairo he was spoken about in the community by virtue of his boxing prowess. Not any longer.
The sense of change in the community, as expressed through lack of consistent work, and the decline of manual labouring opportunities, is a parable more akin to the structural re-alignment of industrial manufacturing and output, and the hurt it brought about, in the Thatcher era, the 1980s, as whole communities were dismantled.
My concern with The Cut is twofold.
First it’s a bit contrived and formulaic to set about writing fiction with such a pre-defined charter.
Second, if the publisher (and various reviews) didn’t keep telling me that this is a "Brexit" novel, would that really be the abiding message/theme that I would take from the book.
And the answer is, NO.
"The result of the EU referendum shocked me....What fears-and what hopes-drove my fellow citizens to vote for Brexit? I commissioned Anthony Cartwright to build a fictional bridge between the two Britain's that have opposed each other since that referendum day "
The blurb on the rear of the book also starts off: "The cut is a Brexit novel"
So that’s it then, this is one of the first works of Brexit fiction (Booker nominated Autumn by Ali Smith being the highest profile "Brexit book).
The book is perfectly good for a quick read (its avowed intention), but chronically spoiled by the wretched, unnecessary ending (and start). Some other reviews here on Goodreads are of the same view of the finale. This unfortunately made the overall experience reading the Cut an unsatisfactory one for me.
Two separate themes run through the book, and neither of them is a Brexit theme.
Theme one is a story of boy/girl attraction, despite the odds against the relationship. Think DH Lawrence and countless other stories where a couple from opposite sides of the tracks get drawn into something they both know is destined to fail. That’s the overriding story of Cairo Jukes and Grace Trevithick. There’s little more than physical attraction and in Grace’s case “the feeling she’s done this before nagged at her.. that brief romance with Marko, the fixer in Belgrade ” (92)
Theme two is the story of ageing, and the wistful remembrances of better times, of youth. It’s rare not to look back to a time of youth and not remember this time as being better than the present day. In the case of Cairo he was spoken about in the community by virtue of his boxing prowess. Not any longer.
The sense of change in the community, as expressed through lack of consistent work, and the decline of manual labouring opportunities, is a parable more akin to the structural re-alignment of industrial manufacturing and output, and the hurt it brought about, in the Thatcher era, the 1980s, as whole communities were dismantled.
My concern with The Cut is twofold.
First it’s a bit contrived and formulaic to set about writing fiction with such a pre-defined charter.
Second, if the publisher (and various reviews) didn’t keep telling me that this is a "Brexit" novel, would that really be the abiding message/theme that I would take from the book.
And the answer is, NO.
June 23, 2017
The Cut, by Anthony Cartwright, is set in the Black Country, where the skeletons of the industrial past are now regarded by those who have benefited from it the most as a blight. Cairo Jukes has lived in Dudley all his life. He feels indivisible from the land. His ancestors were amongst the men who dug the canals and tunnels, worked the foundries. None of these jobs now exist. Cairo works zero hour contracts cleaning up the old industrial sites ready for redevelopment, a tidying up and sweeping away for those who can afford the new order. He does what is needed to put food on the table for the four generations of family who share his home.
Grace is an award winning documentary film-maker from London. She travels to Dudley looking to interview locals about the upcoming referendum on Brexit, recognising that they are different from those she knows from her life. Most treat her with suspicion, veering away from her approach and the camera:
“She felt like there was some kind of invisible veil between her and these people. These people. And this is how it began, she supposed, prejudice on the scale of a whole country.”
Cairo agrees to be interviewed, speaking in an accent that, when played back on news cycles and Twitter, is given subtitles. What he says is ‘We’ve had enough’. He talks of ‘you people’, those who appear on the telly and believe what is happening is everybody’s fault but their own. Grace is drawn to this rough, unexpectedly cogent man.
The reader is offered snapshots of the Jukes family’s lives. Cairo’s daughter, Stacey-Ann, introduces herself to Grace as Ann. Judgements are made even over names. They are unused to talking to anyone like Grace. Her ways are foreign to them, and theirs to her. Despite their conversations, words cannot be found to bridge the gap.
It is this that the novel offers, a bridge between perception and reality. In packaging Brexit as a protest about immigration or even the EU the depths and complexity are disregarded, what is felt standing on a sun dappled mountaintop reduced to a sterile description of river and rock. Brexit was about how large swathes of the population are routinely admonished, their concerns dismissed.
“People are tired […] tired of other people getting things that you and people like you had made for them, tired of being told you were no good, tired of being told that what you believed to be true was wrong, tired of being told to stop complaining, tired of being told what to eat, what to throw away, what to do and what not to do, what was right and wrong when you were always in the wrong.”
Grace recognises that there is a disconnect but struggles to accept that she may sometimes be the one to be wrong. It is easier to find others wanting.
“‘This place is a hole’, Franco says to her and sits down.
‘I’ve never heard you say that anywhere. Hungary, the border camps, Serbia, when you came back from Syria. Never. But Dudley is the end of the road for you. Look out of the window. It’s a sunny afternoon in the English Midlands.’ […]
‘Those people have got an excuse, a reason for being how they are, but these people,’ Franco says.
‘Ah, these people, she says, these people'”
Cairo feels increasingly impotent. He sees that many in the rest of the country want the likes of him gone, that walls are built with their well meaning ways. When Grace appears to offer him a new hope and then as quickly takes it from him, something in him snaps. The denouement, which was touched on at the beginning, is shocking.
The writing in this work is stunning. It is sparce, poetic in places, and bang on point.
Required reading for anyone who despairs of Brexit, or anyone tempted to glance at the Stacey-Anns of our world and then self-righteously opine. It offers a plot driven window into a clashing of cultures. It deserves the attention of all.
My copy of this book was provided gratis by the publisher, Peirene Press.
Grace is an award winning documentary film-maker from London. She travels to Dudley looking to interview locals about the upcoming referendum on Brexit, recognising that they are different from those she knows from her life. Most treat her with suspicion, veering away from her approach and the camera:
“She felt like there was some kind of invisible veil between her and these people. These people. And this is how it began, she supposed, prejudice on the scale of a whole country.”
Cairo agrees to be interviewed, speaking in an accent that, when played back on news cycles and Twitter, is given subtitles. What he says is ‘We’ve had enough’. He talks of ‘you people’, those who appear on the telly and believe what is happening is everybody’s fault but their own. Grace is drawn to this rough, unexpectedly cogent man.
The reader is offered snapshots of the Jukes family’s lives. Cairo’s daughter, Stacey-Ann, introduces herself to Grace as Ann. Judgements are made even over names. They are unused to talking to anyone like Grace. Her ways are foreign to them, and theirs to her. Despite their conversations, words cannot be found to bridge the gap.
It is this that the novel offers, a bridge between perception and reality. In packaging Brexit as a protest about immigration or even the EU the depths and complexity are disregarded, what is felt standing on a sun dappled mountaintop reduced to a sterile description of river and rock. Brexit was about how large swathes of the population are routinely admonished, their concerns dismissed.
“People are tired […] tired of other people getting things that you and people like you had made for them, tired of being told you were no good, tired of being told that what you believed to be true was wrong, tired of being told to stop complaining, tired of being told what to eat, what to throw away, what to do and what not to do, what was right and wrong when you were always in the wrong.”
Grace recognises that there is a disconnect but struggles to accept that she may sometimes be the one to be wrong. It is easier to find others wanting.
“‘This place is a hole’, Franco says to her and sits down.
‘I’ve never heard you say that anywhere. Hungary, the border camps, Serbia, when you came back from Syria. Never. But Dudley is the end of the road for you. Look out of the window. It’s a sunny afternoon in the English Midlands.’ […]
‘Those people have got an excuse, a reason for being how they are, but these people,’ Franco says.
‘Ah, these people, she says, these people'”
Cairo feels increasingly impotent. He sees that many in the rest of the country want the likes of him gone, that walls are built with their well meaning ways. When Grace appears to offer him a new hope and then as quickly takes it from him, something in him snaps. The denouement, which was touched on at the beginning, is shocking.
The writing in this work is stunning. It is sparce, poetic in places, and bang on point.
Required reading for anyone who despairs of Brexit, or anyone tempted to glance at the Stacey-Anns of our world and then self-righteously opine. It offers a plot driven window into a clashing of cultures. It deserves the attention of all.
My copy of this book was provided gratis by the publisher, Peirene Press.
January 13, 2018
I was one of the Kickstarter backers for this book, published by Peirene Press. I like the work the publisher does. This was rare in that it was both being written in English, and was being written specifically for the publisher. Usually Peirene Press publish English translations of famous works in non-English languages.
The book was meant to be about Brexit.
I came out quite dissatisfied. It's not a style that particularly suits me anyway. I found it depressing - and not just because it's about Brexit. But the reason I'm giving it 2 stars is that I didn't feel like I gained anything by reading it. No further insights and no learning of both sides of the Brexit debate.
I also disliked the ending, but don't want to say why so as not to spoil it for future readers. I'm curious to know what others think of it.
The book was meant to be about Brexit.
I came out quite dissatisfied. It's not a style that particularly suits me anyway. I found it depressing - and not just because it's about Brexit. But the reason I'm giving it 2 stars is that I didn't feel like I gained anything by reading it. No further insights and no learning of both sides of the Brexit debate.
I also disliked the ending, but don't want to say why so as not to spoil it for future readers. I'm curious to know what others think of it.
May 19, 2018
Video review https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCENk...
Also I wasn't sure about the ending, it seemed to have switched victims from the opening scene. Also the woman in the mobility scooter in the opening scene seems to be the ringleader of the mob, in the end version of the scene she seems to be the one trying to help the victim. Is this somehow echoing that old Guardian TV advert of the aggressive looking skinhead charging towards the camera who our prejudices presume is bent on violence, when the camera rolls on it shows him racing to help somebody? That we must not judge people by our own prejudices? Didn't work for me anyway.
Guardian ad can be viewed here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3bfO...
Also I wasn't sure about the ending, it seemed to have switched victims from the opening scene. Also the woman in the mobility scooter in the opening scene seems to be the ringleader of the mob, in the end version of the scene she seems to be the one trying to help the victim. Is this somehow echoing that old Guardian TV advert of the aggressive looking skinhead charging towards the camera who our prejudices presume is bent on violence, when the camera rolls on it shows him racing to help somebody? That we must not judge people by our own prejudices? Didn't work for me anyway.
Guardian ad can be viewed here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3bfO...
April 27, 2022
Nope, not for me. Kinda hated the characters (but I guess that was the author‘s intention) and REALLY hated the writing style.
May 10, 2021
Un dels problemes de tenir un inici tan potent com el d’aquest llibre és que després has de mantenir-lo.
Si bé els capítols breus fan que tingui ritme, que la història estigui explicada (inexplicablement) de forma no cronològica i des de diferents punts de vista fa que sigui confosa i no s’entengui. La major part de vegades, de fet, no sabia què passava ni a qui li passava. I per ser una novel·la sobre el Brèxit, en realitat és força superficial. No gaire més profunda que un capítol d’Eastenders.
Si bé els capítols breus fan que tingui ritme, que la història estigui explicada (inexplicablement) de forma no cronològica i des de diferents punts de vista fa que sigui confosa i no s’entengui. La major part de vegades, de fet, no sabia què passava ni a qui li passava. I per ser una novel·la sobre el Brèxit, en realitat és força superficial. No gaire més profunda que un capítol d’Eastenders.
July 6, 2017
Pitch-perfect portrayal of a divided contemporary Britain, yet it does not feel like a political tract or preaching.
December 15, 2017
I began ‘The Cut’ under a misapprehension - that it was by Justin Cartwright rather than Anthony Cartwright. I’d read Justin Cartwright’s Other People's Money and found it an interesting commentary on high finance in British society, so wondered what he had to say about Brexit. Easy mistake to make, right? ‘The Cut’ is a commissioned novel, intended to comment on the EU referendum and what it says about Britain. Or rather England. I found it insightful in parts, but not to the extent I’d hoped for. Given the diminutive length, I probably expected too much. The plot begins when a documentary maker comes to interview people in Dudley about the upcoming referendum and meets a man called Cairo. This isn’t really a spoiler as the back cover heavily implies it: they start a romantic relationship. I didn’t find this relationship that helpful a lens for understanding Brexit. This could be a case of me trying to interpret literature too literally, I suppose. The highlight of the book for me occurred before the romance. I found this conversation very thought-provoking:
Talk of the elite makes me want a Marxist analysis of Brexit, incidentally. If you find one, let me know. On a pedantic note, I found it distracting that Mum was spelled ‘Mom’, American style, presumably as part of rendering Black Country accents phonetically. The ending was also slightly baffling, although it certainly made Leave’s vein of masochism extremely clear. What comes across strongly is that Leave manipulated nostalgia. Britain has a strong streak of nostalgic traditionalism and it seems almost like poetic justice that we should pay for it. Brexit won’t compensate the many countries we ruined when we colonised them, though. And although some of the elite will suffer as a result, the worst off will suffer the most.
I’m very pleased that Brexit literature is starting to appear, and contemplating how much more I enjoyed Ali Smith’s Autumn than ‘The Cut’ made me consider my personal biases. Ali Smith’s novel has a main character of my age, gender, occupation, and inclination to Remain, whereas ‘The Cut’ centres on Cairo, a grandfather who works as a day labourer and votes Leave. While I appreciate the attempt in ‘The Cut’ to explain the psychology behind voting Leave, what I still can’t grasp is this: for those who voted in protest against politicians in general, who did they think was going to do the Leaving? If you distrusted politicians (and I can certainly see why you would, albeit I distrusted the pro-Leave ones more) why give them this additional power? Were the European politicians were distrusted even more? But many of them were UKIP... I guess with both Brexit and Trump, there’s a toxic stew of sociopolitical forces at work below the surface and it’s very difficult to unpack them from within current events. There are class, generational, and geographical elements; anti-immigrant sentiment is obviously important, all overlapping with bewildered anger at the inequality and rapacity of neoliberal capitalism. Channeling that anger into voting for obnoxious rich white men seems so counterintuitive, though! That said, when the referendum happened I was living in Cambridge, which voted 74% Remain, and I’m a millennial. So maybe I’ll never get it.
”These people have got it coming,” he said with a feeling she found hard to understand. The man she had know for a few hours, less. She surprised herself when she noticed no wedding ring, not that it meant anything. They had talked so far of fathers and newspaper stories.
“Which people?”
“The people who write this crap.”
“It’s just a game to them, a funny game, like life’s a game. I bet the people writing these papers don’t vote to leave, I bet they live in fancy houses in London and they’ll vote to stay. They’m all doing fine, thank you very much. It’s like a double bluff.”
“Who’s playing games now?”
“You get what I mean, though?”
“I’m not sure I do. You mean that people here will vote against whatever they think the perceived elite will vote?”
“Here you go again. It ay perceived. There is an elite.”
“But some of the elite want you to vote to leave.”
“They doh mean it.”
“What do you mean, they don’t mean it?”
“I’ve told yer, it’s a game of double bluff. They’ll all argue about it. We’ll have the vote. It’ll be a vote to stay in. They’ll fix it if they need to. Then they’ll get on with whatever’s next on the agenda, all mates together again.”
“I think they mean it, and anyway, what, it’s all one big conspiracy?”
“You said it. A conspiracy of the elite, thass your word by the way, these are your own words, against the rest of us. You should write this down, put it in your film.”
“I will,” she said. She suddenly had to laugh.
Talk of the elite makes me want a Marxist analysis of Brexit, incidentally. If you find one, let me know. On a pedantic note, I found it distracting that Mum was spelled ‘Mom’, American style, presumably as part of rendering Black Country accents phonetically. The ending was also slightly baffling, although it certainly made Leave’s vein of masochism extremely clear. What comes across strongly is that Leave manipulated nostalgia. Britain has a strong streak of nostalgic traditionalism and it seems almost like poetic justice that we should pay for it. Brexit won’t compensate the many countries we ruined when we colonised them, though. And although some of the elite will suffer as a result, the worst off will suffer the most.
I’m very pleased that Brexit literature is starting to appear, and contemplating how much more I enjoyed Ali Smith’s Autumn than ‘The Cut’ made me consider my personal biases. Ali Smith’s novel has a main character of my age, gender, occupation, and inclination to Remain, whereas ‘The Cut’ centres on Cairo, a grandfather who works as a day labourer and votes Leave. While I appreciate the attempt in ‘The Cut’ to explain the psychology behind voting Leave, what I still can’t grasp is this: for those who voted in protest against politicians in general, who did they think was going to do the Leaving? If you distrusted politicians (and I can certainly see why you would, albeit I distrusted the pro-Leave ones more) why give them this additional power? Were the European politicians were distrusted even more? But many of them were UKIP... I guess with both Brexit and Trump, there’s a toxic stew of sociopolitical forces at work below the surface and it’s very difficult to unpack them from within current events. There are class, generational, and geographical elements; anti-immigrant sentiment is obviously important, all overlapping with bewildered anger at the inequality and rapacity of neoliberal capitalism. Channeling that anger into voting for obnoxious rich white men seems so counterintuitive, though! That said, when the referendum happened I was living in Cambridge, which voted 74% Remain, and I’m a millennial. So maybe I’ll never get it.
July 4, 2019
The Cut Anthony Cartwright
I attended the Arts Festival in Salerno, Italy, last week. Events were mostly Italian, but there was more than enough to keep this English speaker happy in this beautiful city. One event was advertised as author Anthony Cartwright speaking about his book, 'The Cut' which was about Brexit. Brexit is a subject I want to know about, so I went along expecting to hear Mr Cartwright speaking about his non fiction book on Brexit.
I was wrong.
'The Cut' is a novel, set in Dudley (close to Birmingham UK) and it uses Brexit as it's backdrop, theme for the novel.
The main characters are Grace and Cairo.
Grace is a documentary film maker. Her background is middle or even upper class. Well educated and in a job that many would only dream of having. A documentary film maker who views others through a lens and draws conclusions, making the final cut interpreting from her point of view.
Cairo is an ex-boxer, working class labourer, digging holes for scrap on a zero hour contract. We aren't told about his background but obviously non-academic. However he is ver articulate. His knowledge of Dudley in the present, recent past and distant past cannot be challenged. A lot of this has been passed on by his father, who, we are told, is an excellent local historian.
Something that Grace and Cairo do have in common. Their father's are keen historians, but they never speak about this. Just as they don't really speak about any truly personal issues. Cairo tells the mic and camera why the people may vote in the referendum. It is a vote against the elite. The elite, an example would be Thatcher though not the only one, took away so much from the ordinary man and woman. Their livelihoods, steelworks and mines for example.
Now reader you may be thinking who wants to work in a steelwork or mine? The answer is easy. You are probably one of the elite if you are reading this. The answer is all about dignity. My Father got up at six every morning to work in the factory. Six days a week. Before he was fifty, he was made redundant. The factory closed. No redundancy money, a pittance of a pension from them when he was 65. He had to suffer the indignity of being on the dole. Going to the dole office every week, queuing, seeing if there was any work, getting his dole. He was a proud man. An ex Coldstream guardsman who had been one of the first soldiers into Belsen. And this was how his country thanked him. And every worker like him in the UK in the late 1970s.
It wouldn't take much effort for a politician such as Nigel Farage to whip up these people to vote to leave the EU. David Cameron and his like represented the elite; the possibility for the electorate to put them in their places. Telling them, "For a change. This is what we want!" The result was unexpected. Nobody had planned for leave; hence the chaos that has ensued.
Anthony Cartwright's novel takes feeling of attack against the elite, from the point of view of Cairo and his peers, to the understanding of Grace and what she feels should be the logical conclusion. Interesting though, I didn't really know how Cairo voted, remain or leave. I have a feeling remain. Perhaps to reader is left to draw their own conclusions. Certainly, I'm certain that Grace's vote was a protest. She didn't vote.
Grace's pregnancy, Cairo being the father, sums up the situation of where people are unable to speak to each other. Grace wants to have the child, Cairo wants the child, but both assume that the other wants abortion used as contraception.
One review on Goodreads, goes as far as saying the end of the novel borders on being ridiculous. I disagree. Cairo setting himself alight in the market square, very dramatic for the cameras to film. The sick attitude being that was what happened rather than giving help to the burnt. It was an act of protest, not sacrifice, but protest against the society and government and what both institutions have driven a man to do.
The Cut is a novella. It should be read and then immediately begun again. Any issues of continuity for the reader are solved; but it also really is the way it should have been published.
The Cut deserves to be published by a more mainstream publisher, who could publish it at a more competitive price.
Ken Loach should turn it into a film!
I attended the Arts Festival in Salerno, Italy, last week. Events were mostly Italian, but there was more than enough to keep this English speaker happy in this beautiful city. One event was advertised as author Anthony Cartwright speaking about his book, 'The Cut' which was about Brexit. Brexit is a subject I want to know about, so I went along expecting to hear Mr Cartwright speaking about his non fiction book on Brexit.
I was wrong.
'The Cut' is a novel, set in Dudley (close to Birmingham UK) and it uses Brexit as it's backdrop, theme for the novel.
The main characters are Grace and Cairo.
Grace is a documentary film maker. Her background is middle or even upper class. Well educated and in a job that many would only dream of having. A documentary film maker who views others through a lens and draws conclusions, making the final cut interpreting from her point of view.
Cairo is an ex-boxer, working class labourer, digging holes for scrap on a zero hour contract. We aren't told about his background but obviously non-academic. However he is ver articulate. His knowledge of Dudley in the present, recent past and distant past cannot be challenged. A lot of this has been passed on by his father, who, we are told, is an excellent local historian.
Something that Grace and Cairo do have in common. Their father's are keen historians, but they never speak about this. Just as they don't really speak about any truly personal issues. Cairo tells the mic and camera why the people may vote in the referendum. It is a vote against the elite. The elite, an example would be Thatcher though not the only one, took away so much from the ordinary man and woman. Their livelihoods, steelworks and mines for example.
Now reader you may be thinking who wants to work in a steelwork or mine? The answer is easy. You are probably one of the elite if you are reading this. The answer is all about dignity. My Father got up at six every morning to work in the factory. Six days a week. Before he was fifty, he was made redundant. The factory closed. No redundancy money, a pittance of a pension from them when he was 65. He had to suffer the indignity of being on the dole. Going to the dole office every week, queuing, seeing if there was any work, getting his dole. He was a proud man. An ex Coldstream guardsman who had been one of the first soldiers into Belsen. And this was how his country thanked him. And every worker like him in the UK in the late 1970s.
It wouldn't take much effort for a politician such as Nigel Farage to whip up these people to vote to leave the EU. David Cameron and his like represented the elite; the possibility for the electorate to put them in their places. Telling them, "For a change. This is what we want!" The result was unexpected. Nobody had planned for leave; hence the chaos that has ensued.
Anthony Cartwright's novel takes feeling of attack against the elite, from the point of view of Cairo and his peers, to the understanding of Grace and what she feels should be the logical conclusion. Interesting though, I didn't really know how Cairo voted, remain or leave. I have a feeling remain. Perhaps to reader is left to draw their own conclusions. Certainly, I'm certain that Grace's vote was a protest. She didn't vote.
Grace's pregnancy, Cairo being the father, sums up the situation of where people are unable to speak to each other. Grace wants to have the child, Cairo wants the child, but both assume that the other wants abortion used as contraception.
One review on Goodreads, goes as far as saying the end of the novel borders on being ridiculous. I disagree. Cairo setting himself alight in the market square, very dramatic for the cameras to film. The sick attitude being that was what happened rather than giving help to the burnt. It was an act of protest, not sacrifice, but protest against the society and government and what both institutions have driven a man to do.
The Cut is a novella. It should be read and then immediately begun again. Any issues of continuity for the reader are solved; but it also really is the way it should have been published.
The Cut deserves to be published by a more mainstream publisher, who could publish it at a more competitive price.
Ken Loach should turn it into a film!
September 8, 2018
1.5 ☆
Finished reading ... The Cut / Anthony Cartwright ... 08 September 2018
ISBN: 9781908670403 … 129 pp.
The review of this novella that prompted me to request my local library to buy it said: This is a gem of a novel; quietly devastating. (The Tablet 27 Jan.2018) I'm afraid I didn't find it so, probably largely due to the style in which it is written. I'd have thought there were enough novels being written but nevertheless, this is a commissioned work on the subject of Brexit.
The novella is a series of pieces, sometimes disjointed in themselves, that flip and flop from before to after the Brexit vote. I'm not entirely against novels written in alternating before-and-after style, some even work really well, but this is almost as though jigsaw pieces were tossed in the air and placed randomly, some missing, yet somehow you're meant to see the whole picture. Which I sort of could after finishing the story then going back to the start. Because it starts at the end.
My other issue is the improbability of the central proposition, a relationship between him, Cairo, a gritty Midlander (expected to vote Leave), and her, Grace, a London documentary film maker (expected to vote Remain). It depends on what you call a relationship perhaps. She has had previous sexual encounters with those she has filmed in the world's trouble spots and it's hard to see this as different except if you suspend disbelief even further at the outcome of their encounter.
On the plus side, the author was born in Dudley, the setting of the novella. Cartwright manages to convey something of the current grimness of the city and that, to some Leavers at least, the vote ran much deeper than the more recent influx of EU migrants.
I can't recommend this one but if the style of writing appeals to you, you would probably enjoy it as the writer of the review I quoted did.
Bought by my local library at my request.
October 16, 2025
A book from one of my favourite publishers, Peirene Press. They always release interesting titles and this is no exception, although this is not one of their translated novels that they usually release. (This is one of their Peirene Now! publications).
We have the coming together of our two main protagonists set to the backdrop of the Brexit referendum.
They are two very contrasting characters, Cairo the Dudley born and bred white collar worker and Grace the globe travelling documentary film maker who focuses on people in her films. This time she wants to make a film about the referendum in the midlands.
It tries to shine a light on 'forgotten' Britain with some people working and struggling to make ends meet. Some are overly concerned about what they think is happening to their country whilst others (Cairo's daughter) feel there are more important things to worry about in their daily struggle.
I think this novella wants to show us how a political fire starts:
kindling being laid by politicians
fire started by the politicians
logs put on by the media/commentators
stoking of the flames by politicians, media
all this then culminates in a big explosion as the politicians have sneakily thrown in a lighter as the fire was dying down.
This is all deftly done by the author, but I feel it was a little rushed towards the end, and could've been padded out a little more to get to the explosive end.
Still a worthwhile read to get a little bit of context concerning Brexit.
We have the coming together of our two main protagonists set to the backdrop of the Brexit referendum.
They are two very contrasting characters, Cairo the Dudley born and bred white collar worker and Grace the globe travelling documentary film maker who focuses on people in her films. This time she wants to make a film about the referendum in the midlands.
It tries to shine a light on 'forgotten' Britain with some people working and struggling to make ends meet. Some are overly concerned about what they think is happening to their country whilst others (Cairo's daughter) feel there are more important things to worry about in their daily struggle.
I think this novella wants to show us how a political fire starts:
kindling being laid by politicians
fire started by the politicians
logs put on by the media/commentators
stoking of the flames by politicians, media
all this then culminates in a big explosion as the politicians have sneakily thrown in a lighter as the fire was dying down.
This is all deftly done by the author, but I feel it was a little rushed towards the end, and could've been padded out a little more to get to the explosive end.
Still a worthwhile read to get a little bit of context concerning Brexit.
August 15, 2017
3.5
I really like the Peirene concept ('cinema for people who don't have the patience for cinema' - if you will - is me to a tee). I was also taken by the setting (not hard... these are still such shockingly underexplored places in modern literature); I found Cairo fairly engaging. Traces of fantasy and tasty metaphor in those tunnels and caves too.
I'm just not sure how revealing the politics side of it was. However passionate, earnest and Mellors-y those complaints that 'we built the country and now they are ashamed of us', this was still just a rounded character mouthing Owen-Jones-meets-UKIP level histrionic fuckwittery and a middle class Southerner hearing it and liking him. But all that 'those politicians' and harking back to industries that have been closed for 50 fucking years, even though you never knew a time when they weren't closed? One can get that from any TV vignette. Ending bit wobbly too.
Still, muscular and strong on setting. And good to hear some Black Country dialect.
I really like the Peirene concept ('cinema for people who don't have the patience for cinema' - if you will - is me to a tee). I was also taken by the setting (not hard... these are still such shockingly underexplored places in modern literature); I found Cairo fairly engaging. Traces of fantasy and tasty metaphor in those tunnels and caves too.
I'm just not sure how revealing the politics side of it was. However passionate, earnest and Mellors-y those complaints that 'we built the country and now they are ashamed of us', this was still just a rounded character mouthing Owen-Jones-meets-UKIP level histrionic fuckwittery and a middle class Southerner hearing it and liking him. But all that 'those politicians' and harking back to industries that have been closed for 50 fucking years, even though you never knew a time when they weren't closed? One can get that from any TV vignette. Ending bit wobbly too.
Still, muscular and strong on setting. And good to hear some Black Country dialect.
August 8, 2017
While the distinctions, and unexpected commonalities, between the two main characters are well portrayed, to me they seemed little different to those between North and South, the provinces and the metropolis, the middle class and the barely-working working-class, the arty types and those with a more practical bent. That, of course, might be the point, that a metropolitan elite has ignored its detractors for too long.
Full review
Two novel reflections on current sociopolitics in the US and UK http://annegoodwin.weebly.com/1/post/...
Full review
Two novel reflections on current sociopolitics in the US and UK http://annegoodwin.weebly.com/1/post/...
December 2, 2021
Un inici potent que per al meu gust acaba desunflant-se pel camí. Igual anava amb les expectatives altes, però esperava llegir algo més relacionat amb el brèxit. L'història principal és més bé la relació/no relació entre dos persones i de tant en tant s'anomena molt per damunt les fabriques tancades, la precarietst, i algo de racisme, però poc més.
Lo millor: Fer referencia a noms de partits concrets en una unica ocasió. Que pot fer que si algú no ha estat seguint tot aquest procés doncs almenys ho pot buscar en internet.
Lo pitjor: En general entremig del llibre no pasa rés, no hi ha un punt d'inflexió que sorprenga.
Lo millor: Fer referencia a noms de partits concrets en una unica ocasió. Que pot fer que si algú no ha estat seguint tot aquest procés doncs almenys ho pot buscar en internet.
Lo pitjor: En general entremig del llibre no pasa rés, no hi ha un punt d'inflexió que sorprenga.
December 31, 2023
looking at the cover this is not a book i’d ordinarily pick up. but when i read the blurb and saw that it was political fiction, about brexit, and set in the west midlands, 20 miles from where i grew up, i was intrigued. and i was really pleasantly surprised. this was one of those books that you really don’t expect to be profound or moving but it actually was, perhaps because a lot of it felt quite familiar, particularly with the dialogue being written in the local dialect. the only thing that spoilt it was the ending, which was completely unnecessary and could have been wrapped up so much better.
January 16, 2024
Deze novelle beantwoordt wat mij betreft helemaal niet aan wat ervan verwacht wordt. De Peirene Now! Series heeft als doel verhalen te publiceren die gelinkt zijn aan actuele politieke gebeurtenissen, in dit geval de Brexit. De auteur gebruikt die link met de Brexit wel, maar slechts helemaal op de achtergrond en absoluut niet essentieel voor het verhaal zelf. Bovendien is het verhaal, dat in feite niet meer is dan een fout lopende liefdesaffaire, ook helemaal niet overtuigend. En er komen nogal wat zijtakken aan bod die ook weinig om het lijf hebben. Al bij al is het een sombere verzameling feiten die op geen enkel moment boeiend of intrigerend genoemd kan worden.
January 17, 2020
The novel offers two different views on the Brexit problem intertwined with the love story between two people belonging to two different layers of society, he as a working-class intelligent man and she as an upper-class documentary maker.
The fact that two of them speak the same language, but are still incapable to understand the other due to class differences amazed me the most and left me with the thoughts if the world really speaks two different languages when it comes to understanding between the classes.
The fact that two of them speak the same language, but are still incapable to understand the other due to class differences amazed me the most and left me with the thoughts if the world really speaks two different languages when it comes to understanding between the classes.
June 16, 2017
Not bad at all, metaphor and all.
It is what it is, although, maybe, some of the accent in dialogue didn't work that well, was off-putting, but when read aloud was of course, perfect, so what to say?
The prologue bit was all kinds of wonderful and the writing was nice and clipped.
But, ultimately it was a British novel.
3.89
It is what it is, although, maybe, some of the accent in dialogue didn't work that well, was off-putting, but when read aloud was of course, perfect, so what to say?
The prologue bit was all kinds of wonderful and the writing was nice and clipped.
But, ultimately it was a British novel.
3.89
November 11, 2018
I was told it was a book about Brexit. It was a confusing book where the two protagonists meet each other by chance and become entangled by circumstances. It was a short book that posed many questions. Written in a patois sometimes difficult to comprehend, it gave in the end a real uneasiness about the English choice of leaving the Union, and very confused reasons to do,so.
September 4, 2025
Not really sure what to make of this. I know this is supposed to be a novel that explores the post-Brexit divide but I feel like all it did was to explore one side with the usual tropes of working class people feeling left behind, sick of being called racist, etc...
The ending was rather silly as well.
The ending was rather silly as well.
October 20, 2017
This is the first book written about Brexit.
It describes how the election process and aftermath divided people and how the whole attitude towards foreigners changed almost overnight.
It's a very good read although a bit confusing in some bits.
It describes how the election process and aftermath divided people and how the whole attitude towards foreigners changed almost overnight.
It's a very good read although a bit confusing in some bits.
July 8, 2017
Probably 2.5 stars.
April 28, 2018
Taut, pacy novella about a relationship across the Brexit north/south divide. Political and personal mis-communication, and an artful examination of the state-of-the-nation via family and history.
April 14, 2019
TW: suicide
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