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A Shock
Finally, Ridgway gives us A Shock, his thrilling and unsparing, slippery and shockingly good new novel.
Formed as a rondel of interlocking stories with a clutch of more or less loosely connected repeating characters, it’s at once deracinated yet potent with place, druggy yet frighteningly shot through with reality. His people appear, disappear, and reappear. They’re on the fringes of London, clinging to sanity or solvency or a story by their fingernails, consumed by emotions and anxieties in fuzzily understood situations. A deft, high-wire act, full of imprecise yet sharp dialog as well as witchy sleights of hand reminiscent of Muriel Spark, A Shock delivers a knockout punch of an ending.
Perhaps Ridgway’s most breathtaking quality is his scintillating you can never quite put your finger on how he casts his spell—he delivers the shock of a master jewel thief (already far-off and scot-free) stealing your when at some point you look down at your wrist, all you see is that in more than one way you don’t know what time it is…
Formed as a rondel of interlocking stories with a clutch of more or less loosely connected repeating characters, it’s at once deracinated yet potent with place, druggy yet frighteningly shot through with reality. His people appear, disappear, and reappear. They’re on the fringes of London, clinging to sanity or solvency or a story by their fingernails, consumed by emotions and anxieties in fuzzily understood situations. A deft, high-wire act, full of imprecise yet sharp dialog as well as witchy sleights of hand reminiscent of Muriel Spark, A Shock delivers a knockout punch of an ending.
Perhaps Ridgway’s most breathtaking quality is his scintillating you can never quite put your finger on how he casts his spell—he delivers the shock of a master jewel thief (already far-off and scot-free) stealing your when at some point you look down at your wrist, all you see is that in more than one way you don’t know what time it is…
289 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 5, 2021
About the author
Keith Ridgway
23 books124 followersKeith Ridgway is a Dubliner living in London.
His sixth novel, Dooneen, is published by Fitzcarraldo Editions, and by New Directions in June 2026.
His previous books include A Shock, which won the 2021 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction, and was shortlisted for the Goldsmith’s Prize; Hawthorn & Child; and Animals. His first novel The Long Falling was filmed by Martin Provost as Où Va La Nuit in 2011.
He has been awarded the Prix Fémina Étranger and Premier Roman Étranger, the O Henry award, and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature.
His sixth novel, Dooneen, is published by Fitzcarraldo Editions, and by New Directions in June 2026.
His previous books include A Shock, which won the 2021 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction, and was shortlisted for the Goldsmith’s Prize; Hawthorn & Child; and Animals. His first novel The Long Falling was filmed by Martin Provost as Où Va La Nuit in 2011.
He has been awarded the Prix Fémina Étranger and Premier Roman Étranger, the O Henry award, and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 153 reviews
November 30, 2021
“She felt at once that this was fascinating, and interesting, that it was something of a privilege to be trusted with it, and also that there was something wrong about it all, something that wasn’t entirely decent.”
Yeah, Maria. Kind of how I felt after reading A Shock. My first thought on finishing the last page of this unsettling novel, or rather this set of interconnected short stories, was “Wow, what the hell did I just read?!" And this: "Did I miss something here?" But also: "I wonder what else Keith Ridgway has written; does he have anything else in the works?" It was hugely compelling, even if slightly confusing to this reader at times. I expected some sort of mind-blowing wrap-up at the end. Something that would explain how all of this tied together, perhaps. I was looking for answers to questions I had earlier on, hoping all would be revealed. Now I’m beginning to believe that wasn’t the point. The point was to mess with your head a bit. Well, maybe not a bit. A lot. And it worked! It worked brilliantly, as a matter of fact.
“Perhaps no one would turn up. Perhaps they were unpopular and no one would come. Perhaps it was too warm, perhaps it would rain, perhaps the world would end suddenly and without warning and the only remaining trace of humanity would be those robots, wandering through the cold empty universe like old women in empty houses.”
If I had stopped after the first piece, "The Party", this book would be getting all five gleaming stars. What a story! One about love and loss and loneliness. An intense and palpable feeling of alienation. Desperation, too. The reader is right there in that apartment. Such a sense of immediacy. Ridgway delivers his first shock with great competence. It was one of those stories that I tried to repeat to some friends, and then gave up. It really is a case of ‘you have to read it yourself.’
I was impressed by almost all of the pieces here. It sounds banal to say that some were better than others, as this is always the case. But it’s true. And one thing I noted was that nearly every single story reminded me of a strange and disturbing dream. The edges were fuzzy and blurred, but the sense of discomfort and unease lingered long after. I couldn’t get them out of my head, no matter how hard I tried. I know virtually nothing about the author, but I would venture to say that he has read Shirley Jackson. Not only that; I would guess he’s a huge fan of her writing. I say this because Jackson’s short stories kept coming to mind while reading A Shock. Instead of delivering true horror, both authors delve into the psyche. Our obsessions, fears, and oddities are laid bare. Paranoia, too. Sex, drugs, and… rodents. Probably every reader will find something they can relate to here, even if it’s your biggest secret. Oh, and by the time I finished writing this deliberately vague review, I think I get Ridgway a wee bit more. Love it when that happens!
“… what was wrong with it anyway? Making things up and saying them and making a world out of that. What was wrong with it? The sky paraded overhead and the planes roared through it, tiny little interlopers. All that human achievement. Something was wrong with it.”
Yeah, Maria. Kind of how I felt after reading A Shock. My first thought on finishing the last page of this unsettling novel, or rather this set of interconnected short stories, was “Wow, what the hell did I just read?!" And this: "Did I miss something here?" But also: "I wonder what else Keith Ridgway has written; does he have anything else in the works?" It was hugely compelling, even if slightly confusing to this reader at times. I expected some sort of mind-blowing wrap-up at the end. Something that would explain how all of this tied together, perhaps. I was looking for answers to questions I had earlier on, hoping all would be revealed. Now I’m beginning to believe that wasn’t the point. The point was to mess with your head a bit. Well, maybe not a bit. A lot. And it worked! It worked brilliantly, as a matter of fact.
“Perhaps no one would turn up. Perhaps they were unpopular and no one would come. Perhaps it was too warm, perhaps it would rain, perhaps the world would end suddenly and without warning and the only remaining trace of humanity would be those robots, wandering through the cold empty universe like old women in empty houses.”
If I had stopped after the first piece, "The Party", this book would be getting all five gleaming stars. What a story! One about love and loss and loneliness. An intense and palpable feeling of alienation. Desperation, too. The reader is right there in that apartment. Such a sense of immediacy. Ridgway delivers his first shock with great competence. It was one of those stories that I tried to repeat to some friends, and then gave up. It really is a case of ‘you have to read it yourself.’
I was impressed by almost all of the pieces here. It sounds banal to say that some were better than others, as this is always the case. But it’s true. And one thing I noted was that nearly every single story reminded me of a strange and disturbing dream. The edges were fuzzy and blurred, but the sense of discomfort and unease lingered long after. I couldn’t get them out of my head, no matter how hard I tried. I know virtually nothing about the author, but I would venture to say that he has read Shirley Jackson. Not only that; I would guess he’s a huge fan of her writing. I say this because Jackson’s short stories kept coming to mind while reading A Shock. Instead of delivering true horror, both authors delve into the psyche. Our obsessions, fears, and oddities are laid bare. Paranoia, too. Sex, drugs, and… rodents. Probably every reader will find something they can relate to here, even if it’s your biggest secret. Oh, and by the time I finished writing this deliberately vague review, I think I get Ridgway a wee bit more. Love it when that happens!
“… what was wrong with it anyway? Making things up and saying them and making a world out of that. What was wrong with it? The sky paraded overhead and the planes roared through it, tiny little interlopers. All that human achievement. Something was wrong with it.”
July 23, 2021
Shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize 2021
Utterly brilliant. The most shocking thing about A Shock is that there isn’t more hype about it! Hopefully that will change with some steady word-of-mouth because A Shock is a delight and a marvel.
It has a familiar structure: a novel-in-linked-stories set within a neighbourhood or community, in this case Camberwell in South London. Characters from one chapter reappear as bit players in others; paths cross; there are lots of fun ‘spot the connections’ for the reader.
As promised by the book’s title, each of the story-chapters contains ‘a shock’—not a twist and not a big dramatic turn either—but a jolt of surprise, a little zap of something unexpected. And even though you notice the pattern, learn to expect it, the effect never dulls. The ‘shock’ is something absurd or piercing or surreal or funny or horrifying. It is always unpredictable, with the exception of the very last one, and that is by design.
But that’s not all there is to A Shock. There’s also Ridgway’s invigorating prose, his finely controlled use of tension and the ‘slow build’, and his colourful, endearing characters: working-class Londoners with note perfect dialogue. And there’s the socio-political undercurrent that is wickedly sharp but also cut through with plenty of dry humour. This book is dark, gritty, poignant, funny, warm, at times quite weird and even flat-out gross, and just a joy to read. 5 stars.
Utterly brilliant. The most shocking thing about A Shock is that there isn’t more hype about it! Hopefully that will change with some steady word-of-mouth because A Shock is a delight and a marvel.
It has a familiar structure: a novel-in-linked-stories set within a neighbourhood or community, in this case Camberwell in South London. Characters from one chapter reappear as bit players in others; paths cross; there are lots of fun ‘spot the connections’ for the reader.
As promised by the book’s title, each of the story-chapters contains ‘a shock’—not a twist and not a big dramatic turn either—but a jolt of surprise, a little zap of something unexpected. And even though you notice the pattern, learn to expect it, the effect never dulls. The ‘shock’ is something absurd or piercing or surreal or funny or horrifying. It is always unpredictable, with the exception of the very last one, and that is by design.
But that’s not all there is to A Shock. There’s also Ridgway’s invigorating prose, his finely controlled use of tension and the ‘slow build’, and his colourful, endearing characters: working-class Londoners with note perfect dialogue. And there’s the socio-political undercurrent that is wickedly sharp but also cut through with plenty of dry humour. This book is dark, gritty, poignant, funny, warm, at times quite weird and even flat-out gross, and just a joy to read. 5 stars.
January 6, 2022
Loose chapters of varying quality that don’t necessarily benefit from being called a novel together. An excellent ear for dialogue but also some quite boring parts as well.
Rather a shock, than terror, a long decline.
Rats are a recurring theme, as is alienation and a blistering hot London, in A Shock. A book queer (or more precisely male single gay hookup oriented) through and through, still the overall cohesion of the broader narrative is lacking, even though we have a lot of Corbyn and decline of the Left coming back.
1. The Party
Her body ceases to be relevant, even to her.
This opener can be read on the New Yorker website and was one of the highlights:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...
An old lady muses on her dead husband during a party of her gay neighbors and chews of a bit more than expected when inspecting the wall.
2. The camera
Leftist blokes, Stanley and Gary, are friends meeting in a pub. The dialog is very well done. Unhealthy obsession with camera's also gives the story something eery, not to mention there is a vampire like person giving the whole an unheimlich feeling.
3. The Sweat
Tommy and Frank having a drugs fuelled sex date.
Rather boring, also for the characters themselves apparently.
4. The Joke
Maria the library assistant, partner of Stanley in 2, experiences a hilarious school project and meets a teacher she didn’t know before. The story of Mrs Grant is incredibly well told and I found this story the most funny of the book.
5. The Story
Featuring Janko from 2 and Mrs Grant (aka Anna) from the previous chapter who tell stories to each other in a kind of Decameron kind of fashion. Interesting intertextual questions arise because of this (what's real and what's not?).
6. The Flat
We follow David, a new tenant to a flat. His life is followed in a clinical manner, very zoomed in and at times is as boring as watching paint dry, with cycles of online entertainment, mastrubation, sex dates and some cooking.
Very descriptive and with a mysterious departure of the previous renters that doesn’t warrant the size of this story.
David doesn't seem to do anything besides sex (and a little bit of reading) in his free time.
This kind of zooming in onto a character is hardly warranted, even if the person is interesting, and David is definitely not dynamic or in any kind of way nor very sympathetic or competent, even when he experiences a kind of breakdown to a shadowy fifth room in the four room flat.
The reader becomes a kind of stalker.
7. The Pigeon
We have the many involuntary noises main character Pigeon, who ends up locked in a construction job and undergoes a transformation, in this story.
One of the weaker parts of the book.
8. The Meeting
A pub meeting with blokes talking about the lock up of Pigeon from 7 and Stoker from 2 and 5, while discussing going to the party from 1. Don’t read this (or the entire book) if you are squiqish about mice. Hard to call this a stand alone piece with well fleshed characters.
9. The Song
A bit queer older man is holding a “magic” workshop and starts singing at a party (surprise, the one of story nr 1), and we get back to a lot of earlier characters who are all there. Also not suited to stand on its one, and the resolution/circularity doesn't add much to the overall work.
Rather a shock, than terror, a long decline.
Rats are a recurring theme, as is alienation and a blistering hot London, in A Shock. A book queer (or more precisely male single gay hookup oriented) through and through, still the overall cohesion of the broader narrative is lacking, even though we have a lot of Corbyn and decline of the Left coming back.
1. The Party
Her body ceases to be relevant, even to her.
This opener can be read on the New Yorker website and was one of the highlights:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...
An old lady muses on her dead husband during a party of her gay neighbors and chews of a bit more than expected when inspecting the wall.
2. The camera
Leftist blokes, Stanley and Gary, are friends meeting in a pub. The dialog is very well done. Unhealthy obsession with camera's also gives the story something eery, not to mention there is a vampire like person giving the whole an unheimlich feeling.
3. The Sweat
Tommy and Frank having a drugs fuelled sex date.
Rather boring, also for the characters themselves apparently.
4. The Joke
Maria the library assistant, partner of Stanley in 2, experiences a hilarious school project and meets a teacher she didn’t know before. The story of Mrs Grant is incredibly well told and I found this story the most funny of the book.
5. The Story
Featuring Janko from 2 and Mrs Grant (aka Anna) from the previous chapter who tell stories to each other in a kind of Decameron kind of fashion. Interesting intertextual questions arise because of this (what's real and what's not?).
6. The Flat
We follow David, a new tenant to a flat. His life is followed in a clinical manner, very zoomed in and at times is as boring as watching paint dry, with cycles of online entertainment, mastrubation, sex dates and some cooking.
Very descriptive and with a mysterious departure of the previous renters that doesn’t warrant the size of this story.
David doesn't seem to do anything besides sex (and a little bit of reading) in his free time.
This kind of zooming in onto a character is hardly warranted, even if the person is interesting, and David is definitely not dynamic or in any kind of way nor very sympathetic or competent, even when he experiences a kind of breakdown to a shadowy fifth room in the four room flat.
The reader becomes a kind of stalker.
7. The Pigeon
We have the many involuntary noises main character Pigeon, who ends up locked in a construction job and undergoes a transformation, in this story.
One of the weaker parts of the book.
8. The Meeting
A pub meeting with blokes talking about the lock up of Pigeon from 7 and Stoker from 2 and 5, while discussing going to the party from 1. Don’t read this (or the entire book) if you are squiqish about mice. Hard to call this a stand alone piece with well fleshed characters.
9. The Song
A bit queer older man is holding a “magic” workshop and starts singing at a party (surprise, the one of story nr 1), and we get back to a lot of earlier characters who are all there. Also not suited to stand on its one, and the resolution/circularity doesn't add much to the overall work.
October 9, 2021
Now winner of the 2022 James Tait Black Memorial Prize (One of Britain’s oldies literary prizes).
I read this book due to its shortlist for the 2021 Goldsmith Prize – a generally strong but mixed and rather too London centric shortlist (four of the six stories are set in London; five of the six authors live in London; three of the six authors are alumni of English/creative writing at a South London University near to Goldsmith, all five publishers are based in London) for an already London centric prize (the Goldsmith and its New Statesman sponsor are London based; three of the four judges live in London).
The way I can best describe this book is as follows.
Imagine someone made a collage of South London Life which was a combination of representational art with the more occasional absurdist elements and which was made from overlapping pieces of material which are drawn from the detritus of South London Life itself.
After I wrote this I found the author’s own description which I think is not that different, he calls it an enneaptych – a nine-panelled painting – “each panel portrays something of its own, but it’s how they work together that makes it what it is. You usually see panel paintings on altars. And, yes, the altar here is London. And it’s a foul and profane and fractured altar, but it’s mine, and I’m poisoned by it”
The book is set in South London (specifically Harriet Harmann’s constituency of Camberwell and Peckham) and features a group of stories and characters which overlap each other in a number of different ways (a quite midweek pub linking many of them, and a party which both opens and ends the book bringing most of them together) to form the collage – each chapter a panel of the enneaptych which is both a stand alone short story and part of a coherent novel.
The Party – this opens the book and is I think one of the strongest in the book for a number of reasons: its mixture of the poignant and the absurd in a way which only magnifies the poignancy; the way it picks it up on many if not most of the themes which recur in the novel; the subtlety of one of its elements. The story was actually featured in the New Yorker (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...) and tells of a ageing widow who lives next door to a gay couple who come round to tell her they are holding a party.
Ostensibly the story is of the widow reflecting on the grief and loneliness which is her life after the death of her beloved husband, while growing curious about the party and trying to find a way to spy on it through a gap in the wall – but her spying grows into something both more absurd and into an explicit and acknowledged metaphor for the idea of being trapped, while 2-3 asides in the story make an observant reader realise the widow far from being shocked by her neighbours activities is more reflecting on how simpler their lives are compared to her own. The chapter ends with her fixing on a girl – projecting a potential life story on to her and then catching her eye through the hole.
The Camera – this section is set in a pub and continues the strong start – two old school friends Gary and Stan warily fence around their changed relationship and different lives – Stan a Labour organiser and activist, Gary (who is black) set on a new practice of photography which leaves Stan unsettled as Gary seems to pick him as a subject for surveillance - seeming to take the right to start to tell the story of his life.
The Sweat – this chapter unfortunately rather ruined my experience of the book – an addled tale of drug taking and sex.
The Joke – Stan’s partner Maria, an assistant librarian in a Public School is told by by a much older teacher Anna a tragic if unusual story of the death of her partner only to find Anna is notorious for her tall tales. I enjoyed much of this chapter (and it nicely fits the overall storytelling theme - here inventing stories about yourself) but it was let down by the author’s attempt to convey London public school accents which let us say belongs to the Dick van Dyke tradition of misguided London accents (albeit another Goodreads reviewer has pointed out this could precisely be a parody and be a neat inversion of the way Working Class accents with dropped-aitches are expressed)
The Story – this is perhaps another of the strengths of the book: Anna and a man both Stan and Gary know by different names (neither correct) swap and in some cases seemingly invent stories – three of which are effectively variations of the stories in the novel (The Party, The Flat, The Pigeon).
The Flat – again this was a weak point for me due to its explicitness but tells the story of John, who rents a flat only to find his predecessor tenants disappeared with no explanation, becoming himself sexually obsessed with their story. If not for this explicitness (which felt gratuitous) this could have been a strong chapter fitting with the overall themes by showing someone writing themselves out of their own stories (and other people's stories about them).
The Pigeon – a rather odd tale of a plumber’s apprentice abandoned by his boss in a locked house where he decides to spend the night in the attic to avoid the embarrassment of the owner’s return – the apprentice himself rather obsessed with the lack of onomatopoeic fidelity of the word “coo”.
The Meeting – a grouping of some of the regulars in the pub (and familiar characters in the novel) around an aborted Labour local Party (the link with the opening/closing party as a meeting point is I think very deliberate) – which turns into the culmination of a rodent-infestation theme which has run through the books.
The Song – many of the characters meet up at the opening party which we see (literally) from the other side – the identity of the girl and the ending of the story being rather obvious – as the narrator (who by this time is addressing us as reader directly) cheerfully acknowledges.
There is a lot to like, particularly the interaction between the ideas of liminal and hidden spaces and of lives being trapped and circumscribed - and how both are represented physically as well as emotionally.
I liked the way that a party (and the Labour Party) and a party wall were all ways in which the different characters both converged but also in some cases were trapped in their lives and ways of thinking.
I also liked the way that storytelling, in different forms, was threaded through the chapters.
My two biggest issues I think were:
Firstly that it is all just a bit too sordid for me - the book seems to rather enjoy exploring a slice of London life which I struggled to relate to (perhaps if I am being self-critical because its a slice that fits between the sandwich of the Surrey suburbs and the City - my home and work place but there are other books on the list - noticably "Little Scratch" which I think capture the "real" London far better)
Secondly that it is perhaps oddly a little too straightforward (at least compared to my prior expectations) - the connections between the different characters and chapters seemed in many cases a little too obvious (even at times over Laboured - if you can pardon the pun) – a good example of this would be the subtlety of the first chapter which is explained in painstaking detail by a character in the last story. I would have preferred to have done much more work (although the very obviousness of many connections - and if I am being honest my disinterest in the book - almost certainly means I missed some more subtle ones).
Worth a read but far from my favourite on what is I think a mixed shortlist.
I read this book due to its shortlist for the 2021 Goldsmith Prize – a generally strong but mixed and rather too London centric shortlist (four of the six stories are set in London; five of the six authors live in London; three of the six authors are alumni of English/creative writing at a South London University near to Goldsmith, all five publishers are based in London) for an already London centric prize (the Goldsmith and its New Statesman sponsor are London based; three of the four judges live in London).
The way I can best describe this book is as follows.
Imagine someone made a collage of South London Life which was a combination of representational art with the more occasional absurdist elements and which was made from overlapping pieces of material which are drawn from the detritus of South London Life itself.
After I wrote this I found the author’s own description which I think is not that different, he calls it an enneaptych – a nine-panelled painting – “each panel portrays something of its own, but it’s how they work together that makes it what it is. You usually see panel paintings on altars. And, yes, the altar here is London. And it’s a foul and profane and fractured altar, but it’s mine, and I’m poisoned by it”
The book is set in South London (specifically Harriet Harmann’s constituency of Camberwell and Peckham) and features a group of stories and characters which overlap each other in a number of different ways (a quite midweek pub linking many of them, and a party which both opens and ends the book bringing most of them together) to form the collage – each chapter a panel of the enneaptych which is both a stand alone short story and part of a coherent novel.
The Party – this opens the book and is I think one of the strongest in the book for a number of reasons: its mixture of the poignant and the absurd in a way which only magnifies the poignancy; the way it picks it up on many if not most of the themes which recur in the novel; the subtlety of one of its elements. The story was actually featured in the New Yorker (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...) and tells of a ageing widow who lives next door to a gay couple who come round to tell her they are holding a party.
Ostensibly the story is of the widow reflecting on the grief and loneliness which is her life after the death of her beloved husband, while growing curious about the party and trying to find a way to spy on it through a gap in the wall – but her spying grows into something both more absurd and into an explicit and acknowledged metaphor for the idea of being trapped, while 2-3 asides in the story make an observant reader realise the widow far from being shocked by her neighbours activities is more reflecting on how simpler their lives are compared to her own. The chapter ends with her fixing on a girl – projecting a potential life story on to her and then catching her eye through the hole.
The Camera – this section is set in a pub and continues the strong start – two old school friends Gary and Stan warily fence around their changed relationship and different lives – Stan a Labour organiser and activist, Gary (who is black) set on a new practice of photography which leaves Stan unsettled as Gary seems to pick him as a subject for surveillance - seeming to take the right to start to tell the story of his life.
The Sweat – this chapter unfortunately rather ruined my experience of the book – an addled tale of drug taking and sex.
The Joke – Stan’s partner Maria, an assistant librarian in a Public School is told by by a much older teacher Anna a tragic if unusual story of the death of her partner only to find Anna is notorious for her tall tales. I enjoyed much of this chapter (and it nicely fits the overall storytelling theme - here inventing stories about yourself) but it was let down by the author’s attempt to convey London public school accents which let us say belongs to the Dick van Dyke tradition of misguided London accents (albeit another Goodreads reviewer has pointed out this could precisely be a parody and be a neat inversion of the way Working Class accents with dropped-aitches are expressed)
The Story – this is perhaps another of the strengths of the book: Anna and a man both Stan and Gary know by different names (neither correct) swap and in some cases seemingly invent stories – three of which are effectively variations of the stories in the novel (The Party, The Flat, The Pigeon).
The Flat – again this was a weak point for me due to its explicitness but tells the story of John, who rents a flat only to find his predecessor tenants disappeared with no explanation, becoming himself sexually obsessed with their story. If not for this explicitness (which felt gratuitous) this could have been a strong chapter fitting with the overall themes by showing someone writing themselves out of their own stories (and other people's stories about them).
The Pigeon – a rather odd tale of a plumber’s apprentice abandoned by his boss in a locked house where he decides to spend the night in the attic to avoid the embarrassment of the owner’s return – the apprentice himself rather obsessed with the lack of onomatopoeic fidelity of the word “coo”.
The Meeting – a grouping of some of the regulars in the pub (and familiar characters in the novel) around an aborted Labour local Party (the link with the opening/closing party as a meeting point is I think very deliberate) – which turns into the culmination of a rodent-infestation theme which has run through the books.
The Song – many of the characters meet up at the opening party which we see (literally) from the other side – the identity of the girl and the ending of the story being rather obvious – as the narrator (who by this time is addressing us as reader directly) cheerfully acknowledges.
There is a lot to like, particularly the interaction between the ideas of liminal and hidden spaces and of lives being trapped and circumscribed - and how both are represented physically as well as emotionally.
I liked the way that a party (and the Labour Party) and a party wall were all ways in which the different characters both converged but also in some cases were trapped in their lives and ways of thinking.
I also liked the way that storytelling, in different forms, was threaded through the chapters.
My two biggest issues I think were:
Firstly that it is all just a bit too sordid for me - the book seems to rather enjoy exploring a slice of London life which I struggled to relate to (perhaps if I am being self-critical because its a slice that fits between the sandwich of the Surrey suburbs and the City - my home and work place but there are other books on the list - noticably "Little Scratch" which I think capture the "real" London far better)
Secondly that it is perhaps oddly a little too straightforward (at least compared to my prior expectations) - the connections between the different characters and chapters seemed in many cases a little too obvious (even at times over Laboured - if you can pardon the pun) – a good example of this would be the subtlety of the first chapter which is explained in painstaking detail by a character in the last story. I would have preferred to have done much more work (although the very obviousness of many connections - and if I am being honest my disinterest in the book - almost certainly means I missed some more subtle ones).
Worth a read but far from my favourite on what is I think a mixed shortlist.
October 22, 2021
A Shock exists along the borderland between novel and story collection, consisting of nine somewhat related episodes set in contemporary south London. Some entries naturally work better than others, but each is unique and the book picks up momentum as it goes along. This is a very queer friendly work, with frank descriptions of gay sex and occasional drug use. The book has an interesting symmetry to it, with the first and last stories mirroring each other, so to speak, and the middle entry putting an interesting spin on what comes before and after.
December 1, 2021
This is a book whose chapters could be independent, stand alone stories (and the first one was published that way in The New Yorker), but are actually linked. Sometimes you can't see how, but there's definitely this see-through cellophane keeping them together.
The first two stories ("The Party" and "The Camera") are so fantastic, such a charge right out the gate, that I thought this was going to be a five-star read for me. The compact prose, the natural dialogue, they work together to create a really compelling narrative, even if it's just about a woman, uninvited to her neighbour's house party. Or a guy whose friend surreptitiously photographs him, leaving the prints in his mail slot. Somehow, Keith Ridgway makes it artful, nuanced, dangerous. Bravo.
But as with most collections, some stories are better than others. What followed didn't work as well for me. For example, "The Sweat", a story narrated by someone high on drugs - the fact is, very few people can do this well, Denis Johnson being the only one I can think of at the moment. Then there’s "The Flat", a story that lists each and every thing that happens, for pages on end. I paraphrase: "He stood. He farted. He smiled. A fly buzzed above the sink. There were two flies by the window. He scratched his arse. He looked at pornography. He played with his balls." You get the picture. I didn't quite get the need for this, didn't understand what it brought to what could have been a much more interesting story. Other chapters seemed to meander a lot before getting to where they were going, and even then, I was left wondering if I'd missed something.
I did strangely enjoy being invited into the world that Ridgway illuminates here, was fascinated with the theme of "shock" that runs through the stories, and the threat of rodents, twitching and darting here and there. I appreciated the symmetry of the first and last stories. I do love this particular form (Olive Kitteridge, The Tsar of Love and Techno, and The Snake Game are other great examples). For me though, the unevenness kept the collection from maintaining its initial splendour.
I typed. I scratched my nose. I glanced at the clock. I laughed to myself. I reached for the next book....
The first two stories ("The Party" and "The Camera") are so fantastic, such a charge right out the gate, that I thought this was going to be a five-star read for me. The compact prose, the natural dialogue, they work together to create a really compelling narrative, even if it's just about a woman, uninvited to her neighbour's house party. Or a guy whose friend surreptitiously photographs him, leaving the prints in his mail slot. Somehow, Keith Ridgway makes it artful, nuanced, dangerous. Bravo.
But as with most collections, some stories are better than others. What followed didn't work as well for me. For example, "The Sweat", a story narrated by someone high on drugs - the fact is, very few people can do this well, Denis Johnson being the only one I can think of at the moment. Then there’s "The Flat", a story that lists each and every thing that happens, for pages on end. I paraphrase: "He stood. He farted. He smiled. A fly buzzed above the sink. There were two flies by the window. He scratched his arse. He looked at pornography. He played with his balls." You get the picture. I didn't quite get the need for this, didn't understand what it brought to what could have been a much more interesting story. Other chapters seemed to meander a lot before getting to where they were going, and even then, I was left wondering if I'd missed something.
I did strangely enjoy being invited into the world that Ridgway illuminates here, was fascinated with the theme of "shock" that runs through the stories, and the threat of rodents, twitching and darting here and there. I appreciated the symmetry of the first and last stories. I do love this particular form (Olive Kitteridge, The Tsar of Love and Techno, and The Snake Game are other great examples). For me though, the unevenness kept the collection from maintaining its initial splendour.
I typed. I scratched my nose. I glanced at the clock. I laughed to myself. I reached for the next book....
October 11, 2021
Winner of the 2022 James Tait Black Prize for Fiction
London, she thinks to herself. In England. Of the world’s many ludicrous places she had to choose London.
Ostensibly a novel, A Shock feels more like a loosely glued together short story collection. The author himself has observed:
I remember with Hawthorn & Child I hoped to write a much more fragmentary book.
But a sort of coherence asserted itself. With A Shock it was almost the other way around.
…
There was much more thought at the beginning of a bunch of people in a particular geographical place. It ended up becoming slightly more fragmented than the original idea.
So yeah, it is another one of those books. I’m going to get people insisting that this is a short story collection, and it’s absolutely not, it’s a novel. It’s a polyptych, one of those altar pieces made of panels. You can take one of the panels away but they only really work together.
Here the central panel, The Story does function to cleverly signpost several of the other panels, told as shaggy dog stories by two characters who love to embroider tales, including their own.
Others, notably the first A Party, actually work well as stand alone pieces (and indeed was featured as such in the New Yorker).
But there are at least two panels which for me would have been best removed - The Sweat which hits one of my literary triggers, narration from the perspective of a drug addled character; and The Joke which is a tonally misjudged attempt to portray life in a private school (and was the only part that I could judge vs reality from my own world of living in South London). And perhaps removing those panels from my mental map of the novel marred the overall effect the author intended.
It is also telling that author feels he needs to draw the reader’s attention to the common characters that ran between some panels:
Yves is the same man that Stan calls Stoker and Gary calls Yon, or Yanko. Anna is the woman Maria thinks of as Mrs Grant. She is Anna Grant.
The last chapter A Party brings the novel predictably full circle and I think brings together many of the characters, although I can’t say I cared enough to recognise them.
However, credit to Maria, perhaps my favourite character, for her impeccable literary taste. Her recommended reading:
Not the English. But the French. Some Americans. South Americans, not north Americans, they are terrible, butn the South Americans, Central American, up as far as Mexico, including Mexico, just that far north.
Overall, I can see why others have loved it (please do read some of the 5 star reviews rather than let me put you off) and it is striking that in the US this has been picked up by Barbara Epler’s New Directions.
But for my taste much the weakest of an otherwise wonderful Goldsmiths Prize shortlist - which means it will inevitably win! Indeed there are two other polyptych collections creating a similar sense of place that were eligible this year and which would have made a better choice: Luckenbooth (shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize) and Paradise Block (shortlisted for the Edge Hill Prize).
2.5 stars
London, she thinks to herself. In England. Of the world’s many ludicrous places she had to choose London.
Ostensibly a novel, A Shock feels more like a loosely glued together short story collection. The author himself has observed:
I remember with Hawthorn & Child I hoped to write a much more fragmentary book.
But a sort of coherence asserted itself. With A Shock it was almost the other way around.
…
There was much more thought at the beginning of a bunch of people in a particular geographical place. It ended up becoming slightly more fragmented than the original idea.
So yeah, it is another one of those books. I’m going to get people insisting that this is a short story collection, and it’s absolutely not, it’s a novel. It’s a polyptych, one of those altar pieces made of panels. You can take one of the panels away but they only really work together.
Here the central panel, The Story does function to cleverly signpost several of the other panels, told as shaggy dog stories by two characters who love to embroider tales, including their own.
Others, notably the first A Party, actually work well as stand alone pieces (and indeed was featured as such in the New Yorker).
But there are at least two panels which for me would have been best removed - The Sweat which hits one of my literary triggers, narration from the perspective of a drug addled character; and The Joke which is a tonally misjudged attempt to portray life in a private school (and was the only part that I could judge vs reality from my own world of living in South London). And perhaps removing those panels from my mental map of the novel marred the overall effect the author intended.
It is also telling that author feels he needs to draw the reader’s attention to the common characters that ran between some panels:
Yves is the same man that Stan calls Stoker and Gary calls Yon, or Yanko. Anna is the woman Maria thinks of as Mrs Grant. She is Anna Grant.
The last chapter A Party brings the novel predictably full circle and I think brings together many of the characters, although I can’t say I cared enough to recognise them.
However, credit to Maria, perhaps my favourite character, for her impeccable literary taste. Her recommended reading:
Not the English. But the French. Some Americans. South Americans, not north Americans, they are terrible, butn the South Americans, Central American, up as far as Mexico, including Mexico, just that far north.
Overall, I can see why others have loved it (please do read some of the 5 star reviews rather than let me put you off) and it is striking that in the US this has been picked up by Barbara Epler’s New Directions.
But for my taste much the weakest of an otherwise wonderful Goldsmiths Prize shortlist - which means it will inevitably win! Indeed there are two other polyptych collections creating a similar sense of place that were eligible this year and which would have made a better choice: Luckenbooth (shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize) and Paradise Block (shortlisted for the Edge Hill Prize).
2.5 stars
November 21, 2021
I mean I think I liked this ?, but I am not entirely sure I understood it.
Interconnected short stories of London life. Rodents feature quite frequently. Some stories I was thrilled by - The Party - is a very strong opener. But I lost a little momentum as the book progressed ( not unusual for me and the short story format). Flummoxed is maybe the best way to describe my post read mindset. It's a good sort of flummoxed though, - let's go with pleasurably flummoxed.
Interconnected short stories of London life. Rodents feature quite frequently. Some stories I was thrilled by - The Party - is a very strong opener. But I lost a little momentum as the book progressed ( not unusual for me and the short story format). Flummoxed is maybe the best way to describe my post read mindset. It's a good sort of flummoxed though, - let's go with pleasurably flummoxed.
February 13, 2021
"Get out of London. Which is only a fraction of the world. You know? A tiny dense little fraction. It is not the full extent of things. There is fresh air. There is a cold drink of water."
I'm going to write a fairly minimalist review of this because I think this is the kind of book where the less you know about it, the better (so quite frankly I wouldn't recommend reading this review, or ANY review!). Keith Ridgway is one of my favourite writers, and Hawthorn & Child is just an absolutely monumental book for me, which I am now going to go back and reread. The good news is, for fans of Hawthorn and Child or even Animals, A Shock continues in the same vein. Fragmented novel, linked collection, whatever, who cares!
This book has:
- The city of London and its isolation. Connection and disconnection. Class division. Hustlers. I was reminded often of Kiare Ladner's Nightshift
- DEATH. It's what the book's title is a reference to: "May your death come as a shock to you, he'd say."
- Disappearances, vanishing. The power to vanish completely.
- Dreams. This book is SUCH a good example of why yes, Virginia, dream sequences CAN and DO work in fiction (only when done well and purposefully though!)
- Buildings. The merging of humans with buildings. This is a BIG theme, and ties in with the other theme of being trapped in the mind, being trapped in general. Borders. Containment. And in contrast with this, we have the feeling of bursting free, of entering "a whole amazing openness."
- Rats, mice. Dirtiness, filth. The unseen, the unspoken
- The idea of a book 'speaking' to a reader. The way A Shock itself does this (in one or two chillingly striking sentences) was REALLY, REALLY interesting to me.
- Sexuality, desire, perversity
- Drugs, madness. God, some of the description of meth drug binges in this made me feel PANICKY. Being trapped in the mind.
- Routine. Everyday life. A sense of apocalyptic doom about the future.
This book was so good, I didn't want it to finish. It's is fully of mystery, and unresolved questions, and deeply unsettling and tense scenarios. I love, love, love the punchy short rhythmic sentences, and the way they buildbuildbuild into something terrifying. I wanted to ration the chapters out. I loved it, and I'm definitely going to read it again. So many good moments. The monologue about the cave is one I am never, ever going to forget. The story about the fifth room. The story about the pigeon in the roof. The eyeball in the wall. The dialogue - God, the dialogue is so good.
In summary, with this book Ridgway cements himself as an absolute legend. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC.
You are running away from your own story. You are bitter and lonely and terrified that you will be like this for the rest of your life.
A person. Love. Death. It is stupid. It is barely a story. It is not a story. It is not a story.
Her life was smaller than a bus. She stopped herself then. Stupid. But still. Clouds are very fucking big. That's the point.
I would rather a shock, than a terror, you know? A long decline.
Maybe too soon, but everything is too soon. Today is too soon. Life is too soon.
He fell asleep and dreamed of dying at the bottom of the sea, part of the world at last, part of its mulch and its mess, its waste matter, its sag and decomposition, living forever in the soil of the future, living forever like a slice of what happened.
I'm going to write a fairly minimalist review of this because I think this is the kind of book where the less you know about it, the better (so quite frankly I wouldn't recommend reading this review, or ANY review!). Keith Ridgway is one of my favourite writers, and Hawthorn & Child is just an absolutely monumental book for me, which I am now going to go back and reread. The good news is, for fans of Hawthorn and Child or even Animals, A Shock continues in the same vein. Fragmented novel, linked collection, whatever, who cares!
This book has:
- The city of London and its isolation. Connection and disconnection. Class division. Hustlers. I was reminded often of Kiare Ladner's Nightshift
- DEATH. It's what the book's title is a reference to: "May your death come as a shock to you, he'd say."
- Disappearances, vanishing. The power to vanish completely.
- Dreams. This book is SUCH a good example of why yes, Virginia, dream sequences CAN and DO work in fiction (only when done well and purposefully though!)
- Buildings. The merging of humans with buildings. This is a BIG theme, and ties in with the other theme of being trapped in the mind, being trapped in general. Borders. Containment. And in contrast with this, we have the feeling of bursting free, of entering "a whole amazing openness."
- Rats, mice. Dirtiness, filth. The unseen, the unspoken
- The idea of a book 'speaking' to a reader. The way A Shock itself does this (in one or two chillingly striking sentences) was REALLY, REALLY interesting to me.
- Sexuality, desire, perversity
- Drugs, madness. God, some of the description of meth drug binges in this made me feel PANICKY. Being trapped in the mind.
- Routine. Everyday life. A sense of apocalyptic doom about the future.
This book was so good, I didn't want it to finish. It's is fully of mystery, and unresolved questions, and deeply unsettling and tense scenarios. I love, love, love the punchy short rhythmic sentences, and the way they buildbuildbuild into something terrifying. I wanted to ration the chapters out. I loved it, and I'm definitely going to read it again. So many good moments. The monologue about the cave is one I am never, ever going to forget. The story about the fifth room. The story about the pigeon in the roof. The eyeball in the wall. The dialogue - God, the dialogue is so good.
In summary, with this book Ridgway cements himself as an absolute legend. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC.
You are running away from your own story. You are bitter and lonely and terrified that you will be like this for the rest of your life.
A person. Love. Death. It is stupid. It is barely a story. It is not a story. It is not a story.
Her life was smaller than a bus. She stopped herself then. Stupid. But still. Clouds are very fucking big. That's the point.
I would rather a shock, than a terror, you know? A long decline.
Maybe too soon, but everything is too soon. Today is too soon. Life is too soon.
He fell asleep and dreamed of dying at the bottom of the sea, part of the world at last, part of its mulch and its mess, its waste matter, its sag and decomposition, living forever in the soil of the future, living forever like a slice of what happened.
October 25, 2021
Shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize 2021
This is my final book from a very strong Goldsmiths shortlist, and the one I knew least about when the list was announced. Sadly, it is also probably the weakest book on the list, though it is not by any means a bad book.
Ridgway describes a community in south London in a series of what can be read as short stories, which at first seem very separate, but the links between them multiply and the last two bring most of the players together (and probably work least well as stand alone stories). His cast have very little in common beyond living lives they barely control. They cover a range of ages, genders, sexualities (though gay males predominate), ethnicities and lifestyles, but despite that there is no attempt to make them a representative cross-section of London society.
In Goldsmiths terms, my biggest problem was seeing anything particularly innovative about the book - novels told as linked stories are certainly nothing new.
This is my final book from a very strong Goldsmiths shortlist, and the one I knew least about when the list was announced. Sadly, it is also probably the weakest book on the list, though it is not by any means a bad book.
Ridgway describes a community in south London in a series of what can be read as short stories, which at first seem very separate, but the links between them multiply and the last two bring most of the players together (and probably work least well as stand alone stories). His cast have very little in common beyond living lives they barely control. They cover a range of ages, genders, sexualities (though gay males predominate), ethnicities and lifestyles, but despite that there is no attempt to make them a representative cross-section of London society.
In Goldsmiths terms, my biggest problem was seeing anything particularly innovative about the book - novels told as linked stories are certainly nothing new.
November 6, 2021
I feel like I’ve been blessed by the Gods of Great Literature recently.
I don’t know what I have done to deserve this. Well, I actually have a pretty good idea but this is not the kind of review where I’m going to talk about all the shitty books I’ve read in the past.
This is a review where I want to thank the God of Brilliant Dialogue, the Goddess of Good Laughs, the Goddess of Awesome Characterisation and also the God of Literary Mind F*cks for all the inspiration given to the many authors I have read recently, including Keith Ridgway, who I didn’t even know existed until a couple of weeks ago.
This is a novel written as interconnected short stories around a cast of characters living in contemporary London. The first story alone was enough for me to realise I was reading something penned by someone at the top of his game. Gosh, what a disturbingly weird, funny and moving piece of writing that was. Just unforgettable, really.
The second story was equally as good and also quite disturbing. In this one it became clear to me how much inspiration Mr. Ridgway got from all the Gods I mentioned above. The witty and snarky dialogue really was quite something in this one.
After the third story, which was literally a complete mind f*ck, the interconnectedness started to become obvious and so did the way the novel was going to end. Mind you, when I say “obvious”, I’m not talking about predicability or contrivance. The fact that we kind of get an idea about how things are going to turn out only makes for a very compelling read. I couldn’t wait to find out how all the characters were going to end up in that weird situation described in the first story. It was also from this third story onwards that I really started to see this more like a novel than a short story collection.
I’m not even going to give a quick summary of all the other stories, not only because this is one of those books that works better if you don’t know a lot about it, but also because I hate spoilers! Just bear in mind that that the God Of Literary Mind F*cks played a big inspiring role in this novel as a whole.
The ending, as predicted, completely mirrored the beginning and I think the journey was nothing short of impressive. I have always found the butterfly effect theory a very interesting and frightening topic, you know.
And now, I really have no idea how to rate this. I’m completely torn between four and five stars.
I’ll have to read it again.
I don’t know what I have done to deserve this. Well, I actually have a pretty good idea but this is not the kind of review where I’m going to talk about all the shitty books I’ve read in the past.
This is a review where I want to thank the God of Brilliant Dialogue, the Goddess of Good Laughs, the Goddess of Awesome Characterisation and also the God of Literary Mind F*cks for all the inspiration given to the many authors I have read recently, including Keith Ridgway, who I didn’t even know existed until a couple of weeks ago.
This is a novel written as interconnected short stories around a cast of characters living in contemporary London. The first story alone was enough for me to realise I was reading something penned by someone at the top of his game. Gosh, what a disturbingly weird, funny and moving piece of writing that was. Just unforgettable, really.
The second story was equally as good and also quite disturbing. In this one it became clear to me how much inspiration Mr. Ridgway got from all the Gods I mentioned above. The witty and snarky dialogue really was quite something in this one.
After the third story, which was literally a complete mind f*ck, the interconnectedness started to become obvious and so did the way the novel was going to end. Mind you, when I say “obvious”, I’m not talking about predicability or contrivance. The fact that we kind of get an idea about how things are going to turn out only makes for a very compelling read. I couldn’t wait to find out how all the characters were going to end up in that weird situation described in the first story. It was also from this third story onwards that I really started to see this more like a novel than a short story collection.
I’m not even going to give a quick summary of all the other stories, not only because this is one of those books that works better if you don’t know a lot about it, but also because I hate spoilers! Just bear in mind that that the God Of Literary Mind F*cks played a big inspiring role in this novel as a whole.
The ending, as predicted, completely mirrored the beginning and I think the journey was nothing short of impressive. I have always found the butterfly effect theory a very interesting and frightening topic, you know.
And now, I really have no idea how to rate this. I’m completely torn between four and five stars.
I’ll have to read it again.
July 9, 2021
Keith Ridgway masterfully weaves together the lives and stories of a collection of London fringers in his novel-qua-collection A Shock.
In the opening story, a widow finds herself neighbors with a new gay couple in her London townhouse. What unfolds is a collection of short stories in which a cast of characters all interweave their anxieties, addictions, and lives in ways that many don't even realize. As one traipses the city in search of crystal meth and sex, another delves deep into socialist and Labour politics and all the while another finds himself abandoned in the attic because his plumber-boss abandoned him. Ridgway manages to get his readers to experience the anxieties and thoughts of these people in a way that is truly magical.
A Shock is a challenging book: it confronts addicts, the mentally ill, and more. And Ridgway deals with these issues in a way that makes you, as a reader, feel as though you you are experiencing them with his characters. In fact Ridgway's ability to use prose to create this experience is something I haven't encountered often in literature. Though this book is tough - and may not be for all - I highly recommend it: reading it was truly an experience.
In the opening story, a widow finds herself neighbors with a new gay couple in her London townhouse. What unfolds is a collection of short stories in which a cast of characters all interweave their anxieties, addictions, and lives in ways that many don't even realize. As one traipses the city in search of crystal meth and sex, another delves deep into socialist and Labour politics and all the while another finds himself abandoned in the attic because his plumber-boss abandoned him. Ridgway manages to get his readers to experience the anxieties and thoughts of these people in a way that is truly magical.
A Shock is a challenging book: it confronts addicts, the mentally ill, and more. And Ridgway deals with these issues in a way that makes you, as a reader, feel as though you you are experiencing them with his characters. In fact Ridgway's ability to use prose to create this experience is something I haven't encountered often in literature. Though this book is tough - and may not be for all - I highly recommend it: reading it was truly an experience.
November 22, 2021
3.5 stars
Read
November 5, 2021In A Shock, Keith Ridgway puts you right there, with them. To Ridgway’s credit, he puts you right there, with them even if you don’t want to be there with them. Ridgway manages to convey a sense of presence, with his perfect pitch for even the most mundane conversations. Ridgway’s stories — or are they chapters? — feature disorienting, pyrotechnic shifts from radical realism to claustrophobic nightmares — are they intended to be real? — to explicit sex. Characters sometimes seem unmoored in the stories, only to reappear and be moored in a later story. Ridgway performs some magic in A Shock with his ability to quickly sketch believable characters in believable situations and relationships, but it’s magic that I don’t understand well just as I don’t understand his characters. Perhaps in a few weeks, after rereading some or all of A Shock, I’ll feel able to render a more reasoned assessment of my reactions.
September 7, 2021
4.5, rounded up
October 12, 2021
I had not come across this book until it was shortlisted for The Goldsmiths Prize. At the time of that shortlist announcement, I had already read 3 of the 6 books and thought all those 3 were excellent (Assembly, Checkout 19, Sterling Karat Gold). So I had high hopes for the remaining 3.
“A Shock” is described as a novel (which therefore qualifies it for The Goldsmiths) but you could also describe it as a collection of interlinked short stories. The characters weave in and out of different stories and the stories refer to one another. This makes the whole thing feel like something that forms a coherent whole.
For the most part, the stories feel real. But there are occasional episodes where everything goes a bit surreal for a while. And then there’s a kind of meta fictional element. Each story tells us about an episode in the life of one of the characters. The focus, like many of the books on the shortlist, is London and, here, a very specific and small part of London. But in the midst of Labour Party meetings, friends talking in the pub, decorators working in someone’s house etc., we come across a story in which two character sit in the pub making up stories for each other. And these stories have eerie echoes of the stories we have already read (and, therefore, come to suspect we will read in the rest of the book). I have to acknowledge that I was starting to lose interest in the book until this story woke me up and drew me back in. There’s a couple of stories just prior to this one that didn’t really work for me, so my experience of the book was going up and down a bit. But this central story shows clearly that there is more going on in terms of structure than just the simple telling of some stories.
There also has to be credit given for the writing styles adopted here. There is one story which is told entirely in short, declarative sentences and this holds the reader away from the narrative. I am not sure I would want to read a whole novel written that way, but as a short story or chapter within a longer novel it works well in terms of contrast. But, by the time we reach the closing story, the book is addressing the reader individually and confidentially creating exactly the opposite sensation.
Another notable thing about the book is it’s use of buildings and/or spaces. In the opening story, a woman ends up trapped in the wall between her house and her neighbours. A man spends a night trapped in an attic. In one of the more surreal episodes, mice build themselves pathways in the walls of a pub. There is debate about whether one of the houses featured has 4 rooms or 5. I liked the mixture of the mundanely real and the slips into something on the “other side of the mirror” (and this is hinted at in the first story when neighbours discuss how their houses are mirror images of each other with minor alterations).
Overall, I found a couple of stories that I couldn’t make work for me, but I also found a lot of interesting stories, clever writing and subtlety of ideas.
“A Shock” is described as a novel (which therefore qualifies it for The Goldsmiths) but you could also describe it as a collection of interlinked short stories. The characters weave in and out of different stories and the stories refer to one another. This makes the whole thing feel like something that forms a coherent whole.
For the most part, the stories feel real. But there are occasional episodes where everything goes a bit surreal for a while. And then there’s a kind of meta fictional element. Each story tells us about an episode in the life of one of the characters. The focus, like many of the books on the shortlist, is London and, here, a very specific and small part of London. But in the midst of Labour Party meetings, friends talking in the pub, decorators working in someone’s house etc., we come across a story in which two character sit in the pub making up stories for each other. And these stories have eerie echoes of the stories we have already read (and, therefore, come to suspect we will read in the rest of the book). I have to acknowledge that I was starting to lose interest in the book until this story woke me up and drew me back in. There’s a couple of stories just prior to this one that didn’t really work for me, so my experience of the book was going up and down a bit. But this central story shows clearly that there is more going on in terms of structure than just the simple telling of some stories.
There also has to be credit given for the writing styles adopted here. There is one story which is told entirely in short, declarative sentences and this holds the reader away from the narrative. I am not sure I would want to read a whole novel written that way, but as a short story or chapter within a longer novel it works well in terms of contrast. But, by the time we reach the closing story, the book is addressing the reader individually and confidentially creating exactly the opposite sensation.
Another notable thing about the book is it’s use of buildings and/or spaces. In the opening story, a woman ends up trapped in the wall between her house and her neighbours. A man spends a night trapped in an attic. In one of the more surreal episodes, mice build themselves pathways in the walls of a pub. There is debate about whether one of the houses featured has 4 rooms or 5. I liked the mixture of the mundanely real and the slips into something on the “other side of the mirror” (and this is hinted at in the first story when neighbours discuss how their houses are mirror images of each other with minor alterations).
Overall, I found a couple of stories that I couldn’t make work for me, but I also found a lot of interesting stories, clever writing and subtlety of ideas.
November 20, 2021
Is it a novel, are the inter-linked short stories? It turns out I didn’t really care. I have my book club to thank for bringing me to this edgy little number that tickled many of my favourite itches. A Shock is a clever, unsettling, complex selection of stories about the oddities of life in London. Ridgway seems occupied by the alternate side to realities, so as this collection develops we are twisted and turned around, seeing fragments of others from different angles. It’s this which allows Ridgway to really play with the concept of truth, lies, and storytelling- especially the loose lines between these things. Oh…there are a lot of rodents too. Loved this, a thoughtful, unnerving, critical read.
Read
July 14, 2021It’s not you, it’s me.
Can’t get into anything at the moment! Not sure this’ll make sense - I can appreciate that this is excellent and well written and something special but it’s not doing it for me right now.
Can’t get into anything at the moment! Not sure this’ll make sense - I can appreciate that this is excellent and well written and something special but it’s not doing it for me right now.
June 20, 2021
4,5
Loved this!
Loved this!
November 11, 2021
A story collection of 10 short stories. All of them are based around a London neighbourhood. Most if not all the characters belong to the lgbtq community. The first story was excellent with the perfect amount of mystery and claustrophobic intrigue. The second story had a creepy stalkerish angle. From the third story onwards, I'm afraid the book went downhill for me. I couldn't really see the point of some stories and some were rampant with explicit scenes of sexual nature and drug abuse. The book was not only too graphic for my taste but I also found the storytelling a tad pointless and self indulgent. Nevertheless, a great book for lgbtq representation
It was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Awards 2021.
It was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Awards 2021.
August 1, 2021
This was going for 4,5 or even 5 stars, but the last couple of chapters/short stories were less unforgettable than the first five or six. Still a strong recommendation!
4+
4+
March 28, 2022
Although a big fan of Mr Ridgway's work I was slightly underwhelmed with this one. Although described as a novel it's actually a series of short stories with some overlap of characters between them.
I couldn't quite get my head around what the central point of the story was other than people trying to find their own way in a South London Borough during a period of hot weather in June
I couldn't quite get my head around what the central point of the story was other than people trying to find their own way in a South London Borough during a period of hot weather in June
June 23, 2026
This is the good shit! One for the interconnected short story fans. The way it all wraps around itself, the occasional fourth wall breaking, god this was just FAB
October 15, 2021
Keith Ridgway has his provocative finger on the pulse of urban London. A little bit trippy, a little bit dystopian, this book may never attain widespread appeal but I am sure it will shock and charm those who like vivid, stream-of-consciousness characters who babble on about their drugs, gay relationships and possibility of thieving because they don’t work and don’t have any money and their best friend... blah, blah, blah. You’ve got to laugh. Ridgway starts with an innocuous (odd) tale before launching into an intense, linked group of adult short stories. The taxi monologue about cave explorers will give me nightmares for weeks. Audio reader Harry Myers certainly gets the most from outré cycles of forgetfulness, delusions, pub visits and the multiple complexities of the human mind. One for the fans although I may try an earlier book sometime.
March 16, 2024
Vreemd boekje maar wel van genoten...?
July 22, 2021
It has been almost a ten year wait since Ridgway's memorable earlier novel, Hawthorn & Child, and its excellent accompaniment, the novella or short stroy, The Spectacular. Having just finished this though, it may have been better if he had kept us waiting longer. These are nine vaguely interlinked stories, which, like many collections of short stories, vary in quality considerably. I expected something in the quirky manner of Hawthorn, but this is much more rooted in reality.
In the first, and best of the stories, The Party, a recently widowed elderly lady is lavished with wine and chocolates by the gay couple next door who are about to host a raucous party. The woman spies through a hole in the wall, awakening in her a repressed desire for another woman, and what might have been. This is more pllot-driven than the rest of the stories, but despite that, none of them generate anywhere near the interest that this does. It was, as a stand-alone, published in The New Yorker, and whereas I cannot recomment the rest of the book, I certainly do with this.
In the first, and best of the stories, The Party, a recently widowed elderly lady is lavished with wine and chocolates by the gay couple next door who are about to host a raucous party. The woman spies through a hole in the wall, awakening in her a repressed desire for another woman, and what might have been. This is more pllot-driven than the rest of the stories, but despite that, none of them generate anywhere near the interest that this does. It was, as a stand-alone, published in The New Yorker, and whereas I cannot recomment the rest of the book, I certainly do with this.
April 13, 2025
her hikaye benzersiz ancak diğer hikayelerden örtüşen karakterler içeriyor, yollar kesişiyor. geçici mekanlarda bırakılan izler hakkında teğetsel yollarla birbirine bağlanıyor. ama bu bağ bazen öyle dağınık ki, takip etmek epey dikkat istiyor veya ben ara vererek okuduğum için bu bağları ve karakterleri takip etmekte zorlandım.
güçlü bir açılış öyküsü ardından ivme tersine dönüyor ve sonraki öyküler aynı etkiyi yaratmıyor. diyalog açısından başarılı bir kitap. sanki bir konuşmaya kulak misafiri olmuşsunuz gibi.
okunmaya değer bazı hikayeler var ama genel olarak basit öykülerden oluşuyor. kitapta çok fazla eşcinsel karakter var fakat bu karakterler doğal biçimde anlatılmış. onların sıradan hayatlarını anlatıyor.
kitap normalden farklı bir şey katmıyor. kimsenin ekstra bir anlam çıkarabileceği bir kitap değil.
hatırlamak için kendime kısa öykü notları
güçlü bir açılış öyküsü ardından ivme tersine dönüyor ve sonraki öyküler aynı etkiyi yaratmıyor. diyalog açısından başarılı bir kitap. sanki bir konuşmaya kulak misafiri olmuşsunuz gibi.
okunmaya değer bazı hikayeler var ama genel olarak basit öykülerden oluşuyor. kitapta çok fazla eşcinsel karakter var fakat bu karakterler doğal biçimde anlatılmış. onların sıradan hayatlarını anlatıyor.
kitap normalden farklı bir şey katmıyor. kimsenin ekstra bir anlam çıkarabileceği bir kitap değil.
hatırlamak için kendime kısa öykü notları
November 6, 2021
Kind of impossible to describe the appeal or explain what makes it so special--on the surface it's just a sort of novel in stories about people with crisscrossing lives, but there's something that's hard to pinpoint about all of the stories that makes them really unnerving and strange. In one a grieving old woman with dementia eavesdrops on a party next door through a tiny hole in her wall, eventually going so far as to slide into the gap in the wall where the insulation should be; in another a a man starts receiving candid photos of himself in the mail from an old friend with whom he just reunited and who won't pick up the phone to explain the photos; in another a handyman gets locked in his client's house after he falls asleep on the job and his boss forgets about him. Nothing supernatural ever happens and what sounds like a horror novel on paper is actually something much more sincere and sweet and about the weirdness and joy of trying to connect with other humans in a world that doesn't really make sense. Feels kind of summed up by a discursive monologue a character goes off on in an uber while out-of-his-mind high, about how he thinks of happiness as the feeling a tunneling spelunker gets after crawling through narrow uncomfortable passageways that could very well collapse on them, only to emerge on a cave, a "huge empty beautiful space, and they burst on to this suddenly, with a beautiful shock." Loved it!!! Beautiful and bizarre and addictive.
February 6, 2022
3.5 stars rounded up. I love Ridgway's writing generally, and I loved this, generally. A lot of the stories (loosely linked and billed as a novel here) were funny, precise as well as rambling, alert. But I felt the odd piece here and there lacking in the usual Ridgway density -some just seemed like exercises. However much to admire and enjoy here, just one example: 'He is handsome, Maria thinks, in a grubby, careless sort of way, as if being handsome annoys him a little.'
March 24, 2021
For me, this feels like an almost impossible book to review. To try to provide any form of synopsis (as I usually would) is to completely destroy the whole purpose of this novel – so I suggest you stick with the blurb and go from there.
I’ve not read anything by this author before, and whilst I hear Hawthorn and Child was an absolute masterpiece, it’s not crossed my bookshelf. Having read this, which I understand is in a similar vein, that situation certainly won’t be changing.
Personally, I did not enjoy this book but I want to make it very clear this an entirely personal response. It’s not that I thought it was poorly written, or had nothing enchanting about it (in fact, some parts were stunningly beautiful), but simply that it didn’t work for me. In much the same way that some people could happily live on tuna, and I feel like gagging when someone mentions it. We all have our things; this, sadly, is not one of mine.
Ultimately, it felt pretentious, pointless and just a long-winded meander in to nothingness. There was nothing to “enjoy” as such, as nothing happens and there are far more questions left unanswered than anything that comes to a conclusion.
I hold my hands up – I didn’t “get” it. For those that do, I have no doubt you will wax lyrical about it and have a myriad of things to say that prove me wrong. That’s brilliant, honestly. I have no doubt on some levels the book deserves it, but I’m just glad I’ve finished reading it and can move on to something else.
Usually, a book that made me feel like this would get a 1 star; however, I am very well aware that I would be penalizing the author purely because this was not my thing. That strikes me as grossly unfair as there is nothing “wrong” with this. Horses for courses and all that.
For more of my book news follow me on Insta: @PointsofLu
I’ve not read anything by this author before, and whilst I hear Hawthorn and Child was an absolute masterpiece, it’s not crossed my bookshelf. Having read this, which I understand is in a similar vein, that situation certainly won’t be changing.
Personally, I did not enjoy this book but I want to make it very clear this an entirely personal response. It’s not that I thought it was poorly written, or had nothing enchanting about it (in fact, some parts were stunningly beautiful), but simply that it didn’t work for me. In much the same way that some people could happily live on tuna, and I feel like gagging when someone mentions it. We all have our things; this, sadly, is not one of mine.
Ultimately, it felt pretentious, pointless and just a long-winded meander in to nothingness. There was nothing to “enjoy” as such, as nothing happens and there are far more questions left unanswered than anything that comes to a conclusion.
I hold my hands up – I didn’t “get” it. For those that do, I have no doubt you will wax lyrical about it and have a myriad of things to say that prove me wrong. That’s brilliant, honestly. I have no doubt on some levels the book deserves it, but I’m just glad I’ve finished reading it and can move on to something else.
Usually, a book that made me feel like this would get a 1 star; however, I am very well aware that I would be penalizing the author purely because this was not my thing. That strikes me as grossly unfair as there is nothing “wrong” with this. Horses for courses and all that.
For more of my book news follow me on Insta: @PointsofLu
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