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Undercurrent
'The beginning of summer. Perhaps it crosses my mind even now while I wait for news of Amy that something is coming towards us. Like sighting the first slow swell of a wave.'
Years ago, in an almost accidental moment of heroism, Ed saved Amy from drowning. Now, in his thirties, he finds himself adrift. He's been living in London for years - some of them good - but he's stuck in a relationship he can't move forward, has a job that just pays the bills, and can't shake the sense that life should mean more than this. Perhaps all Ed needs is a moment to pause. To exhale and start anew. And when he meets Amy again by chance, it seems that happiness might not be so far out of reach. But then tragedy overtakes him, and Ed must decide whether to let history and duty define his life, or whether he should push against the tide and write his own story.
Filled with hope and characteristic warmth, Undercurrent is a moving and intimate portrait of love, of life and why we choose to share ours with the people we do.
Years ago, in an almost accidental moment of heroism, Ed saved Amy from drowning. Now, in his thirties, he finds himself adrift. He's been living in London for years - some of them good - but he's stuck in a relationship he can't move forward, has a job that just pays the bills, and can't shake the sense that life should mean more than this. Perhaps all Ed needs is a moment to pause. To exhale and start anew. And when he meets Amy again by chance, it seems that happiness might not be so far out of reach. But then tragedy overtakes him, and Ed must decide whether to let history and duty define his life, or whether he should push against the tide and write his own story.
Filled with hope and characteristic warmth, Undercurrent is a moving and intimate portrait of love, of life and why we choose to share ours with the people we do.
288 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 30, 2022
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359 people want to read
About the author
Barney Norris
27 books53 followersBarney Norris is a playwright and novelist. His work has received awards from the International Theatre Institute, the Critics' Circle, the Evening Standard, the Society of Authors and the South Bank Sky Arts Times Breakthrough Awards, among others, and been translated into eight languages. His plays include Visitors, Nightfall and an acclaimed adaptation of Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day; his novels include Five Rivers Met on a Wooded Plain.
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August 23, 2022
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This is the fourth novel from the award winning playwright Barney Norris.
I have read his debut novel “Five Rivers Meet on a Wooden Plain” and second novel “Turning for Home” (which incidentally could have made an alternate title for this novel) and found both very strong novels (the second particularly) from an author I consider very underrated. Melissa Harrison in her Guardian review of his debut novel finished her review with a sentence that I think sums up what I really like in his writing and what I think probably counts against him in a literary world which often seems to mistake misanthropic or transgressive writing for quality.
This novel has at its heart a first party narrator Ed, writing in 2019 (just pre COVID although certain scenes in the novel will I think have difficult resonances for many after the many private tragedies of the last few years). At the age of 10 Ed (largely accidentally) rescued a younger girl from drowning and years later a chance encounter leads them into a relationship. Ed is though still haunted from another formative, earlier and only just remembered childhood event – when his parents split and his mother moved out of the remote Sussex hunting lodge in which Ed lived with his two parents, and instead moved to her family’s remote sheep farm in Wales.
Later Ed nurses his dying and estranged now alcoholic father before his death – leading to something of a breach with his Mum (and her new partner), one exacerbated by Ed (and his stepsister’s) clear reluctance to take on the farm (which has up until now been passed down through generations of the family who have struggled to make it viable). As Ed and his partner start their tentative but growing relationship, Ed takes the opportunity to reset the relationship with his mother, but difficult events cause him further pain and cause him to revisit his past but also to balance its weight and pull against the potential of the present (and future).
The structure of the novel mirrors this tension in two ways.
The 2019 sections are written in a present tense, but contain extensive reflections on Ed’s past and particularly his memories of his father, and his grandparents and his complex relationship with his mother.
And interleaved with these sections are a series of vignettes from his family history – going back to his great grandfather, who as an Army officer immediately pre World War I marries Ed’s great grandmother (a very young Indian Christian) only to bring her back to London when war breaks out (an unexpected breach with her homeland from which she never recovers settling into melancholy and eventually mental illness, which in turn affects her son (Ed’s mother’s father) who has to shoulder the burden (and irresistible current) of caring for both his mother’s health and the struggling farm, a burden that proves too much for him.
And alongside the idea of the past/future is a recurring theme of the draw of home (be that Sussex, Wales or India) – including a generational change from those who stayed in the countryside, to those who gradually migrated to the City, to those who now live in the City but visit the countryside for holidays (and to gain some kind of connection with a lost past). This haunting of home standing alongside the draw of the past.
Other recurring ideas include the (more recent and in my view sub-optimal) music of Radiohead; the titular idea of currents and undercurrents (literal and figurative) – perhaps fitting with the idea of (lack of) control over life’s circumstances and events; inheritance – often unwelcome (again both literal and figurative) “life was a series of inheritances taken away from you one by one, or given to you when you least wanted them, and there was no sense of controlling any part of it”.
Two aspects I suspect that will I discover more about closer to publication: the author writes novels and plays in a slightly linked universe (but I was not able to find many links); the author in 2021-2022 seems to be embarking on much more autobiographical novels and, other than a linked Sussex hunting lodge and a one-time fractured skull, I was not aware of any strong links between Ed and the author.
Overall this is another beautiful novel from an author who deserves much greater recognition. If a novel is at heart an empathy machine then Norris is a hugely skilled machine operator.
My thanks to Random House UK, Transworld for an ARC via NetGalley
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I have found in my relatively short experience that life has a way of giving me springs and autumns, one thing always following another and all seeming to vanish as quickly as they come. Ephemerality is what everything feels like in the end. I think I got the idea from Mum when she told me the stories of our family, the stories that had shaped us and brought us here. What the relatives she spoke about all seemed to share was a life that ebbed and flowed around them, one tide always giving way to another, so they were caught and pulled in different directions, every move they tried to make for themselves beset and foiled by some countermovement, so no matter what they tried to do to change their worlds, they always seemed to end up back where they started. Back on the farm. What became of their lives seemed to be out of their hands. They were just drawn through time by deep, irresistible currents.
This is the fourth novel from the award winning playwright Barney Norris.
I have read his debut novel “Five Rivers Meet on a Wooden Plain” and second novel “Turning for Home” (which incidentally could have made an alternate title for this novel) and found both very strong novels (the second particularly) from an author I consider very underrated. Melissa Harrison in her Guardian review of his debut novel finished her review with a sentence that I think sums up what I really like in his writing and what I think probably counts against him in a literary world which often seems to mistake misanthropic or transgressive writing for quality.
There are different kinds of good writing. Technical skill – good prosody, pace, description and so on – counts for a lot, as does the ability to tell a story well. But there is another quality I look for, and it can’t be learned at writing classes. It shines out when characters are granted their complexity and handled with empathy and compassion, and it comes, I think, from being a decent human being. Judging by this tolerant and insightful debut, Norris has it in spades
This novel has at its heart a first party narrator Ed, writing in 2019 (just pre COVID although certain scenes in the novel will I think have difficult resonances for many after the many private tragedies of the last few years). At the age of 10 Ed (largely accidentally) rescued a younger girl from drowning and years later a chance encounter leads them into a relationship. Ed is though still haunted from another formative, earlier and only just remembered childhood event – when his parents split and his mother moved out of the remote Sussex hunting lodge in which Ed lived with his two parents, and instead moved to her family’s remote sheep farm in Wales.
I’ve known there was another life, a ghost life, happening just under the surface of my own – a boy I’d left behind in the wood who never grew up, who no one ever went back to rescue, who couldn’t even be reached if someone tried to find him now. Like a record playing in another room. That’s what became of my childhood. I’ve never done anything about it. I’ve never gone back, or sought out a therapist to talk things through. The only concession I’ve ever made to the memory of that boy is that every time I move out of a flat or a house and into a new one, I always make sure that I leave a day early. I’ll spend the day moving boxes into the new place, and then after dinner on the day I move, I’ll go back to the place I’ve left, and let myself in with the key I’ve kept, and check the rooms and cupboards one last time. I’ve rescued some useful things that way. A jacket I left on the back of a bedroom door. A scarf on a coat hanger. A crystal glass that belonged to my grandmother. What I’ve always hoped I’ll find, though, is the real original self I left behind. But that boy is never there waiting for me.
Later Ed nurses his dying and estranged now alcoholic father before his death – leading to something of a breach with his Mum (and her new partner), one exacerbated by Ed (and his stepsister’s) clear reluctance to take on the farm (which has up until now been passed down through generations of the family who have struggled to make it viable). As Ed and his partner start their tentative but growing relationship, Ed takes the opportunity to reset the relationship with his mother, but difficult events cause him further pain and cause him to revisit his past but also to balance its weight and pull against the potential of the present (and future).
As I try to go forwards through the story of my life, the feeling takes hold that somehow I am going in the wrong direction, that really what I want to be doing is going back, not flicking through the picture book towards its ending. I can’t find it, the secret of myself, the person I’m supposed to be; the key is lost, and I feel it must lie deeper, I must have lost it earlier, it must be buried longer ago. What I am trying to fight against is a sense that I regret having lived my life, that I would almost rather my life had never happened than for so much of it to be lost and unrecoverable. I don’t want to feel like that. I want to feel like I’m glad about where I’m going.
The structure of the novel mirrors this tension in two ways.
The 2019 sections are written in a present tense, but contain extensive reflections on Ed’s past and particularly his memories of his father, and his grandparents and his complex relationship with his mother.
And interleaved with these sections are a series of vignettes from his family history – going back to his great grandfather, who as an Army officer immediately pre World War I marries Ed’s great grandmother (a very young Indian Christian) only to bring her back to London when war breaks out (an unexpected breach with her homeland from which she never recovers settling into melancholy and eventually mental illness, which in turn affects her son (Ed’s mother’s father) who has to shoulder the burden (and irresistible current) of caring for both his mother’s health and the struggling farm, a burden that proves too much for him.
And alongside the idea of the past/future is a recurring theme of the draw of home (be that Sussex, Wales or India) – including a generational change from those who stayed in the countryside, to those who gradually migrated to the City, to those who now live in the City but visit the countryside for holidays (and to gain some kind of connection with a lost past). This haunting of home standing alongside the draw of the past.
The Welsh have a word for this feeling, hiraeth, but there’s no word in English. And that’s strange, really, when you think about it. Because what country could be more haunted, more crowded by the remnants and the echoes of lost worlds than rain-soaked England? How could a feeling be more English than this one? It is a failure of our language, a failure of our culture, not to know how to speak of the things left behind
Other recurring ideas include the (more recent and in my view sub-optimal) music of Radiohead; the titular idea of currents and undercurrents (literal and figurative) – perhaps fitting with the idea of (lack of) control over life’s circumstances and events; inheritance – often unwelcome (again both literal and figurative) “life was a series of inheritances taken away from you one by one, or given to you when you least wanted them, and there was no sense of controlling any part of it”.
Two aspects I suspect that will I discover more about closer to publication: the author writes novels and plays in a slightly linked universe (but I was not able to find many links); the author in 2021-2022 seems to be embarking on much more autobiographical novels and, other than a linked Sussex hunting lodge and a one-time fractured skull, I was not aware of any strong links between Ed and the author.
Overall this is another beautiful novel from an author who deserves much greater recognition. If a novel is at heart an empathy machine then Norris is a hugely skilled machine operator.
My thanks to Random House UK, Transworld for an ARC via NetGalley
November 13, 2022
The opening chapter of Norris’s fourth (and latest) novel Undercurrent introduces us to narrator Ed and his fiancée Juliet. They are at a wedding reception when they suddenly notice that the attractive photographer seems to have taken an uncommon interest in Ed. Later that night, Ed discovers that the photographer is Amy, a girl he had saved from drowning when he was still a ten-year old boy on a family holiday. This unexpected encounter, and the jolt brought by that half-forgotten childhood memory, is the trigger which Ed needs to walk out of his relationship with Juliet which, almost without their noticing, has long gone stale. Ed builds a bond with Amy and, through her, considers anew his connection with his parents, and his life plans. The segments narrated by Ed alternate with chapters in the third person, describing the chequered history of a farming family in Wales.
A central theme of this novel is history and memory: how the past shapes us and how we in turn shape our past through the stories we tell. It deals with different layers of “history” – the history of the individual characters, the history of their families, and at a higher level, the backdrop of world events (in this case, the history of Empire and the World Wars).
I was also struck by the unexpected mixture of the philosophical and the mundane. Some of the dialogue is so ‘everyday’ (small talk while washing the dishes, conversations during long car drives) that it verges perilously on the banal. But, particularly through Ed’s soul-searching narration, Norris also presents us with meditative passages of great beauty and insight, as in this dark description of London with its:
… ceaseless noise, the light, the fear, the anger. In this place we cling to each other and try the best we can to survive the huge indifference of the metropolis all around us… All cities are built like maps of a mind, and when you spend time in them they come to map your own, you can’t help but fall into the rhythms offered up to you…
Life is full of challenges, pain and shattered dreams. In Undercurrent, Norris faces these realities head-on, steering a steady course between facile nihilism on the one hand, and sentimental escapism on the other. The result is a gently hopeful novel, full of that human/e warmth which we all need.
Full review at: https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/20...
A central theme of this novel is history and memory: how the past shapes us and how we in turn shape our past through the stories we tell. It deals with different layers of “history” – the history of the individual characters, the history of their families, and at a higher level, the backdrop of world events (in this case, the history of Empire and the World Wars).
I was also struck by the unexpected mixture of the philosophical and the mundane. Some of the dialogue is so ‘everyday’ (small talk while washing the dishes, conversations during long car drives) that it verges perilously on the banal. But, particularly through Ed’s soul-searching narration, Norris also presents us with meditative passages of great beauty and insight, as in this dark description of London with its:
… ceaseless noise, the light, the fear, the anger. In this place we cling to each other and try the best we can to survive the huge indifference of the metropolis all around us… All cities are built like maps of a mind, and when you spend time in them they come to map your own, you can’t help but fall into the rhythms offered up to you…
Life is full of challenges, pain and shattered dreams. In Undercurrent, Norris faces these realities head-on, steering a steady course between facile nihilism on the one hand, and sentimental escapism on the other. The result is a gently hopeful novel, full of that human/e warmth which we all need.
Full review at: https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/20...
August 12, 2022
The book’s description here on goodreads is only a small part of what this novel is really about and I feel it doesn’t do it enough justice. Maybe I’m reading it the wrong way though, I don’t know. To me it’s more than just about love. It’s about family, grief, home and belonging as well, and it really got to me. I did however have some trouble with the vignettes. They support the themes, but I could have done without them. IMO they got too much in the way of the main 2019 story line.
Thank you Doubleday and Netgalley UK for the ARC.
Thank you Doubleday and Netgalley UK for the ARC.
July 28, 2023
Really enjoyed this book charting relationships and events with the basic plot of Ed meeting Amy several years after saving her but all the subplots are eds family history leading up to the climax of the story
May 20, 2022
Barney Norris writes lyrically about nature and landscape, as in his previous novels - this time set against the backdrop of farm life and its hardships. Through the internal musings of his characters, revelations gradually emerge about their past lives and family backgrounds, their memories and stories often re-written, to interpret the secret undercurrents that underpin our view of world events. Highly recommended.
November 17, 2022
This book was very engrossing. The voice finely crafted. And it had to be so because the plot is not anything all that much. Mostly, it’s about the reflections of the narrator from some time in the future, at the time of cross-current shaping those moments, and how he feels about that, what he thought about.
Not all that much happens and it ends up being about a great many things. One of those types of novels.
Not all that much happens and it ends up being about a great many things. One of those types of novels.
August 9, 2023
I have read 98 books so far this year, and Undercurrent is the best one.
"When you meet someone who met you or knew you as a child, which to my mind is like them having seen you as you really are, the air between you changes a little. They knew you when you could have been anyone, when your life could have turned into anything, not just this. They remind you of things you’ve lost, and when you speak to them, the conversation sometimes has a different centre of gravity. Because the kid you used to be is buried under so many years and contradictory feelings. Until the very idea of a coherent identity becomes a bit ludicrous. But there was a time when it wasn’t. And it’s beautiful to meet someone who gives you access to the memory of that time, so that you almost believe in it again."
"The girl watches us go. I wave goodbye to her. I know what it’s like to start your life so remote, what this solitude and silence does to a mind, to an imagination. She is like a glimpse of someone I used to be. I want to take a moment to tell the girl: all your life there’s going to be a secret room in your head no one else will ever know exists or know how to get into, a room filled with the silence and freedom of your childhood. Sometimes it will seem like a miracle to you, and sometimes it will seem like the purest loneliness. There’s nothing you can do about it; the secret room will always be part of you, it will always be there, and sometimes you’ll need to go into it and sit quietly for a little while. It will be the only way you ever find to feel like you’ve come home. The rest of the wide world with its sound and fury is never quite going to feel like home, it will always resemble a dream, and you’ll never truly convince yourself that all of that noise could be real."
"When you meet someone who met you or knew you as a child, which to my mind is like them having seen you as you really are, the air between you changes a little. They knew you when you could have been anyone, when your life could have turned into anything, not just this. They remind you of things you’ve lost, and when you speak to them, the conversation sometimes has a different centre of gravity. Because the kid you used to be is buried under so many years and contradictory feelings. Until the very idea of a coherent identity becomes a bit ludicrous. But there was a time when it wasn’t. And it’s beautiful to meet someone who gives you access to the memory of that time, so that you almost believe in it again."
"The girl watches us go. I wave goodbye to her. I know what it’s like to start your life so remote, what this solitude and silence does to a mind, to an imagination. She is like a glimpse of someone I used to be. I want to take a moment to tell the girl: all your life there’s going to be a secret room in your head no one else will ever know exists or know how to get into, a room filled with the silence and freedom of your childhood. Sometimes it will seem like a miracle to you, and sometimes it will seem like the purest loneliness. There’s nothing you can do about it; the secret room will always be part of you, it will always be there, and sometimes you’ll need to go into it and sit quietly for a little while. It will be the only way you ever find to feel like you’ve come home. The rest of the wide world with its sound and fury is never quite going to feel like home, it will always resemble a dream, and you’ll never truly convince yourself that all of that noise could be real."
November 30, 2023
Undercurrent by playwright and author Barney Norris is a novel that, if it catches you at the wrong time, you might dismiss as ordinary, but if you read it at the right moment or in the right mood, it will stop you in your tracks.
I had been thinking of Richard Linklater's film Boyhood recently, and Linklater actually gets a mention in the book. You feel that Norris has drawn inspiration from the renowned director and has written a novel that captures the essence and feeling of a Linklater film.
Deceptively simple prose with beautiful observations, this is a novel about the passing of time, and what happens to us in the quiet moments. It's about how we are changed by the big events - the break up of a relationship, the death of a parent, the meeting of a life partner.
Ed is in the dying days of a long term relationship when he meets Amy at a wedding. She's the photographer and she recognises him as the person who saved her from drowning a a child. What appears on the surface to be a simple meeting of two people whose paths have previously intersected, marks a crossroads in Ed's life as he begins to question where he is and what he wants from life.
Interspersed with Ed's first person narrative, are chapters set in the past about generations of Ed's family through the 20th Century. This should be jarring but somehow it is not - the reader is transported effortlessly through time, feeling the fragility of life and inexorable shift towards its end. If this sounds depressing, it isn't! I found it pretty life-affirming. 4/5 stars
"The ebb of one part of life turning into the past is what always seems to give birth to the future, so that every decision ends up being a reaction to something, not a thing in itself; every new choice is born of a kind of grief."
I had been thinking of Richard Linklater's film Boyhood recently, and Linklater actually gets a mention in the book. You feel that Norris has drawn inspiration from the renowned director and has written a novel that captures the essence and feeling of a Linklater film.
Deceptively simple prose with beautiful observations, this is a novel about the passing of time, and what happens to us in the quiet moments. It's about how we are changed by the big events - the break up of a relationship, the death of a parent, the meeting of a life partner.
Ed is in the dying days of a long term relationship when he meets Amy at a wedding. She's the photographer and she recognises him as the person who saved her from drowning a a child. What appears on the surface to be a simple meeting of two people whose paths have previously intersected, marks a crossroads in Ed's life as he begins to question where he is and what he wants from life.
Interspersed with Ed's first person narrative, are chapters set in the past about generations of Ed's family through the 20th Century. This should be jarring but somehow it is not - the reader is transported effortlessly through time, feeling the fragility of life and inexorable shift towards its end. If this sounds depressing, it isn't! I found it pretty life-affirming. 4/5 stars
"The ebb of one part of life turning into the past is what always seems to give birth to the future, so that every decision ends up being a reaction to something, not a thing in itself; every new choice is born of a kind of grief."
October 29, 2022
Having loved Five Rivers Met on a Wooded Plain I was keen to check out the author's latest offering. Undercurrent is a novel about relationships (romantic and familial), home, love and loss. Parts of the novel were quietly impressive, but I couldn't quite cast aside my dislike for Ed and for how he treats his girlfriend in the early parts of the novel (petty, I know). Norris is one to watch for sure, and his prose really shines at times.
Thank you Netgalley and Random House UK for the advance copy, which was provided in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you Netgalley and Random House UK for the advance copy, which was provided in exchange for an honest review.
July 29, 2023
A romance set within reflections on a family’s history. I failed to like the bloodless protagonist or understand why his family mattered. No shortage of unhappy lives here.
April 18, 2022
In this story we follow a few years of change in a young man’s life, specifically his relationships with his family and his girlfriends as they evolve. We also have short third person narrated sections filling in some of the family history, some sad events that shaped their lives for generations and underline the significance of the family farm in the minds of the current generations. In his acknowledgements, the author mentions borrowing from his family to tell this story, and it does have an autobiographical feel to it, leaving me wondering how much of it is imagined and how much not.
Barney Norris writes emotion so well. His character Ed is a profoundly thoughtful man, intense in his analysis of his own feelings every step of the way, sometimes almost too much, but always interesting.
Strange to search for a new place in the midst of grief, and feeling distracted while trying to make what ought to be one of the most important decisions, and completely unable to focus. But this is how life always seems to happen to me. The future can never just be created on its own. The ebb of one part of life turning into the past is what always seems to give birth to the future, so that every decision ends up being a reaction to something, not a thing in itself; every new choice is born of a kind of grief.
Some lovely descriptions of the landscape, too, which always please me - ranging from the Welsh hills to the Cornish coast and to the city of London.
A dense book which, despite being relatively short on pages, took me an inordinate amount of time to read. Well worth the effort.
With thanks to Random House Doubleday via NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC.
Barney Norris writes emotion so well. His character Ed is a profoundly thoughtful man, intense in his analysis of his own feelings every step of the way, sometimes almost too much, but always interesting.
Strange to search for a new place in the midst of grief, and feeling distracted while trying to make what ought to be one of the most important decisions, and completely unable to focus. But this is how life always seems to happen to me. The future can never just be created on its own. The ebb of one part of life turning into the past is what always seems to give birth to the future, so that every decision ends up being a reaction to something, not a thing in itself; every new choice is born of a kind of grief.
Some lovely descriptions of the landscape, too, which always please me - ranging from the Welsh hills to the Cornish coast and to the city of London.
A dense book which, despite being relatively short on pages, took me an inordinate amount of time to read. Well worth the effort.
With thanks to Random House Doubleday via NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC.
August 14, 2022
Barney Norris is a writer who can plumb the depths of emotion with everything he writes. In this, his fourth novel, he deals with the heart of a family as he comes to terms with loss and grief as well as love.
Told in past and present (pre Covid) timelines we learn about Ed's troubled childhood which follows him into adulthood with the separation of his parents and a life led on the family farm in Wales with his mother, stepfather and half sister. One memorable event of his childhood is when he rescues Amy, a young girl from drowning and meets her again at a wedding many years later in his thirties while he is trying to come to terms with the grief of his mother's recent death and having to make decisions what to do with the farm that his mother wants to remain in the family.
Ed rightly dominates the narrative as we are taken through his life and family history, how he copes as he soul searches how to live his life. It is beautifully written with wonderful immersive descriptions that can only move even the most hardened reader's heart. Undercurrent deserves to win prizes. Many thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday for the opportunity to read and review this book.
Told in past and present (pre Covid) timelines we learn about Ed's troubled childhood which follows him into adulthood with the separation of his parents and a life led on the family farm in Wales with his mother, stepfather and half sister. One memorable event of his childhood is when he rescues Amy, a young girl from drowning and meets her again at a wedding many years later in his thirties while he is trying to come to terms with the grief of his mother's recent death and having to make decisions what to do with the farm that his mother wants to remain in the family.
Ed rightly dominates the narrative as we are taken through his life and family history, how he copes as he soul searches how to live his life. It is beautifully written with wonderful immersive descriptions that can only move even the most hardened reader's heart. Undercurrent deserves to win prizes. Many thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday for the opportunity to read and review this book.
June 3, 2022
I enjoyed this.
It’s about Ed and family history. In particular the emotional history of family. How times, circumstance, environment might change, but we all question and doubt ourselves. How our choices impact ourselves, our family and friends. Finding a balance between seeking our own happiness and how our decisions affect the lives and happiness of others. How choices are hard. How life is hard.
Suicides, sickness, death, grief… it’s all here.
But there is also, kindness, love, understanding and hope.
The language is simple and insightful. The analysis of emotional character is often raw and brutally honest.
Books like this remind me how life’s challenges, big and small, have an impact on all of us. Well worth reading.
Thanks to Netgalley for the review copy
It’s about Ed and family history. In particular the emotional history of family. How times, circumstance, environment might change, but we all question and doubt ourselves. How our choices impact ourselves, our family and friends. Finding a balance between seeking our own happiness and how our decisions affect the lives and happiness of others. How choices are hard. How life is hard.
Suicides, sickness, death, grief… it’s all here.
But there is also, kindness, love, understanding and hope.
The language is simple and insightful. The analysis of emotional character is often raw and brutally honest.
Books like this remind me how life’s challenges, big and small, have an impact on all of us. Well worth reading.
Thanks to Netgalley for the review copy
December 27, 2023
Ed was kinda annoying and I found myself skim reading some parts of the book. The writing was nice though.
November 9, 2022
Not massively sure what I’ve read. Sort of story / random thought / long stream of musings.
Pretty decent, think I got the main drift about the unseen push and pull of the random currents of life.
Enjoyed it, but made it more of a struggle than necessary I think.
Pretty decent, think I got the main drift about the unseen push and pull of the random currents of life.
Enjoyed it, but made it more of a struggle than necessary I think.
September 26, 2022
A few years ago I read Turning for Home by Barney Norris and thought it was a moving book with emotional depth. Undercurrent has very much the same tone, plumbing the same depth of emotion, as he tells the story of a family’s grief and loss as well as love. the central theme is the pull of home, that sense of belonging, of attachment to a place, and how our past has shaped our lives. Alongside this there is the desire for a new life, and new experiences. It is beautifully written.
The main story centres around Ed and his immediate family, but the narrative includes the stories of his grandparents and great grandparents. He had a troubled childhood, living on a farm in Wales with his mother, stepfather and stepsister, Rachel. His mother wants him and Rachel to take over the farm when she dies, but neither of them want to, which leaves Ed feeling guilty and frustrated. But when his mother becomes seriously ill and dies he has to make a decision.
It’s also the story of his grandparents and great grandparents, beginning in 1911 in India when Arthur, an Englishman met and later married Phoebe a young Indian teenager. When the First World War broke out they moved to England and Arthur enlisted in the navy. She never got over leaving India and sank into depression and melancholy. Their son, Leo, was greatly affected by his mother’s mental illness and caring for her and the farm became too much for him, resulting in tragedy. The women in the family followed the same pattern as Phoebe – following the men, their lives changing for better or worse.
I don’t feel I have done justice to this novel, finding it quite difficult to review. It’s a quiet thoughtful book that explores the nature of our relationships, emotions and how our lives are affected by our family history.
The main story centres around Ed and his immediate family, but the narrative includes the stories of his grandparents and great grandparents. He had a troubled childhood, living on a farm in Wales with his mother, stepfather and stepsister, Rachel. His mother wants him and Rachel to take over the farm when she dies, but neither of them want to, which leaves Ed feeling guilty and frustrated. But when his mother becomes seriously ill and dies he has to make a decision.
It’s also the story of his grandparents and great grandparents, beginning in 1911 in India when Arthur, an Englishman met and later married Phoebe a young Indian teenager. When the First World War broke out they moved to England and Arthur enlisted in the navy. She never got over leaving India and sank into depression and melancholy. Their son, Leo, was greatly affected by his mother’s mental illness and caring for her and the farm became too much for him, resulting in tragedy. The women in the family followed the same pattern as Phoebe – following the men, their lives changing for better or worse.
I don’t feel I have done justice to this novel, finding it quite difficult to review. It’s a quiet thoughtful book that explores the nature of our relationships, emotions and how our lives are affected by our family history.
February 25, 2023
A beautiful and moving read that focuses on the protagonist Ed as he navigates the themes of family, relationships, and mostly grief. Barney Norris writes beautifully, his sentences and descriptions a testament to his craft. However, while I liked reading this novel, I felt it was slow-paced in some areas which made it a bit of slog in some chapters. I contemplated dropping this as a 'DNF' but charged on, knowing that I would regret it if I didn't finish this book.
It's a moving portrait about navigating life, knowing that time can only move forward and that the future itself is unwritten and that only we can write it by taking control of our life, by living in the here and now. I rated this novel a four stars, but mostly on the upper scale of a 3.75 rating. It is deeply emotional, reflective, and sad but don't let my review put you off from reading it - especially if you love books where you can be emotionally invested in it.
Sharing my favourite quotes from the novel:
'The future can never just be created on its own. The ebb of one part of life turning into the past is what always seems to give birth to the future, so that every decision ends up being a reaction to something, not a thing in itself, every new choice is born of a kind of grief.'
'Life like a coastal shelf, built up, layer upon layer, like minute upon hour upon day, till it looms over you, till you come to fear its falling, because when the end comes and it finally falls, it will cut you back into the ribbons of minutes and hours and days that made you, and you will be dissipated, and ebb back into glimpses, fractured and diffuse, and you will be nothing at all, scattered memory, a ghost.'
It's a moving portrait about navigating life, knowing that time can only move forward and that the future itself is unwritten and that only we can write it by taking control of our life, by living in the here and now. I rated this novel a four stars, but mostly on the upper scale of a 3.75 rating. It is deeply emotional, reflective, and sad but don't let my review put you off from reading it - especially if you love books where you can be emotionally invested in it.
Sharing my favourite quotes from the novel:
'The future can never just be created on its own. The ebb of one part of life turning into the past is what always seems to give birth to the future, so that every decision ends up being a reaction to something, not a thing in itself, every new choice is born of a kind of grief.'
'Life like a coastal shelf, built up, layer upon layer, like minute upon hour upon day, till it looms over you, till you come to fear its falling, because when the end comes and it finally falls, it will cut you back into the ribbons of minutes and hours and days that made you, and you will be dissipated, and ebb back into glimpses, fractured and diffuse, and you will be nothing at all, scattered memory, a ghost.'
April 30, 2022
This is just the kind of book I LOVE! Don't get me wrong, I love police procedurals, I love books about missing people, I love serial killers, terrorist attacks and presidential assassinations but books like this just do it for me more than all that.
This is one of those books where, if you were asked to explain it to a friend, they would look at you like "is that it?". It certainly won't be made into a Hollywood blockbuster or a Netflix limited series.
Here we follow the story of Ed who is in a relationship with Juliet at the start of the novel, however at a wedding he reconnects with Amy - a girl he saved from drowning when they were children. His connection with Amy after all these years highlights what is missing in his relationship with Juliet and he quickly breaks it off with her and begins a relationship with Amy instead. I don't want to go to much further in terms of story however, this isn't about what happens next but instead is an exploration of real, human relationships and what is missing from them, why we stay and we eventually choose to go.
I know this book won't be for everyone but it was definitely for me. Barney Norris is one of those authors, much like Anne Tyler, who can make the mundane, beautiful.
This is one of those books where, if you were asked to explain it to a friend, they would look at you like "is that it?". It certainly won't be made into a Hollywood blockbuster or a Netflix limited series.
Here we follow the story of Ed who is in a relationship with Juliet at the start of the novel, however at a wedding he reconnects with Amy - a girl he saved from drowning when they were children. His connection with Amy after all these years highlights what is missing in his relationship with Juliet and he quickly breaks it off with her and begins a relationship with Amy instead. I don't want to go to much further in terms of story however, this isn't about what happens next but instead is an exploration of real, human relationships and what is missing from them, why we stay and we eventually choose to go.
I know this book won't be for everyone but it was definitely for me. Barney Norris is one of those authors, much like Anne Tyler, who can make the mundane, beautiful.
February 17, 2024
⭐️⭐️⭐️✨ (3.5) Undercurrent by Barney Norris
Our protagonist Ed accidentally became a hero when as a young boy he saved a girl Amy from drowning. Now as an adult Ed meets Amy again just when his life is at a standstill. His job in an agency pays the bills but doesn’t excite him, his living arrangements are questionable and his relationship with his mother is fraught with tension and expectations.
He feels he should be further along in his life but meeting Amy gives him hope. When he receives some bad news he feels the pressure of duty sitting heavily on his shoulders and has a decision to make. Should he do what is expected of him to make everyone else happy or follow his path and build a future that he is happy and content with?
The pacing was quite slow with Ed going into some very random thoughts as well as reflecting on his family, his duty, love and relationships. Ed and Amy were not the most likeable and engaging characters and I felt my mind wandering a bit.
There were parts I enjoyed with some very sweet and poetic descriptions of Wales, Cornwall and London. Ed and Amy’s dad’s stirred so much sadness. Two men, both lost with no way home, one trying to find their way and one giving up.
A story of finding love, clawing your way through the grief after loss and trying to find your place in the world again.
Our protagonist Ed accidentally became a hero when as a young boy he saved a girl Amy from drowning. Now as an adult Ed meets Amy again just when his life is at a standstill. His job in an agency pays the bills but doesn’t excite him, his living arrangements are questionable and his relationship with his mother is fraught with tension and expectations.
He feels he should be further along in his life but meeting Amy gives him hope. When he receives some bad news he feels the pressure of duty sitting heavily on his shoulders and has a decision to make. Should he do what is expected of him to make everyone else happy or follow his path and build a future that he is happy and content with?
The pacing was quite slow with Ed going into some very random thoughts as well as reflecting on his family, his duty, love and relationships. Ed and Amy were not the most likeable and engaging characters and I felt my mind wandering a bit.
There were parts I enjoyed with some very sweet and poetic descriptions of Wales, Cornwall and London. Ed and Amy’s dad’s stirred so much sadness. Two men, both lost with no way home, one trying to find their way and one giving up.
A story of finding love, clawing your way through the grief after loss and trying to find your place in the world again.
January 14, 2025
I read this book over a long time, but it didn't suffer for it: the story embedded itself in my head so I didn't have to start again, or go back to remind me of what was happening.
It's a story of love, grief, guilt and questioning where your life is going, and if you want to be going in that direction.
It's about a man struggling to come to terms with the loss of his mother, and also feeling lost within himself. Not knowing where he needs to be, in location and in life.
The writing is often vulnerable and raw: for those of us who have experienced the loss of a loved one, you will understand how he feels. It's like this book was written from the heart, from personal experience.
As well as the loss of a mother, there is the loss of a relationship, and the start of another, both explored with skill and care.
Exceptionally well written, nothing much happens, but it doesn't need to: the writing engages you, entrances you, and envelops you in a cloud of thoughtful emotion.
It's a story of love, grief, guilt and questioning where your life is going, and if you want to be going in that direction.
It's about a man struggling to come to terms with the loss of his mother, and also feeling lost within himself. Not knowing where he needs to be, in location and in life.
The writing is often vulnerable and raw: for those of us who have experienced the loss of a loved one, you will understand how he feels. It's like this book was written from the heart, from personal experience.
As well as the loss of a mother, there is the loss of a relationship, and the start of another, both explored with skill and care.
Exceptionally well written, nothing much happens, but it doesn't need to: the writing engages you, entrances you, and envelops you in a cloud of thoughtful emotion.
September 29, 2022
This was a pleasant enough read but essentially a rather ordinary one, and I didn’t feel it offered anything particularly new or original. In fact at times it descended into the banal. At its heart is the narrator Ed, a young man at a crossroads in his personal life, who is trying to come to terms with his family’s past and to search for meaning in the present whilst he attempts to forge a future for himself. It’s well-written and well-paced, with a well-timed reveal of events from the past and the complex relationships and challenges that result. It’s an introspective novel, one that reflects and meditates on love and family, duty and freedom, grief and hope. Nothing really wrong with any of it, but I simply didn’t connect with any of the characters, nor was I particularly interested in them.
July 29, 2022
A meditative short novel that deals with family expectations, life choices and memories.
The main narrative is set in 2019 and prior, where Ed, the narrator, muses on his life and childhood, centred around a farm owned for generations. Neither he or his step-sister, Rachel, want to take it on which causes guilt, family frustration and the resurgence of memories tied to the place.
Interweaved amongst these chapters are others about his great-grandparents, grandparents and parents.
It has similar themes to Bad Relations by Cressida Connelly which I read earlier this year but Barney Norris includes a sense of poetic philosophy and introspection that makes the story more poignant and empathetic.
The main narrative is set in 2019 and prior, where Ed, the narrator, muses on his life and childhood, centred around a farm owned for generations. Neither he or his step-sister, Rachel, want to take it on which causes guilt, family frustration and the resurgence of memories tied to the place.
Interweaved amongst these chapters are others about his great-grandparents, grandparents and parents.
It has similar themes to Bad Relations by Cressida Connelly which I read earlier this year but Barney Norris includes a sense of poetic philosophy and introspection that makes the story more poignant and empathetic.
December 13, 2023
when i read the blurb and gr description of this book i did not picture anything like the book i’ve just read.
for me some of the main themes aren’t even mentioned in those descriptions, the novel is about family, grief, love, belonging, the sense of home, growing up and hope.
as mentioned above a huge number of themes are discussed in this book, i think it’s a book you can really deeply read into. sometimes this book goes very deep and becomes almost profound and other times it’s very much looking at everyday life, conversations and inanities.
some paragraphs, primarily about loss and grief, made me stop and think about what i had just read. the character of ed was superbly written and relatable in some ways. all characters were great.
for me some of the main themes aren’t even mentioned in those descriptions, the novel is about family, grief, love, belonging, the sense of home, growing up and hope.
as mentioned above a huge number of themes are discussed in this book, i think it’s a book you can really deeply read into. sometimes this book goes very deep and becomes almost profound and other times it’s very much looking at everyday life, conversations and inanities.
some paragraphs, primarily about loss and grief, made me stop and think about what i had just read. the character of ed was superbly written and relatable in some ways. all characters were great.
February 1, 2024
I'm a Barney Norris fan - I love his writing, and how he makes me see things, events, places in a different light.
Undercurrent starts with a wedding where Ed meets a young woman, Amy, whom he rescued from drowning when they were children. He soon splits up with his long standing girlfriend and moves in with Amy. Ed's story is interwoven with brief chapters describing events in the lives of his parents, grandparents and great grandparents, raising questions about the reach of family history. Initially I found these sections a little intrusive but the story would not exist without them. Throughout it all is a sense of instability, of the arbitrariness of life.
A slow read but one I would recommend.
Undercurrent starts with a wedding where Ed meets a young woman, Amy, whom he rescued from drowning when they were children. He soon splits up with his long standing girlfriend and moves in with Amy. Ed's story is interwoven with brief chapters describing events in the lives of his parents, grandparents and great grandparents, raising questions about the reach of family history. Initially I found these sections a little intrusive but the story would not exist without them. Throughout it all is a sense of instability, of the arbitrariness of life.
A slow read but one I would recommend.
May 22, 2024
From the blurb on this book I thought it was going to be a lustful, challenging love story, I was unfortunately very wrong. The entire blurb of this book was disappointingly played out in the first chapter - it then continued on into varied little (to me) quite irrelevant tangents and then finalised on a completely different story line. There was a lot of added faff which made me quite angry and tiresome. I understand a book is allowed to take you in whatever which way it pleases, but I brought this book under the premise of what I read in the blurb - and that was wrapped up in the first few pages (without any list or actual romance) so for me this was an absolute no.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 15, 2024
Very well written, but unrelentingly depressing. I think it was meant to be a cathartic, but ultimately uplifting, reflection on family history, grief, life and death. However, there was no joy to be found (even the "happy" bits, like going away for the weekend, the author somehow manages to make utterly miserable). None of the characters seemed believable to me save the stepdad, and Amy annoyed me especially as she didn't seem to have any personality at all, and was just a reflection of Ed's thoughts and feelings.
May 20, 2022
3.5 stars
For me a tricky one to review.
It sometimes said a lot, and sometimes I felt it was saying nothing at all.
And that's what I liked about it, it's like real life.
I enjoyed the character of Ed who seemed to quite deep and meaningful about a lot of things.
Sometimes the story just moved a tad slowly, and sometimes I stopped to think about what had actually just been said.
As I stated, a tricky one to review.
But my overall thoughts are positive.
For me a tricky one to review.
It sometimes said a lot, and sometimes I felt it was saying nothing at all.
And that's what I liked about it, it's like real life.
I enjoyed the character of Ed who seemed to quite deep and meaningful about a lot of things.
Sometimes the story just moved a tad slowly, and sometimes I stopped to think about what had actually just been said.
As I stated, a tricky one to review.
But my overall thoughts are positive.
July 15, 2024
The book seems to be a reflection on the main character' parents & their parents before them, rather than the main characters romance itself.
The new romance is lifeless, with the more positive & uplifting events in their arc being dour & void of excitement.
The book has an existential feel to it but meanders far too much, boring & uninspired.
Two stars for what was a superb opening chapter & stellar prose which, alas, cannot alone make a memorable or impactful story.
The new romance is lifeless, with the more positive & uplifting events in their arc being dour & void of excitement.
The book has an existential feel to it but meanders far too much, boring & uninspired.
Two stars for what was a superb opening chapter & stellar prose which, alas, cannot alone make a memorable or impactful story.
October 2, 2022
Themes of death and loss, and the importance of home, are central in Barney Norris's new novel. He is an exceptionally gifted writer, and the lyricism of his writing is sometimes simply wonderful to read. In a relatively short novel, Ed and his family's history packs a punch. Moving and thought-provoking. 4 stars for sure.
August 2, 2023
A young man at a wedding reconnects with someone from his past. We then slowly move forward with him managing a new relationship which allows us to find out about his past. Family dynamics, responsibilities and choices are all about who we love, why we might love them and how we do or do not recover from loss.
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