Twenty-two in '22: Eleven

I've set myself modest reading targets in each of the last three years and failed every time (I managed 17 books in '19, 11 in '20 and 18 in '21), so I'm determined to read twenty two books in 2022. I'll review them all here.

7/22: Eleven by Mark Watson

The blurb:

Xavier Ireland is a radio DJ who by night listens to the hopes, fears and regrets of sleepless Londoners and by day keeps himself very much to himself - until he is brought into the light by a one-of-a-kind cleaning lady and forced to confront his own biggest regret. This is a tale of love, loss, Scrabble and six degrees of separation, asking big questions about life and death, strangers and friends, heartache and comfort, and whether the choices we don't make affect us just as powerfully as those we do.

The review: I am predisposed to liking this book. After all, I read Contacts by Watson last year, and gave it a healthy five stars out of six in my review. In 2018 I made The Knot my book of the year (even though it was published in 2012). And I've seen Mark in various comedy settings doing his "day job" more often than I can easily recall. And I do like Eleven ... it's just that it's not as good as it could have been. Let me explain why.

Sure, all the hallmarks of Watson's best writing are in place - a relatable, likeable, everyman protagonist, a free-flowing prose style that helps the pages practically turn themselves, and a gentle humour of the wry-smile-inducing variety. As a result, Eleven is a book I rattled through in three days, helped, no doubt, by train journeys to while away. But there are issues; for a start, some of the characterisation could best be described as of the cookie-cutter variety. For example, Pippa, the cleaning lady who triggers a change in our hero's outlook is almost a Geordie-by-numbers; worse still is the depiction of Xavier's friend and radio co-host Murray who, I am sorry to say, borders on cliché as the hapless, overweight, stammering fool with bad hair and a shocking lack of self-awareness. Ditto Julius, the overweight, bullied schoolboy from a poor background who is also a maths prodigy. I'm not saying these kinds of characters don't exist in real life - it's just that for them to tick every box on their archetype's checklist jars, with this reader at least.

Then there is the POV - omniscient present-tense is a tough gig to pull off, especially when it is third-person, rather than first. When the narrator drops in little details about what will happen to minor characters in three, five, ten years time, well, I get it, Mark's trying to highlight the interconnectivity of everything ... it's just that this makes the narrator seem God-like, and I'm an atheist. Your mileage will, as they say, undoubtedly vary, but for me this was a problem at times, and occasionally disrupted the narrative flow.

And then there is the flexing of vocab muscles, visibly stretching to use unusual or unexpected verbs to describe events. Again, I know what Watson's doing here, I think, in trying to imbue seemingly ordinary events with portent through the use of carefully chosen verbs but when I got to the point where picnics were "provoked" by sunshine, I just wanted him to stop. And I'm happy to report, from reading subsequent books by Watson, that he has.

That said, there is still much to enjoy here, and I'm glad I read it. No doubt you would be too. As I've mentioned, the pace fairly rattles along, and Xavier Ireland is a character that the reader invests in, even to the extent of wanting to give him a shake at times, and that has to be a good sign. One final criticism, though, might be that the book's ending is a little too foreshadowed, and you get the feeling that even Watson realised this and tweaked it ever so slightly - for the better, I am happy to report.

The bottom line: even with the occasional frustrations this is a genuinely enjoyable read, but would have benefited from better characterisation and a tougher editor. It's good, but he's written better since.

Since everything online is rated these days: ★★★★☆☆