Stuart Evers ended his 2011 debut, Ten Stories about Smoking, with a fictionalised account of Raymond Carver’s death from lung cancer. The title story in his new book draws on the private life of Bob Monkhouse, whose estranged son Simon died of a heroin overdose. Told from the point of view of both men, it turns on the 1995 theft of the late comedian’s joke books, with a sad theory about who was to blame. Naturally no surnames appear: nestling unheralded among other tales of buried grief, it seems to say celebrities have their troubles like everyone else.
Evers writes without ornament: when a pint of beer foams “like wool”, it’s a rare flourish. His artistry has gone into timing reversals and revelations for maximum emotional impact. The gay protagonist of Lakelands recalls the devastating consequences of lying to his dad about a beating he suffered after he came out in his youth. In “These are the Days”, a divorcee, Ben, trains his smartphone-addicted granddaughter, Anna, to keep in touch via old-fashioned letters in the post. The story seems a gentle account of an innocuous generational divide until we suspect Ben of using his side of their correspondence to poison Anna against her father (his son).
In “Swarm” – a futuristic curveball – a virtual audience of “linkers” literally follow a man to death. But day-to-day scenarios prevail: in “Frequencies”, a father in sole charge of his baby sets about his wife’s list of “what needed doing” while the child naps (“most of it was focused within this two-hour period”).
If Evers trusts too much in the old saw “happiness writes white” – a dead newborn, a dead sister and a dead father are among the tragedies looming over his pages – a certain earnestness is a small price to pay for this tender, unshowy collection.
Your Father Sends His Love is published by Picador (£12.99). Click here to order a copy for £10.39
