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A Sense of Occasion: a Darkly Funny Debut About a Dysfunctional Family
In Brodie Crellin's surprising and darkly funny debut novel, A Sense of Occasion, a dysfunctional family gathers for a funeral, exploring what happens when there was never any illusion of a conventional family to begin with.
The story centers on three maladjusted people: friendless, anxiety-ridden Patch; her father Robin, who is "gay, yes, mostly, but mutable"; and her domineering cousin Jude, a playwright who "loves to make an entrance. They are bound by the newly deceased Mary—Robin's ex, Patch's mother, and Jude's aunt—a woman who "[didn't] have a problem with gay men" but was lukewarm on lesbians. Orbiting them are Juliette, Jude's moneyed mother, and Mel, Mary's neighbor, with other fully realized characters including Mary's forgotten "empath labrador, Leonard.
As Jude cruises in from Naples, the novel juggles the minutiae of death—chopping vegetables, arranging memorial photos—with fragmented recollections of messy family history. Crellin's light touch keeps the shifting points of view natural, with shades of Dorothy Baker's Cassandra at the Wedding and Edward St Aubyn's Melrose chronicles, but the boldness feels modern.
উৎস: Guardian Books