This post was republished into my blog’s original timeline from my lost posts archive.
The Amber Fury by Natalie Haynes
Natalie Haynes may be familiar to some of you from her appearances on BBC2’s The Review Show – a TV programme of which I tend to disagree with a lot of the reviewers’ views – even Paul Morley’s at times, and don’t mention Kirsty Wark! However, I rarely disagree with Natalie Haynes. Haynes is a classisist who did stand-up for years before giving it up to write. Her only other adult book is The Ancient Guide to Modern Life – which looks at what the ancient Greeks and Romans did for us, and how it resonates today. It’s easy to see how she used that in her first novel…
The Amber Fury is set in a Pupil Referral Unit (PRU) for troubled kids whom the normal educational system is failing. A new cover teacher arrives to do drama therapy. Alex took the job in Edinburgh to get away from her old life in London where she was an up and coming theatre director. We know from the outset that she lost her fiancé, who was killed when he tried to stop a fight.
You might ask if she is the right kind of person to teach these kids given her personal circumstances, but her old friend Robert who runs the PRU has confidence in her. Most of her classes seem to go fine, but there is one group of just five fifteen-year-olds that prove a challenge to engage. But engage them she does – with Greek tragedies – from Oedipus to Alcestis to the Oresteia. These tales of meddling Gods, scandal, cruel fate, sacrifice and revenge strike a chord with her pupils.
The novel is mostly told in hindsight from Alex’s point of view and from the start we know she is talking to lawyers about something that happened. In parallel with Alex’s narration, we have extracts from one of the pupil’s diaries, which puts some different faces on things. The facts are meted out and the tension builds; we question whether Alex has done something awful, or is it her pupils? Who’s hiding what? The Greek Erinyes, aka the Furies, were, of course, the Goddesses of vengeance …
It’s an assured debut from an author who knows her stuff. The way Alex gets her pupils involved in exploring the Greek tragedies is brilliant – I learned so much too. I knew, for instance from studying the siege of Troy from Virgil’s Aeneid for my Latin O-Level that Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia to appease the Gods so he could set sail for Troy – but we never analysed it further – just polished our Latin translation; Aeschylus, author of the Oresteia was a Greek, so I’ve got the full story now…
Haynes also captures the feel of the dank greyness of the Scottish winter with all that granite around really well, making everything seem dull and allowing Alex to settle into a rather mechanical life outside the PRU – all the more unsettling as we find things out. Mired in her grief, Alex is somewhat an unreliable narrator, but not necessarily in terms of misdirecting us, rather in her naivety.
My mind has been wondering about other modern novels that employ Greek tragedy in their workings – and I couldn’t get past Donna Tartt’s debut The Secret History. In some respects, the PRU is an exclusive Club – you have to have done something to become a member, but that’s as far as it goes. Haynes’ novel is more of an anti-Secret History. I am going to see Natalie Haynes at the Oxford Literary Festival later this month, and will be interested to hear her talk – I could even be brave and ask if The Amber Fury is in any way an opposite of Tartt’s novel if they do questions!
What I do know is that, although not perfect, I really enjoyed this book. I really hope she writes more, especially if they have lots of ancient Greek and Roman influences. (9/10)
Source: Review copy – thank you.
To explore further on Amazon UK, (affiliate links) please click below:
The Amber Fury
The Ancient Guide to Modern Life
