Source: Review copy from Doubleday for the Random Things blog tour – thank you!
Amongst themes and settings in a novel that I find impossible to resist are art and Italy, which High Tide has both of, so what’s not to like? Franchini is an Italian author and translator, who lives and works in London where she teaches creative writing at Goldsmiths, and coordinates the Goldsmiths Prize which rewards “fiction that breaks the mould or extends the possibilities of the novel form.” Three prizewinning novels I’ve read being The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again by M. John Harrison (2020), H(A)PPY by Nicola Barker (2017) and Beatlebone by Kevin Barry (2015). Given those credentials, I had high hopes for her new novel, the first book by her that I’ve read.
The novel has a dual timeline, one in the 1990s, and then thirty years later, but it begins with a flashback to how the first timeline ends with a drowning near Viareggio in Tuscany. Our narrator is Mary Godwin, a horror writer of some repute writing under a fiercely protected pseudonym, only her agent and her son Florence, know who’s behind the name. When someone from her past reappears to rumble her subterfuge and a retrospective of Peter’s work is announced, she is forced to remember what happened back in the 1990s. She says, enigmatically;
Make no mistake, this isn’t a resurrection: here we wheel out the last lucrative member of the Young British Undead. Peter Shelley is coming back, and if I understand a thing or two about zombies, which I believe I do after all these years writing about them, I know it’s not wise to hang around them. Unless I want to get bitten and turned into one myself.
Mary is studying creative writing at university, but not feeling the love for her subject to flatmate AJ’s despair. When she meets Peter Shelley, a slightly older artist, she falls under his spell and will end up dropping out and marrying him. He plans an exhibition of his work, squatting in an old factory, painting and adapting the rooms and it is a huge success – putting him on the map, but the owners of the factory coms after him to pay for the damage he’s done to their property. Peter’s solution is to decamp to Italy with Mary–Maz–as he calls her.
Scrounging lodgings briefly with Mary’s half sister Clare in Florence, they strike it lucky when Peter’s old, and rich, friend Noel says they can have one of his family apartments in Pisa. A summer of love and work then starts – Mary writes, Peter paints, and then Noel arrives with Italian fiancée Teresa in tow, and later followed by Trelawney, who is a cross between friend and factotum for Noel. Once two become four, then five, puts a strain on the whole summer, and Peter who is highly strung at the best of times becomes more and more hyper, often going awol from the now pregnant Mary. Having read the prologue, you know it can’t end well.
Back in the present timeline, Mary realises she needs to return to Italy to put Peter’s ghost to rest, and she meets up with Teresa again, steeling herself to open the storage unit where Peter’s stuff had been kept. And Mary, having been revealed as the wife of Peter Shelley is sending ripples through the art and literary worlds. Can she, and son Florence, survive this unwanted attention?
I didn’t discover until after I had read this novel, that it was inspired by the lives of Mary Woolstonecraft Shelley (née Godwin) and Percy Bysshe Shelley. If you’re not familiar with their story, I’d advise reading the novel first before going checking out Mary and Percy – then you’ll go “Ah yes!” when you spot the parallels later. Of course, the couple’s names (amongst others used) are close enough to be a clue, and the fact that Mary is a horror writer also screams out the story’s heritage.
High Tide is a novel I enjoyed reading very much indeed. It was well-written and the Tuscan settings were particularly evocative and full of detail, be it the art, food, buildings or the sea. The characters were all believable, especially in their 1990s selves. With all its twists and turns, it had plenty of mystery in its pages, whilst staying satisfyingly literary in tone. When contemporary reimaginings of real lives are done well, they can really generate an interest in their subject for the reader – and would you believe it, I’ve never read Frankenstein properly – and we just picked it as our Classic for Christmas Book Group read! I’d highly recommend this novel.
Source: Review copy – thank you. Doubleday, flapped trade paperback original, 326 pages.
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