So Many Ways to Begin
Jon McGregor Bloomsbury, 352pp, £14.99
ISBN 0747579466
As a child growing up in Coventry after the Second World War, David is fascinated by history and dreams of running his own museum. His early career as a curator is full of potential and offers a chance meeting with Eleanor, who is young, vibrant and keen to escape her family and home town. They marry and have a child, but it becomes unclear how well they really know each other.
So Many Ways to Begin, like Jon McGregor's much-praised first novel, If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things, explores in minute detail the seemingly mundane experiences that shape people's lives. McGregor is good at delving below the surface of human emotions and articulating what he finds. Though some of his sentences fall flat ("What was that for? she said. He shrugged. Just because, he said"), his writing overall is marked by its human insight and sharp observation.
The novel is structurally interesting, too. Each chapter is initiated by an object from David's personal collection of photographs, objects and letters. While this may be a somewhat trite device, it allows McGregor to flip back and forth in time and to keep up suspense. The author deserves much of the praise that has already been heaped upon him for carving out a coherent, moving story from this fragmentary composition.
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