Book review: True romance in the gloom

26 July 2016 - 10:32 By Tymon Smith

David Cornwell is a lanky, long-haired 31-year-old from Cape Town whose day jobs include writing commercial material for Clicks Club Card pamphlets and "lip liner for Dis-Chem". He's also a graduate of the UCT creative writing course and the author of Like it Matters, a debut novel that has won plenty of positive attention for its story of the doomed relationship between two drifters struggling at the murky edges of the underbelly of Cape Town.The novel's protagonist, Ed, is a drug-addled straggler whose life takes a dark and passionate turn when he meets an equally troubled young woman named Charlotte. Together they try to make a new life in Muizenberg.Originally Cornwell had submitted a short-story collection to publishers but, realising that this would be a difficult start to his writing career, he was encouraged to try his hand at a novel. He "scratched around for an idea because I knew there was stuff in the stories that I could turn into a novel and I managed to". Taking the voice of Ed from one of the stories, a voice he describes as a "kind of sad and optimistic but not lost kind of voice", and combining it with an incident from another story called The Honey Trap, Cornwell spent four years working on the novel.While many debut authors often draw on their own experiences for their books, Cornwell, who like Ed is originally from Grahamstown, says the book is "generally free of autobiographical stuff"."Unfortunately some of the more pyrotechnic stuff in Ed's life is just purely invented. I think I was able to let [my imagination] go, and as much as I hope there's real emotion and meaning in the book, it is largely invented and decisions were made aesthetically."What's surprising about the Bonnie and Clyde, True Romance-style doomed lovers narrative is that the voice which Cornwell gives to Ed is both believable and easy to listen to. It gives the narrative the fast pace of a thriller even though it's a dramatic tale of misfits clinging together, trying to overcome their compulsions.Cornwell says he "hopes that what allows you to get through it is that Ed has a happy-go-lucky, optimistic and funny side. I also hope there's enough investment in the language of the book, the sentences, to make readers continue with the story even if Ed frustrates you at times."Though the book has been well received Cornwell laughs remembering his first [creative writing course] reader's report, which was " comically bad"."You know when you can tell someone's enjoying being mean? One day I'll publish it somewhere because there are some choice insults in it that I want to use on my enemies in the future."Cornwell has now moved onto his next novel, a fictional story based on the life of murderer Marlene Lehnberg, the first South African woman to be sentenced to death. Her sentence was then commuted."There's something about people on the edge, people whose lives have driven them to need to jump left or right that I find narratively interesting," says Cornwell.As for the story of Ed, Cornwell muses that perhaps he'll come back to Ed at some point. ''It would be fun to catch up with him in his 40s," he says.Like it Matters by David Cornwell is published by Umuzi; R250SHORT BOOK REVIEWThe Day Before Happiness by Erri de LucaUnlike Elena Ferrante's epic saga, Erri de Luca's novel about post-war Naples - his first to be translated into English - is concise and elliptical. Wartime is richly evoked, but the love story element is less convincing. Our nameless narrator relieves himself of tiresomely fruity dialogue: "'Can I kiss you?' 'No. You're pollen. Obey me, for I am the wind.'" - Francesca Wade, ©The Daily TelegraphBOOK BITES£3000 - the prize money for the Theakston Old Peculier crime novel of the year award, won this year by policewoman turned scribe Clare Mackintosh for her novel I Let you Go.Stephanie Meyer - just when you thought we could forget about theTwilight author her publishers have announced that she's making her first foray into literature for grown-ups with the publication later this year of The Chemist, a thriller about a spy lured back to do one last job.44 Stanley Avenue Auckland Park- where most of the events for this year's Bloody Book Week are taking place from Thursday to Sunday. International authors taking part this year include John Connolly and Stephen Leather. Tickets through www.webtickets.co.za- Tymon Smith..

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