The Rehearsal

I popped a copy of The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton onto the desk at Waterstones (because I like to shop in physical bookshops, I'm mad like that) and the girl behind the desk asked me if I'd been looking for Catton's "new one". 

"Oh no, just this one" I replied

"Oh right, just because her other one (The Luminaries) has been Booker Shortlisted and so we've sold out of it"

This is why authors, editors, publishers, other people whose job title ends in 'or/er' laugh themselves silly when their book gets nominated for an award.  People gobble the book up in their droves or the name of the author sticks in their head so that they give their other stuff a go.  Basically, nomination = £££

But how ugly to talk about money on a book blog, I'm sorry, how terribly vulgar of me.  Let's get down to the book itself.  The Rehearsal wasn't nominated for a Booker prize but it was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and won the Betty Trask Award and has so many lovely quotes written on it, it looks like a physical manifestation of Tumblr.

The main focus of the novel is a high school sex scandal and the fall-out from it.  It follows two different paths, one mainly looks at Isolde, the sister of the girl involved in the scandal and her saxophone lessons and her teacher, known simply as 'the saxophone teacher' which is very Piggy in Lord of the Flies.  The other looks at Stanley, who is auditioning for drama school.  Each chapter swaps both the narrative and the tense over, though I have to admit I didn't notice the tense thing until chapter eleven (whoops).  This helps to give the novel a jarring feeling, something I definitely did notice.

The Rehearsal is...weird, but in a good way.  In Isolde's chapters it's hard to tell what's real and what's not.  Which are the things that have been said and done and which are those that the characters imagine or fantasise.  I still don't really know whether some bits were real but I'm OK with that, even though I normally like things to be pretty definitive.

The saxophone teacher's point of view makes you think the hardest.  She sees everybody as playing a part, I guess in a kind of 'All the world's a stage' way, and she imagines what everybody else would be like in different roles.  So, using Hollywood as an example, what would Jennifer Aniston be like playing the role of Angelina Jolie?  What would you look like in the role of your best mate?  How would you play it?

The Rehearsal is not like anything else I've read.  It doesn't follow a formula, it makes you guess, it gives you a little bit and then moves back in time to show you the beginning.  It lets you in on things that might not even have happened and reading it never felt like a chore.  It's a good job Catton was nominated for the Booker or I might never have picked it up.

One sentence back cover quote

An unpredictable treat

Buy The Rehearsal at Waterstones