Collision with the Shadow

'When I see a review that starts, "X is a fine observer...", my mind numbs over. I see X at a desk, staring out a window wrestling the chaos into order. Reality isn't like that, more like lurching through corridors with a hand-held camera. An open mind, in the grand sense, is open to everything, even its own uncertainties and wild imaginings, with an ever-shifting focus and perspective, crowds of thoughts jostling for space on the page to make their voices heard. This is more like Carolyn's world, vigorous, engaged, life on the wing or on the run, the life we lead, follow negotiate or are just intrinsically...in. Raw chaos is unreadable, so of course there is craft at work. This book is eminently readable, busy, intelligent and full of life. From haunted interiors, doctor's surgeries and exercise classes, the world of books, music, galleries, film and theatres, parks, uncosy domestic scenes and distant past ever slipping out of reach...the familiar morphs into strangeness, the bland into menace, then back again the other way. Enjoy the ride.' - John CareyJohn Carey