Joe dunthorne6/26/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. To order a copy for £11.04 go to or call 03. The Adulterants by Joe Dunthorne is published by Hamish Hamilton (£12.99). But throughout, the novel’s comedy is always balanced by insight and poignancy. There are several snort-through-your-nose moments, including Ray’s encounter with a policewoman, when his every word exacerbates his predicament. There’s a particularly timely passage, too, about retribution via social media and public shaming.ĭunthorne is a superbly economical writer – he crams an awful lot of plot into 173 pages – and one with a poet’s sensibility: a room is described as “uncle-scented” a paper plate of baba ganoush is “smooshed” under a shoe. The novel takes place during the London riots and Dunthorne also touches on gentrification, as well as the economic and psychological gap between generations – Ray’s parents live a comfortable life in Suffolk in a house that has more than one spare room. Like Tom Lee’s recent novel, The Alarming Palsy of James Orr, The Adulterants examines the fragility of masculinity and the primal urge to provide. ![]() Through Garthene’s interactions with him, you get a sense of how swiftly he is unravelling. But while he has a gift for self-sabotage and is often extraordinarily selfish, Ray remains engaging and relatively sympathetic. Firstly, I had the feeling that the existential heartaches of a 33-year-old middle-class tech journalist weren’t going to sustain an 800-page opus. ![]()
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