Kit, eighteen years old and at the high functioning end of the Asperger’s spectrum, lives with his dad, Guy, in an old and deteriorating house on the edge of a northern moor. The large garden backs onto a quarry. A palpable sense of ending haunts the place. Guy is dying, and the house is under sentence too, going through compulsory purchase, destined to be consumed by the expanding quarry.
Arriving for a long weekend are Guy’s old college friends. They all studied at the local university, film and media undergraduates, and shared accommodation at this same house. They are here to say goodbye, relive old times, and incidentally to track down an old video they made twenty years ago that is at least embarrassing and at worst career threatening.
Current careers in law, media, computing, and care reflect journeys taken and movements in political outlook. But some things never change, the drugs and drink are back on the table. Under their influence, old rivalries and recriminations are aired.
Kit, the narrator, looks on with interest as aspects of his father’s life, before fatherhood, are revealed. He would like one thing in particular to be revealed – the identity of his mother. One of the visitors may know something; it could even be one of the three women.
From the chequered
past with its secret film, the bitterness of the present situation of Guy’s
illness, and the uncertainty of Kit’s parentless future, Banks weaves a
well-crafted portrait of changing relationships full of sharp dialogue and
touching emotion.
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