re:mote voices

Title: Clever Girl
Author: Tanya Glyde
Publisher:Picador

Clever Girl was the first novel by Tanya Glyde, one which I had been looking for for a while, having read a short story by her in the Disco 2000 anthology. I had read her more recent novel Junk DNA, which was more in keeping with that short story than Clever Girl turns out to be. Clever Girl being one of those curious instances where the description on the back of the book turns out to not really represent the contents. In this case the back of the book describes a story where a girl kills herself, only to be reborn as a vicious avenging angel, who sets out to destroy all those who had driven her to death. Instead the book, which is about 250 pages long, spends a good 200 pages taking apart the main character Sarah.

We are introduced to Sarah as a bright 13 year old girl, a clever girl, filled with enthusiasm and investigative interest. She is thrilled by astronomy, makes all sorts of weird and wonderful sculptures, and forms a punk band with her school friends. Unfortunately Sarah comes from a fairly middle class family in fairly upper class town. Over the back fence of her home are the dorms for a prestigious boy’s school, so it perhaps isn’t surprising when she starts to become involved with some of the boys from there. However as a 13 year old girl eager for popularity and the chance to be cool, she is easily swayed by these swaggering 16 year old boys. The result is that she is readily abused, her reputation being torn apart, and pretty much she is gang raped – but the school gives so much to the community that no one is concerned about the foolishness of a silly little girl from the town.

With this Sarah closes in on herself, puts her head down, absorbs her life in her studies. So that she eventually manages to get away to university and leave the past behind her. But this is the 80’s, Thatcher is in power, and people are at their worst, so that through university and in to the working environment it becomes clear that at every level Sarah is just going to encounter more of the same. So that from every step she is ground down a little more, torn apart bit by bit. With this we are getting a grim view of this time from Glyde, who is clearly painting a response to having lived through those dark years herself. To some degree there is an element put forward that suggests this is about sexism and the feminist struggle, but it should really be clear that Sarah’s abuse comes just as readily from women, and that it seems that more of the cause comes from the clashing boundaries of a class struggle. Especially given the greed that seemed to come from Thatcher’s time in power.

Glyde presents a dark piece here, which at times shows a certain twisted humour, but that doesn’t really serve to lighten the overall feel. There are hints of the more bizarre aspects of Glyde’s later works that come through, serving to flesh out the sheer hell that is the character’s life. The culmination of the book comes with some ambiguity, this part coming under the header “sin eater” – one could presume that this is the rise of the avenging angel described, however the actual text provides little clarification. When the character herself has no idea what is going on, the facts seem to lend themselves to an alternative interpretation of events. Clever Girl is a nasty piece of work, filled with despicable characters, who from the establishment of Sarah’s potential as a clever girl are dedicated to her destruction.