
Irish author Adrian Duncan’s previous novel, A Sabbatical In Leipzig – published domestically in 2020, issued in the UK two years later – was a slow-burning study of a retired gentleman’s internal life, shaped by his work in a specialist industry and, now, unspooling mental faculties. My appreciation of it was aided, I think, by the knowledge that Duncan had also worked in that industry (bridge engineering), and with The Gorgeous Inertia Of The Earth, outside context again plays its part.
In this case, it’s the book’s final acknowledgement – to Irish man of letters Colm Tóibín, for his work editing it. Thereafter, Tóibín’s prose style, sense of hushed drama and ambivalent approach to Irish society seems all the more apparent, which isn’t to say that Duncan lacks his own voice. The Gorgeous Inertia…’s protagonist, John, is a middle-aged sculptor living in mainland Europe: his vocation allows for Duncan to punctuate the narrative with factual descriptions of rock types and musings on the virtues of feldspar. He falls for an Italian woman, Bernadette, and moves to Bologna to be with her.
This idyll is upended with the news that Anna, an old friend, is desperately unwell. Her partner asks John to pray for Anna’s swift release from this pain – a practise which, to say the least, does not come naturally to him. John’s clumsy agnosticism proves a bone of contention with Bernadette, and from here The Gorgeous Inertia… paints a more troubled picture, though our narrator is placid and lucid even as he describes his own public breakdown. In toto, Duncan again shows his skill at crafting characters who feel sympathetic even if you have little or nothing in common with them, and evocatively depicts Italy without the results coming off as picture postcard-y.
The Gorgeous Inertia Of The Earth, Adrian Duncan (Tuskar Rock Press)
Price: £12.99/£10.99 Ebook. Info: here
words NOEL GARDNER