A work which, in the telling of its author, took over five years from first draft to final form, Jen Calleja’s debut novel towers with ambition that proves justified through Vehicle’s meticulous worldbuilding, pin-sharp characterisation and mordant wit. It’s set, in its bookends at least, in a speculative mid-21st-century future, though the bulk of its action describes a period closer to the present day – this stemming from research on the abandonment of a group of small island communities in a part-fictive Europe.
Vehicle maintains a skill previously showcased in Calleja’s 2020 short story collection I’m Afraid That’s All We’ve Got Time For: painting drudgeful, even mundane scenes within universes we don’t wholly recognise. This is aided by judicious linguistic quirks – “art” is, literally, a swear word, while Vehicle, a four-piece band whose intercontinental tour creates the plot’s foundation, play a type of abrasive underground rock referred to only as “musik”.
Here, some biographical knowledge can add intrigue. Calleja herself has played in various punkish groups, a drummer like Vehicle’s central character Hester Heller – an undercover state agent whose multilingual abilities and work as a translator has further real-life parallels with her creator. This allows for some fine, ice-cold satire pertaining to these cultures’ minutiae, but even if that’s not your beat you’ll surely be struck by the gauntlet of misogyny Hester endures while accruing intel. Hopefully, you’ll also be captured by this dreamstate-y, complex but brilliantly constructed experimental novel.
Vehicle, Jen Calleja (Prototype)
Price: £12. Info: here
words NOEL GARDNER
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