Strip The Willow by John Aberdein
Strip the Willow is the new novel by John Aberdein. Although the story contains a host of characters with intertwining plot lines it mainly follows Lucy, a town council officer, and Peem, her long lost lover for a night. Lucy is in a constant struggle with LeopCorp, who are gradually taking over her native city, Aberdeen, already renamed Uberdeen. LeopCorp, through their puppet Guy Bord, are organising Spectacle, a ridiculous capitalist extravaganza to win over the people of Uberdeen, and the rest of the world. Every day Rookie Marr, the head of LeopCorp, tightens his grip around the money and people of Uberdeen, and his overbearing control of their media, trade, shops and council continues to escalate. Lucy’s job is to manage dealings between the town and LeopCorp, but her thoughts and concerns are constantly ignored.
After many years Peem comes back into Lucy’s life as an unknown vagrant whom she half recognises and takes pity on. After a few meetings Lucy decides to get him off the streets and invites him home. His memory is almost completely gone, both long and short term, and he cannot even remember his own name. However, after contacting a hospital technician Lucy gets hold of transcripts describing a short part of Peem’s life that reawaken old emotions, desires and troubles for Lucy and himself. In the volatile atmosphere of a radically changing city Lucy and Peem have to confront their difficult pasts, reconcile their beliefs with the present, and struggle to choose the right paths for their futures.
With Strip the Willow Aberdein combines highly relevant political and social comment with an interesting, awkwardly amusing love story. LeopCorp is an obvious satire of the big corporations that we are familiar with today; it is a no-restraints capitalist organisation that is hell bent on making as much money out of everyone else as possible. As Uberdeen bends to the company’s will the exploits of LeopCorp are taken to the extreme and ridiculous, providing an amusing satire of such a corporation. Satire can also be found in the council meetings that Lucy attends which are full of uselessness, stupidity and corruption. The satire in this novel is witty and relevant, but for me it has its problems. For a book that discusses a wide range of human thought and emotion the satire is rather biased. There is a clear judgement being made of global corporations and corruption in town councils/governments, which is relevant and not unjustified. However, it is a little bit obvious and it didn’t really test or inform my current thinking on the subject. More importantly though, there isn’t much questioning of the other side. The ideology of the people that attempt to resist LeopCorp is not really questioned at all and despite the deliberate atmosphere of confusion and hopelessness in the novel there was a clear cut sense of right and wrong. In some ways this is useful for keeping a strong structure and message throughout the plot, but it also meant that a story that seemed to be trying to ask the reader to confront contemporary issues didn’t ask enough. Aberdein has obviously taken sides when it comes to this subject matter. The trouble is that when you take the same side as most rational people in novel form I think that you have to present it in a new and interesting light. Also, if an author wants to challenge the reader with social, political and philosophical thought they will be much more effective if it is unclear which side they are on.
The love story and Peem’s back story that weave in and out of the main plot are interesting and amusing, but also face problems. The main problem is that they come across as slightly unnecessary. They have moments where they help to explain what is going in other areas of the story, but these are too few and far between. The back story influences the love story and helps connect all the characters by the end. However, none of these elements have much bearing on the main plot. The other problem is that at the start the love story is interesting, disjointed, amusing and different, but it develops into a disappointingly sentimental and generic outcome. The many moral and emotional dilemmas that run throughout the story fail to have real impact because of the way Aberdein resolves his novel.
However, Strip the Willow also has its successes. Aberdein manipulates language in a wonderful way. Although mostly narrated in Standard English he uses local dialect, French and bits of Polish as well. Unlike the different plot lines the different languages are used to great effect. By using common words in different ways and switching languages Aberdein can drive home a point, make you laugh, or twist the meaning of his sentences. His use of language forces you to see everyday words and phrases in a new light and makes for an interesting and vibrant text. The structure of the novel is also interesting; it is made up of relatively short sections of text with their own small headings. The headings are clever because at a first glance they seem to convey one meaning, but when it appears in the section its context or use often changes the meaning of the phrase, another example of Aberdein’s ability to manipulate language. This structure also goes someway to blend the different plot lines and characters. Because the whole novel is structurally disjointed, and location and time can change suddenly, the different story lines don’t seem to be too troublesome. However, it doesn’t quite solve the necessity problem that I mentioned earlier.
All in all Strip the Willow is a thought provoking novel that can be witty, insightful, challenging and joyous. Unfortunately it lacked the power to fully realise its potential in these ways, it doesn’t live up to the expectations that it sets itself at the start. There is nothing horribly wrong with it and it isn’t a bad read, but neither is it great one. However, Aberdein is a talented writer and will make you think whilst keeping you turning the pages. It shouldn’t go straight to the top of your reading list, but I would recommend that you make room for it somewhere.
Tim B-G
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