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Shop till you drop. In his debut novel, Ashon navigates the Martin Amis route so beloved of young British authors: create an ensemble cast of near or total grotesques, either at emotional breaking point or on the verge of something devilish, and set them on a collision course while stirring in some satirical social commentary. Clear Water is one of the better examples of this widespread trend, thanks to Ashon’s adroit prose, but it doesn’t give his novel any more depth than, well, your average Martin Amis novel.Ashon creates a diverting cast of characters, from Jimy Patel, suicidal ex-county cricketer, to WWII-forces-sweetheart-turned-OAP-heroin-addict Verna Landor and lifestyle journalist Peter Jones. But, like the vast, subterranean Kent shopping centre that Peter wants to, semiotically speaking, penetrate (instead only managing to penetrate a shopgirl), it all feels rather plastic and, finally, ephemeral. It’s an absorbing read and the pages flutter past, but once finished most likely never thought of again. Clear Water by Will Ashon, out now published by Faber.
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