LoveReading Says
LoveReading Says
Another isolated, heavily wooded enclave located far outside the comfort zone of modern metropolitan life, is also the setting for The Painter’s Friend, Howard Cunnell’s uncompromising but bleakly beautiful fable of hardscrabble lives spent beyond the pale.
The novel’s protagonist Terry Godden, a once fêted, almost -famous artist, prone to self-destruction, finds refuge from his former life on a an island set in the middle of an unnamed but uncannily familiar river, that is home to raggle-taggle community of outcasts, misfits and battered and shopsoiled survivors.
The island is owned by the cynical, cutthroat businessman and art collector Alex Kaplan, whose whims, wheelings and dealings and manipulation of the market can make or break the reputation and livelihood of any aspiring artist. Seeking to maximise his investments, Kaplan announces his intention to enforce a punitive rent increase and evict squatters from the island, thus setting the stage for a brutal confrontation which culminates in an exhilarating and explosive act of resistance.
The novel spares no details in its depiction of the human cost of gentrification and the brutal realities of life on the margins, but it is also a deeply affecting, compelling celebration of community, and the power of collective action and defiance.
Whilst The Painter’s Friend shares many qualities with many of the greatest, grittiest chronicles of English working class life and struggle from Robert Tressell’s The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists, to John Healey’s The Grass Arena and the novels of Barry Hines or David Storey, it also possesses something of the hallucinatory power of a Joseph Conrad fever dream or a parable by Kafka or Cormac McCarthy. That the author manages to pull off this incredibly difficult balancing act with immense skill and without sacrificing readability is a huge achievement.
Selected by Stephen Ellcock, Our Spring 2023 Guest Editor. Click here to read the full Guest Editor Piece.
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The Painter's Friend Synopsis
The painter Terry Godden was on the brink of his first success. After a violent crisis, he finds himself outcast.
In his fifties, and with little money, he retreats to a small island. Arriving in the winter, the island at first seems a desolate and forgotten place. As the seasons turn, Terry begins to see the island’s beauty, and discovers that he is only one of many people who have sought refuge here. These independent outsiders, all with their own considerable struggles, have made a precarious home.
The island is owned by the business man and art collector Alex Kaplan. His decision to enforce a rent increase as he seeks to improve his property looks set to destroy this community that cannot afford to lose the little they have left. As an artist, Terry believes making the invisible struggles of the island visible to the world will help – but will his interference save anybody other than himself?
The Painter’s Friend shows the human cost of gentrification for those dispossessed. The novel also explores the role of art in protest, and asks who gets to be an artist and what they owe in return. Written with visual lyricism and driven clarity, Howard Cunnell’s incendiary story about class and resistance builds to an unforgettable climax. It is an urgent novel for our unjust times.
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Press Reviews
Howard Cunnell Press Reviews
I loved it. Cunnell's writing has an unforgettable visual and moral clarity -- Melissa Harrison, author of All Among the Barley
His finest and most important work to date -- Cathi Unsworth, author of Weirdo
Cunnell's prose is elegantly punchy . . . The valour of his fight is revealed in a story of what can happen when truth is considered idealism and collides with the predatory designs of a property developer. A fine book -- John Healy, author of The Grass Arena
Loving in its exploration of creative survival and loss of human habitat. Every fleck and dab of verbal pigment rewards the eye and enriches the design -- Adam Mars-Jones, author of Box Hill
Brilliantly plotted and the final act knocked me sideways. Huge themes told through the personal stories of very real people. It was a delight and revelation to read -- David Morrissey, actor
A novel of muscular, dark prose with more than a little compassion for damaged lives. I loved it -- Ned Boulting, author of On the Road Bike
It's a timely novel, but it also seems to wear its big issues lightly. The particularity and peculiarity of the setting and cast really brought it to life and gripped me -- Sara Baume, author of spill simmer falter wither
Author
About Howard Cunnell
Howard Cunnell has a Ph.D. from the University of London, and has been a Leverhulme Fellow at the University of Sussex. He is the editor of Jack Kerouac's On the Road: The Original Scroll, which the New York Times described as 'the living version for our time'. A former professional scuba-diving instructor, he lives in London with his wife and children.
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