The Blue Book by AL Kennedy

After reading Oatley's book Such Stuff as Dreams on the psychology of fiction I understand that for a piece of fiction to be taken into the mind of a reader and become a simulation within their own mind they have to touch their reader. There are a few writers who do this for me to the extent of shaking my understanding and opening me up to new understandings, the poetry of TS Eliot, Blake and McCaig, and the writings of David Almond, Phlip Pulman and AL Kennedy are among them.

Kennedy crafts her prose with the heart catching precision of a poet, never a word wasted and many challenging. The Blue Book is packed with phrases such as 'kind hotel' is a fresh pairing that sparks memories of good times had in hotels, a posh hotel in Salzburg where room service was exemplary, we watched an epic thunderstorm and decided to have a child, of pools and understanding staff.

Elizabeth Barber, also know as Beth, is boarding a ship for a cross Atlantic cruise to New York with her completely adequate boyfriend Derek. Her friend paid for the trip but couldn't make it. Whilst waiting interminably to check in for boarding Elizabeth is asked to take part in a simple numbers trick with a street magician, and later he corners them on board, takes his meal with them and verbally assaults Elizabeth. But all is not as it seems and the book and the story are masterful sleights of hand.

The Blue Book is a puzzle box, extremely clever, revealing and deeply moving, it speaks both overtly and in its form of the nature of reading, of charlatan trickery and the probabilities that fake mediums use, whilst never losing contact with the painful history Elizabeth is trying so hard to run from and the difficulties of loving for real. The close reading the puzzle asks of the reader is rewarding and enlightening, teaching as it entertains. It is full of gut level punches and revelation.