cover image The Borough

The Borough

Michael Cannon. Serpent's Tail, $13.99 (192pp) ISBN 978-1-85242-383-4

Set in a close-knit Glasgow neighborhood (a village within the city), this affecting debut involves a drunken Catholic brawler, his abused wife, the postmaster, his fanatically Presbyterian spouse and sundry other Borough residents who feed on one another's secrets, losses and lives until the enforced silence erupts in a mysterious murder and a grisly suicide. The narrator, who exists mainly (and sometimes confusingly) as a witness, friend or lover in the lives of others, tells a good yarn, despite distracting shifts between the third- and first-person and sometimes florid overwriting. Although Cannon maintains a lively pace and complex plot, his short, slice-of-life chapters often leave the reader wanting more character, more description and, most of all, more explanation. He has nonetheless should win over readers hostile to Glasgow's bitter New Wave with his novel's kindness, bittersweet romance, chummy pub scenes and affectionate grotesques (such as a hilariously pompous, lecherous history professor who trips over his own advances). Here he pulls a wide range of characters and experiences out of a claustrophobic environment and illuminates them clearly. (June)