The Nicotine Gospel by Sven Axelrad

I can certainly see why this book is making such a big splash – Sunday Times list, noggal.

But, I am not sure what I think of it. It’s beautifully written, engaging and his use of language is divine. But I also don’t get it. Like this strays solidly into literary fiction territory for me.

It’s about two estranged brothers travelling together to their father’s funeral, but it’s not really about that, I mean, that gets little page time. The story is more about their neglectful, abusive childhood. The things that drew them together as brothers and the things that pulled them apart.

Maybe, it’s really about the legend of their father, in the minds of outsiders, and in the minds of the boys themselves.

Perhaps what it is saying, more than anything else, is that there is a future and a life on the other side of trauma.

I think I got particularly lost about the time the house burned down and it became unclear what was metaphor and what was real memory. I suppose that was the point, but I just wasn’t getting it. And I got so lost in the past that I had entirely forgotten the modern plot was also going on, so maybe I lost the connection between the two that would have allowed me to draw the correct conclusions.

It does interest me very much in reading his other books and seeing in what way they are like this one (hopefully not too much).

Literary fiction really is a funny thing. My writing group read this together, as we did the Seven Moons of Maali Almeida. And the people who who loved and connected with Nicotine Gospel, hated Maali. While I found Maali really engaging and understandable, but cant make head or tail of this book. I wonder what that says about us, the way our minds work and the ways we view the world.

If you are an author, it is also very much worth following Sven, he is very active in promoting his work, great to watch at book events, a very engaging character, and I absolutely agree “an author to keep your eyes on”.

This article probably sounds like I’m disappointed in the book, but I’m really more disappointed in myself. Maybe one day I will have the opportunity to come back to it and understand it better.