The Book Tower

Paul Torday’s third novel continues with his familiar literary style, blending elements of the ghost story into an engaging psychological study of a man losing his grip on the world. Chapters are narrated by a man and his wife, the former sinking into a strange perception of reality whilst the latter attempts to make sense of what’s happening to him.

Michael and Elizabeth have a rather dull marriage, one where the prospect of a new sudoku puzzle is the pinnacle of excitement. Comfortably well off, Michael only dabbles in work and administers a “gentleman’s club”, a rather old fashioned establishment that hasn’t really changed much, and hasn’t wanted to, since the days of the Empire. Michael also owns a run down country pile in Scotland, convenient for hunting trips, although somewhat inhospitable. All a dull premise for a novel perhaps, until Michael begins to change…

The novel begins with Michael and Elizabeth on holiday in Ireland, where Michael spots an arresting painting on a landing where they are staying. He sees, or thinks he sees, a woman in the picture and later begins to meet the same strange woman, although it becomes clear that nobody else can see her. Elizabeth notices a change in Michael in that he is no longer the dull and almost lifeless man she’s been married to for ten years. To her surprise (and growing horror), she discovers that her husband has been taking anti-psychotic drugs; he’s decided to stop taking them resulting in delusions, erratic behaviour and hallucinatory episodes.

The Girl on the Landing works very well with its shared narration; Torday only slowly and carefully allows the reader to realise that something isn’t quite right with Michael. Similarly, he writes very well from the point of view of a woman, and the two remain distinct and individual throughout. Elizabeth’s growing unease is also handled very well. What lets it down is that it is somewhat overlong. At a hundred pages less this would be a very tight and effective read. Like Torday’s previous book, The Irresistible Inheritance of Wilberforce, this one outstays its welcome.

Torday also takes a few dangerous risks with this novel. The reader must accept that Elizabeth is totally unaware of Michael’s past (he is nearly placed in an institution as a child) and that he has been on medication for the whole of his adult life. The reader must also accept Torday’s understanding of schizophrenia, which is sketchy to say the least, and the shock revelations that come later in the book about the deaths of Michael’s parents. The link between the Empire mentality of the gentleman’s club, Michael’s “refreshed” outlook on the world and how it links to him an a possible evolutionary anomaly doesn’t quite fit together that neatly either.

Perhaps I was expecting more of a ghost story, and certainly this is how the opening chapter appears to set things up, although things unfortunately don’t go in the direction of a recent (and much better) book about a ghostly painting, Susan Hill’s The Man in the Picture. The Girl on the Landing is still worth reading, especially for the ending which, although not particularly original, was certainly a satisfactory one. But of course you could do one better and read the Susan Hill novel instead.