The Review of Contemporary Fiction
Everything You Need by A.L. KennedyTrey Strecker
A. L. Kennedy. Everything You Need. Knopf, 2001. 543 pp. $25.95.
A. L. Kennedy’s beguiling tale of love and loss unfolds off the Welsh coast on Foal Island, an isolated writers’ colony with a bizarre suicide credo. Nathan Staples, a wildly successful and misanthropic horror novelist trying to write a serious book, extends an anonymous invitation to his long-lost daughter Mary Lamb to join the writers’ fellowship. Abandoned by both of her parents, Mary does not know that Nathan is her supposedly dead father, and as she strives to become a professional writer, Nathan struggles to disclose his paternal identity and to restrain his incredible desire for Maura, Mary’s absent mother. At times, Kennedy’s characters appear to be nothing more than comic stereotypes: the aspiring young novelist, the vitriolic, misunderstood hack, the hedonistic editor. Nathan himself seems to be a classic anti-hero, a man loved only by his dog, yet Kennedy’s unwavering exploration of his dark psyche provdes a compassionate glimpse into Nathan’s bitter insecurities, his bleak humor, and his humanity. Entwined with the narrative, Nathan’s internal monologue and the manuscripts of the stories he invents for Mary enrich Kennedy’s generous portrait of a father and daughter finding their way through “the stories we make of ourselves.” [Trey Strecker]