Claire Lowdon

In the name of the father

Stuart Evers’s 12 short stories on the theme of fathers and sons are full of good ideas — not always well executed

‘People talk about their childhood and it’s so mundane. I don’t remember much about it, if I’m honest. I can’t even tell you what my father’s voice sounded like.’ In Stuart Evers’s story ‘Frequencies’, in this collection, a besotted new father hears this pronouncement coming from the baby monitor. The monitor is picking up a radio signal, so the sound of eight-month-old Jack’s precious snuffling is overlaid with hardheaded recollections of an anonymous speaker’s parents. ‘They were such dull people… I… pitied them even before I knew what the word meant.’ Eventually the juxtaposition grows too much for the father, and he smashes the baby monitor. Then he goes to see his son.

Jack looked at his father, eyes straight ahead. ‘Dull,’ the boy said. Clearly, distinctly… Dean picked up his son and put him to his chest. Tears were in his eyes. He held his beautiful son and wished Rachel was there to share in the moment.

This fault-line — the rift between our biology and our brains — is where the 12 stories of Evers’s second collection, Your Father Sends His Love, take place. As in his debut, Ten Stories About Smoking, Evers sticks to his chosen theme without repeating himself. He is impressively limber, darting round his subject to view it from multiple angles. In ‘Sundowners’, an unexpected yen for fatherhood ends Ross’s affair with Evelyn. In ‘Something Else To Say’, Noah waits in the pub for his best friend Rish, making a list of things to talk about — any subject that isn’t the death of Rish’s baby son. In ‘These Are the Days’ the reader’s sympathies are manipulated by both Ben and his middle-aged son Richard as they tussle for the affection of Richard’s daughter Anna.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in