The best of Swift?

Graham Swift’s new novel, Wish You Were Here, has been met with mixed reviews. His literary credentials are never in question. But does his latest offering show him at his best?

Writing in the latest issue of the Spectator, Anthony Cummins terms this a ‘state of the nation novel’, but one which fails to capture the nation. ‘Wish You Were Here seems more fatalistic than political: a howl not an argument.’ There are structural difficulties too: Swift’s use of multiple narrators dilutes the already thin central character. Also, Swift’s attempt to link agriculture and war is too neat, inspiring some rather strained metaphors about those who die as cattle. But, Swift is very gifted and there are ‘blurry passages of brilliant writing’.   
 
Jane Shilling, in the Telegraph, admits Swift is a ‘meticulous craftsman’ and that there is ‘elegance’ in the novel’s ‘construction’.