Adam Thorpe's story ‘Karaoke’

This year, for the first time, I took part in the webinar held within the project on Contemporary English Literature. It was a challenge, but a great pleasure! With Karen Hewitt we discussed three stories by modern British authors: ‘The heart of Denis Noble’ by Alison MacLeod, ‘Destroyed’ by Hilary Mantel, and ‘Karaoke’ by Adam Thorpe. The order of the stories above is not by chance: the first one I liked most of all, the last – least of all. But it is still haunting me for a reason I couldn’t understand – so, I made up my mind to analyze the story.

Thorpe is not very well-known in Russia: only 3 of his works are translated into Russian – The Rules of Perspective (2005) ( Правила перспективы, Иностранная литература, 2009. № 5–6); ‘Mercenary’ [New Writing 9. Vintage, 2000] ( Наемный солдат, Иностранная литература, 2012. № 12); Between Each Breath (2007) ( Затаив дыхание, Иностранная литература, 2013. № 7). In Footpath several papers were devoted to Thorpe and his literary work [Barinova 2013], [Urvantsev 2017], [Sudlenkova 2018]. Barinova also published an article about Thorpe where along with the novel Ul-verton she also discusses the short stories: ‘Heavy Shopping’, ‘In the Author’s Footsteps’, ‘The Silence’ [Barinova 2016]. One more paper analyzes genre peculiarities of Ulverton [Романюк 2016]. Not really much, is there? As you yourselves can see.

The situation is different in the UK. Thorpe is highly respected for his creative work (poems, novels, stories, plays, essays, reviews, and translations) and – what is even more important – other writers speak highly of Thorpe’s works (John Fowles, Hilary Mantel, John Banville, Jonathan Coe, for example). While digging through the materials on Thorpe, I, to my great astonishment, repeatedly came across the words haunting, haunted, mysterious, a murder mystery, coming at mystery, ghost(s), a ghost story, a satire of pastoral English mysticism. I have been haunted by ‘Karaoke’ for more than 4 months al-

ready (since I first read it in March 2021) despite not liking it very much, despite really difficult reading I went through – and now I probably guess why – there has been some mystery and, therefore, fascination for me there. And still is.

Being just a teacher of English (the language, and never literature), I was unable to devote much time to reading British authors, either in English or in Russian, which can’t be beneficial for teaching the English language. When I was a student myself back in the USSR, we were mainly taught written language because the country was separated from the English-speaking world, and there was no Internet. The written language was of 2 types: 1) non-authentic texts with a heavy political bias, and 2) classical literature in English (mainly British and American), no modern authors, of course. You can easily imagine where the hearts of students were – certainly, fiction. Having been in teaching for around 40 years, I have always strongly supported reading literary pieces in class, and also students’ individual reading for which I was often responsible. My current university, Russian State University for the Humanities, is a participant in the Project – and we have all the books included into it. During my 2 years of working here, together with my 2-nd and 3-rd year students I have read 3 of them: Atonement by Ian McEwan, Morality Play by Barry Unsworth, and Stuff Happens by David Hare. We liked them all and had really heated discussions, which undoubtedly helps to teach and learn the language much better.

Having said all this, I suppose it’s time I started dealing with the story itself which turned out to be not easy for me both in the matter of the language and its numerous literary and arts references, to say nothing of the title that I haven’t managed or, perhaps, wanted to decode. It is a 14-page story having a clear-cut structure. The first sentence sounds, on the one hand, quite conventional and, on the other, rather mysterious (it is not clear that William Pool isn’t a person):

He first came across William Pool in a pub [Thorpe 2007: 121] .

A pub (pub culture) is a very important notion for the whole story. Therefore, it is not accidental that it is used at the very beginning, after which it is abruptly and unexpectedly changed into quite a different scene in the local bookshop, to be continued afterwards. By the end of the story you will have understood that the opening sentence also has some comic effect, as many other things in the story.

The events take place in Redditch, a real town which represents so many small provincial towns – quiet, peaceful and boring. The main character Greg, a poet from London, was unable to give a reading as no one turned up for it. The whole situation is awkward and a bit tense, but at the same time very funny.

… half an hour’s grace had been granted…

There wasn’t even a man in a bobble hat.

…a notice in the window the size of a flyer.

(He had been looking forward to meeting Tabitha Leary, after a glance at her jacket photo – though these were often ten years out of date.)

A yellowed clipping on the wall, headlined ‘Paul’s Passionate for Poetry, Alright’, showed the bookshop owner, youthful and grinning, in front of the window, clutching Heaney’s Station Island. (The first literary reference, which are in abundance in the text, making it harder to comprehend).

‘I’m obviously not Heaney,’ said Greg [Thorpe 2007: 121].

The scene in the bookshop is described with irony. Greg’s resentment is felt in mentioning Heaney, a famous and successful poet, a Nobel Prize winner. His annoyance is hidden behind shamming nonchalance and good cheer. At this point we are returning to the pub mentioned in the first line, and the important episode there takes more than two pages.

He was abandoned to the pub opposite, which was housed in a long newish concrete development squeezed out like toothpaste to the end of the street. [Thorpe 2007: 122]

The idea that people are not interested in reading, poetry is developed in the description of the old hardback books… - a job lot. The fact that they are not necessary to anyone is highlighted by quite a random choice of them and by a strong simile that looking through them … was like turning over bodies in a catacomb. But Greg was a poet, a man with imagination, and next thing couldn’t but have happened to him – he came across this William Pool Book (it was not easy to open it, … he prised it off, as it was stuck to the shelf on a film of spilt beer. Such irony again! And there’ll be continuation when the book will be later used to stop the glass-washer rattling and because of that was even more warped and covered in a crazed Venn diagram of beer-rings. Humorous and ironical at the same time!

Greg’s relationship with William Pool (the book) is described by Adam Thorpe in a really brilliant way. What has not happened between them! The author makes use of wonderful descriptions (like the look of the book, the portrait of its author with Victorian child’s drawings, the odour of the book with the clever and vivid images that it represented; the reference to the prints and paintings of an Aubrey Beardsley ), emphatic repetitions (the first sentence in the book, which was luckily, or may be unluckily for Greg, translated into English and got him hooked and haunted , has been repeated thrice on 2 pages), vain investigations into the persona of William Pool (intrigue, detective, suspense), distraction and detachment from real life matters (teaching foreign students, not caring any longer about his ex-partner Stephanie who got engaged), the second visit to the pub which is even more satirically described than the first one (his failure with reading in the bookshop during the first visit to Redditch, and his displeasure and annoyance are twice voiced by him in German with the same phrase Verzweiflung existentiell; for me the tone in both passages sounds comic, but not really unnatural: many people in different countries, for example, prefer to swear in a foreign language). And in one of the reviews I found a similar opinion about this German phrase:

Every other tale demonstrates vitality and wit, from the satirising of a pretentious poet in “Karaoke” (“speaking in German always made him feel better . . . one day, he would learn the language”) … [Larman 2006]

I can’t agree, though, that Greg is pretentious, for me, he is just a usual normal ordinary poet, but rather impulsive, imaginative, somewhat passionate. So, he may occasionally look funny and comic. The usage of foreign words in the text (also French) demonstrates the cosmopolitan background of Thorpe and his interest in and fascination with language as such. He is very accurate and inventive in the usage of names, which almost always give the readers various clues for better understanding.

All the characters in the story are very deftly portrayed: they are all real recognizable people you can’t but be interested in, especially Alastair, a Scottish brother-in-law of Greg who irritates him from time to time. Alastair is a classical scholar teaching at Royal Holloway (a prestigious position, which he truly deserves). He is a very devoted researcher of the rubble of the Roman world and deeply interested in the salvaging operation of Cassiodorus, He is described so vividly and with such juicy details that I like even his laughter, which Greg thinks unpleasant. The attitude of the Scottish people to the English (Alastair’s attitude) is wittily and humorously presented when the two are discussing this clever William Pool collage consisting of thousands of snippets of Latin verse, from Horace to Petronius to Notker the Stammerer. And Alastair says:

‘… I even found Caligula’s line about wishing the Roman people had only one neck. I think that about the English, sometimes’ [Thorpe 2007: 129].

Throughout the story Alastair laughs a lot – he is so full of life, he enjoys life immensely, and he is always ready to help. Greg is not always grateful.

While the rest of his brother-in-law was as civilized as a Roman villa (clever simile, my interpretation), his laugh was pure barbarian. Pictish, perhaps [Thorpe 2007: 130].

Deep down, he was angry with Alastair for subverting William Pool, each soft Edinburgh know-it-all syllable like a pebble thrown at porcelain [Thorpe 2007: 131].

I enjoyed the episode concerning Alastair and laughed a lot about this funny incident when Alastair’s photo appeared in the Redditch newspaper.

The local Redditch rag ran the story of Greg’s discovery, suggesting (in so many words) that Pool was a sex fiend, and accompanying the article with a frighteningly appropriate photograph of Alastair [Thorpe 2007: 132].

For the readers, this is a really comic account of the whole situation description in the provincial town newspaper (note the word rag here); the phrase frighteningly appropriate has nothing to do with real Alastair – this is Greg’s personal perception of his Scottish in-law and the reflection of his depressive mood and frustration after losing hopes and beliefs in William Pool.

At the end of the story, Alastair with his simple realistic ideas and advice symbolizes for me the true value of ordinary, but precious life – in each of its unique and incomparable detail:

‘There you go,’ said Alastair, returning with the beers. ‘Get this down you and cheer up. You’ve a face like a douchebag. There’s life after Pool, you know. Find a girl. Write some verse. Translate some Anglo-Saxon stuff… Forget Pool, forget the Latin. I’m throwing out ideas, Greg’ [Thorpe 2007: 134].

And it really helps Greg, returns him to reality, to life as the end feels quite optimistic:

‘I’ve got this poem about Redditch,’ Greg replied, wiping the foam from his upper lip. ‘It’s only two lines long. Want to hear it?’ [Thorpe 2007: 134]

To sum up my impressions of ‘Karaoke’, I’d like to stress that it’s not an easy read, especially for students probably: it contains a great deal of literary and arts references which need to be dealt with; there are also some difficult words; so due commentaries would be beneficial for class reading. But despite all this, it could be such a treat to get to the roots, to discuss life as it is – with its shades and ambiguities, which are so skillfully and powerfully presented in this short-in-length, but long-in-reflection story by Adam Thorpe.

And one more final thing – this haunting effect of the story. Having found William Pool, Greg supposed it was something original, unique, groundbreaking, and inimitable. But it turned out to be pure imitation of high quality – Karaoke . This is the explanation of the story title. As well as Greg, I was intrigued, hooked, and haunted by this mysterious book. I would have behaved exactly as Greg did: consulting friends, searching in libraries, visiting Paris, and much more. The story continues to haunt me because I am in constant search of something unique, incredible and opposite to Karaoke. Most of us are.