Ben Brooks - Lolito

 Following the recent conviction of teacher Jeremy Forrest for sexual offences and the abduction of one of his pupils, there has been much debate over the value we place on the choices made by teenagers. In the Guardian, Zoe Williams argued that ‘the laws around consent put the onus on the adult to take responsible decisions, and reject the viewpoint of the child entirely – this is how it has to be.’ Yet the same paper also carried an article from a woman who had had an affair with her teacher, saying ‘I was not damaged by the experience, and have thrilling memories of the excitement of a relationship with an older intelligent man who inspired my love of literature.’ Ben Brooks’s new novel Lolito covers similar territory, centering on the relationship between Etgar, a 15 year old boy, and Macy, an older woman he meets online, humanising the characters and trying to understand the circumstances which brought them together. Whereas the media coverage of the Forrest case featured middle-aged columnists arguing over about whether the pupil’s voice should be heard, Lolito’s first-person narrative puts that voice in the foreground

Brooks himself is alarmingly precocious – born in 1992, this is his fifth novel – but Lolito isn’t just youthful showing off. The subject is shocking, and the early sections depict Skins-esque levels of hedonism (like Tao Lin’s recent novel Taipei, the main character’s alcohol and drugs consumption borders on the ridiculous), but there is also a lot of heart in the writing. The narrator, Etgar, is a young 15, and his connection with the adult world is slim. He sees the news as a series of disconnected events presided over by ‘the bald man’ ('Someone died today, and a hurricane happened. The Banks did something. Someone sexed someone else'), whilst at times of stress, he retreats to watching Disney films and animal documentaries. He drinks a lot at house parties, but the world of clubbing is remote – 'Once, me, Alice and Aslan got into Diva with fake IDs'. While his friends occasionally use technical terms like ‘intervention’, most of the language around sex is childish. His world is disturbed when his girlfriend Alice cheats on him. There is some debate about whether she was ‘raped with kisses’ or willingly ‘handjobbed’ someone, a matter of the highest importance for Etgar. 

In response to this betrayal, Etgar takes refuge in adult chat rooms. Throughout Lolito, Brooks looks at locations where normal rules are suspended. The action takes place during the summer holidays, whilst Etgar’s parents are away in Russia, meaning that he is free to raid the drinks cabinet and roam around without hindrance, and the chat room is an extension of this. Rather than being sleazy, the conversation is harmless, childlike: ‘if people laughed & smiled that much in real life then real life would be markedly more bearable.’ Through the chat room, Etgar begins talking to Macy, who tells him she is a businesswoman from Scotland. Trying to make an impression, Etgar claims to be a mortgage broker. The pretence is never really believable ('it's mortgage breaking season. Everyone wants their mortgages broken this time of year'), and becomes even less sustainable when they agree to meet. Their first date is full of cringe-inducing comedy as Etgar spills wine and sticks his finger up Macy's nose. Later, Etgar and Macy’s relationship takes shape in a gay club, a venue long associated with the clandestine and carnivalesque, before being concluded in another transitory space, this time a London hotel room.

When they consummate their relationship, Macy is aware of each Etgar's age ('I'm not stupid. I know'). Macy reveals that she is 46 and that she has two children, and shows Etgar the bruises inflicted on her by her husband. She is not entirely honest, however, telling him that she is a housewife, rather than revealing her true occupation. She accepts Etgar’s age, and decides to stay. Before they have sex, they talk, confide in each other, hide under the covers in their hotel room, making up stories and collages, reinforcing Etgar’s childishness.

Brooks does not explicitly explore his characters’ motivations, or seek to explain their actions. Etgar’s narrative treats sex casually. He refers to Alice's two abortions, and regularly references online porn and snuff movies. This doesn't seem to be the key to his behaviour though. Instead, is emotionally confused by the ending of his relationship, lacking effective guidance ('Dad stands up and walks through to the toilet. He doesn't like to watch when me and Mum talk about emotions'), and sees the affair with Macy as an adventure. He doesn't seem traumatised by what happened – he is loyal to Macy, and the intrusion of the press and the police into his world seems to cause more emotional damage than anything that happened online or in the hotel room.

Macy’s situation is more complicated. Brooks seems to suggest that she has been somehow infantilised by her abusive husband, but Etgar is not intuitive enough to fully understand her. Maybe she is seeking a partner she can dominate, or simply one who seems innocent, doesn't pose a physical threat. Ultimately, she is presented as having the most to lose through her actions. Inevitably, Macy will be compared to Humbert Humbert, and to Celeste Price, the central figure in Alissa Nutting's controversial new novel Tampa. There are significant differences in her characterisation, however. Macy doesn't display Humbert's verbosity or vainglory, and nor are her actions portrayed with the pornographic sensibility of Celeste's. Instead, she is seen as someone looking for an emotional crutch, and the way she speaks to Etgar is motherly, even pretending to be his mother when they go for tattoos - she is acting in loco parentis in a very different way to Nutting's character .

Resisting the urge to sensationalise, Brooks looks beneath the surface of the relationship to focus on the emotions of the characters. Etgar is no stud (at one point referring to his dream of sex lasting longer than a TV ad break) - the sex that they have is only a very minor part of his narrative, which is far more concerned with the time they spend talking. In some ways this highlights the immaturity of Etgar, who doesn't possess the language to effectively describe what they do, but it is also an opportunity for Brooks to contrast this attitude with that of the police, who are simply concerned with who touched who, and who was exploited.

In terms of style, Brooks’s writing has much in common with the likes of Tao Lin, full of short sentences and media references: ‘'I stare at my feet. I watch a video of a severely disabled person covering a Katy Perry song. I run a bath.' At one point, he even introduces characters by describing their online search topics ('I imagine her recent search history goes: how to make a ouija board, does anal hurt, Haruki Murakami'), although he doesn’t persist with this interesting idea. The main difference comes in a relative lightness of tone; if Taipei was dense and somewhat jaded, Lolito is uncynical, written with a lot of energy, and a generally positive worldview. There are some good comic scenes, including Etgar and his father accidentally going dogging, and the supporting characters are well-drawn.

Brooks’s decision to explore the emotional background of taboo relationships like this is bound to generate controversy, especially as the text doesn’t explicitly condemn Macy. Instead of presenting her as predatory, there is more a sense that the characters have come together by chance. Whether this is just naivety on Etgar’s part is for the reader to decide. This is one area where Lolito disappoints - a little extra time on the aftermath of the affair would have benefitted the book, which feels a little rushed as it stands. Overall though, it is an interesting, provocative and surprisingly heartfelt read, which I enjoyed far more than I was expecting to.