Reviewed by Jayne White
In music the concept of the ‘difficult second album’ is often mentioned by reviewers. The Fop has previously written about this in relation to second novels. Gill Hornby’s first novel The Hive created quite a splash with its depiction of playground politics and feminine social dynamics in Daily Mailville. While I wasn’t a great fan of The Hive as a whole I did think there were promising elements struggling for notice amidst the stereotypes. It was a commercial success and had an interesting spread of reader and professional reviews so I was interested to see what the next book was going to be like.
The second book is set in the same small market town as The Hive and there are a few background cameos from some of the characters. This time the focus is on the local community choir. They’ve declined in numbers in recent years and when their leader is in a car accident the choir members decide to carry on and try to relive their glory days by winning the county choir competition. To do this they need to recruit new members and decide how to work together without their leader.
Again, Hornby has chosen to have a group of central characters although she has focussed more on a central trio this time. Annie is the stalwart of the choir and many other community activities. She’s a librarian and is struggling to come to terms with being an empty nester now that her youngest child is at university. New recruit Tracey is a single mother who is threatened by her idle adult son’s new sense of direction. She plays rock music in public and belts out Carpenters songs in private. Bennett is a middle aged former chorister who is at also at a bit of a crossroads with his recent separation and redundancy.
Unfortunately, if you’re a central character in a Gill Hornby novel you are at the mercy of a relentlessly omniscient narrative voice which lays out all your thoughts and motivations on a plate. Some people might argue that this is part of what makes her books so readable. I think it’s why it’s hard to see the characters as anything other than stereotypes. Maybe I’m perverse, but it means I find myself more interested in the less central characters who I can judge by their words, actions and relations with other characters. Jazzy works in the local cafe and has dreams of the X Factor and is used to defending her dysfunctional mother from the village gossips. Sue is separated from Bennett and is the mother of his children. She’s mouthy, spiteful and frustrated, but we get to make our own minds up about her.
The progress towards the competition and the progress of a campaign against a new out of town supermarket give the novel a good sense of momentum and there are some entertaining set pieces. I was a choral scholar years ago and I can’t even begin to count the number of hours I’ve spent in choir practices so the I found the account of the power struggle between disgruntled light operatic society members very entertaining as well as the sniping of some of the other choir members.
If I have another criticism to make, it’s around the dialogue. In a moment of irritation Tracey yells at her son, “You, mate, are seriously harshing my Saturday-morning mellow.” I can barely bring myself to type that out so I’ve no idea how it could have made it into the finished book.
In summary, I think if you found The Hive enjoyable you’ll also like this as it is very much along the same lines. I could see it being a successful TV drama because it would remove the narrative voice and rewrite some of the grimmer examples of dialogue whilst keeping the plot and the subtler elements which the Annie / Tracey / Bennett storylines obscure. And, of course, you’d hear them sing!
Jayne White is a freelance copywriter and proof-reader. Follow her on Twitter
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