The International Writers Magazine: Review

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Submarine by Joe Dunthorne Publisher: Random House (25 Mar 2008) USA ISBN-10: 1400066832 ISBN-13: 978-1400066834 Hamish Hamilton Ltd (7 Feb 2008) UK ISBN-10: 0241143969 ISBN-13: 978-0241143964 • Lisa Timmermann It’s not necessarily a bad thing that most coming-of-age novels follow the same formula – a first-person narrator, usually male, facing the dramatic and confusing years between infancy and adulthood, experiencing sexual tensions and emotional turmoil, forging new bonds, and developing his/her individuality.

This formula works as long as: 1. the reader can relate to the narrator’s concerns and emotions, and 2. the plot holds original and affecting material in the form of moving, disturbing and/or inspiring – but believable – events and transformations. David Mitchell’s most recent novel Black Swan Green fulfills these requirements. Sadly, Joe Dunthorne’s debut novel Submarine does not.

The story is set in Wales and written from the perspective of a fifteen-year-old boy called Oliver Tate, who has devoted himself to acquiring new and complicated vocabulary, gaining first sexual experiences, and mending his parents’ troubled marriage.

The author uses the appropriate language and writing style to depict the mind of an adolescent, and is successful at creating authentic dialogues. The narrator’s voice is quite unique, as his descriptions and comments are unsparingly morbid, rude or simply grotesque. However, the book’s near-exclusive focus on descriptive and situational comedy causes a lack of emotional engagement on the part of the reader. Due to Oliver’s cruel thoughts and implausible actions – such as killing his girlfriend’s dog in the hope that this will make the imminent death of her mother less traumatic for her –, it is too difficult to ever root for him.

Some passages are so offensive that one is not only left thoroughly disturbed by the narrator’s frame of mind, but also finds it increasingly hard to read on. Even though the protagonist experiences different kinds of failure (and, I might add, deservedly so), these do not help him gain any of the much-needed compassion for his fellow beings or other important emotional insights. As the character undergoes no visible transformation, the novel substantially lacks complexity and meaning. On the whole, Dunthorne’s novel may be funny and entertaining for some, but its unsympathetic protagonist should put off even the most insensitive reader.

© Lisa Timmermann Feb 11th 2008
lisa.timmermann@gmail.com

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