The Inception of Inheritance

This comes almost two hours into Saturday, when it should have been a post for Friday.  But being called into work early, and getting home after one am did not allow me time to post at all in Friday.  As sleep is calling me, I will leave you with a description of my novel and a little insight into the writing of it.

The Inheritance of Things Past, Ben J Dutton

The Inheritance of Things Past [2008] (hence TIoTP), tells the story of Will Hargreaves, a man in his early thirties diagnosed with a potentially fatal cancer.  It is a novel predominantly constructed by Will’s memories – of familial ties, his lifelong friendship with David, of his love for a young woman named Sarah Crowe at university, and his more recent relationship with Laura Johnson.  These relationships – familial, friendly, sexual, romantic – become the background to a life shown through four decades.  They become the things that define Will Hargreaves.

It is a novel that was conceived, and initially written, in the second person.  This unusual narrative form – “You” – was designed to bring the reader into the emotional maelstrom Will Hargreaves is living through.  To force the reader to live Will’s experiences with him, to pull them inexorably along, towards an ending they might not want to face: the acceptance of their own death.  The novel was constructed along the fault-line of the cancer diagnosis, of Will attempting to face up to this potential death sentence.  Realising that everything in his life will be explicably altered and that, if he wishes to alter his life for the good, he must face up to his own failings.  This causes him to examine past relationships, to work out where he has failed in them and how he can avoid the same mistakes with Laura in the present.  This fractured presentation also mirrored what I felt would be the turmoil of one facing up to such a life-changing horror – your mind would not settle, you would recall a hundred things at once, you might miss what was right in front of your eyes.

That novel is now available on your Amazon Kindle – see the links to the right of this page – and it’s cheap, so if you’re looking for something emotional, entertaining and enlightening to read, give it a go.