Communion Town
In the latest of my reviews of long-listed novels for the Man Booker Prize 2012, I turn to: Communion Town, by debut novelist Sam Thompson, is one of the more surprising entries in the 2012 Man Booker Prize long-list. Though the cover blurb does not advertise it as such – though it hints at it – this is a collection of ten short stories set in around the same fictional city. This, as a description, however, suggests continuity, and this is the last thing on Thompson’s mind. Much like Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities, the one city seen in this work changes dependent upon who is telling the story. Some of the stories are pastiche – of Sherlock Holmes, of American pulp detective fiction – some stray into science fiction, some into horror, others into thriller and romance. The novel (if we can call it that) is then a blend, a phantasmagorical journey into the night of a city where anything is possible and indeed will happen. Being a colle...