FAN - a book review

Last night, I attended the Canterbury book launch of FAN, a novel by Danny Rhodes. Danny and I go back a few years, first working together promoting writing in Canterbury and its district as part of a Laureate programme. We also teamed up as mentors, guiding and advising aspiring first-time novelists from the region. So I know how good he is...

Danny has written three novels of his own, the most recent of which is FAN.  

Set in 2004 and semi-autobiographical in nature, the novel follows the fortunes of John Finch, a school teacher in the midst of a nervous breakdown. The reason? Well, John is still struggling to come to terms with what he and friends witnessed during the atrocious football tragedy at Hillsborough in 1989 (Danny himself was at the ground that day as a Nottingham Forest fan). Fifteen years on from that disaster, struggling to focus at work and at home, John Finch hears of a tragedy befalling an old friend who stood beside him on the terraces at Hillsborough that day, and this proves to be the catalyst for Finch's journey back to his northern roots (the town of Grantham), his old relationships (male and female), and back to face the feelings that are somehow holding him back in life. To move forwards, though, Finch must go back and revisit his past, like the scene of a crime. What Finch must try to do is lay some ghosts...and do some deep soul-searching in the process. Can he right any of the wrongs of his past? Can he make sense of his present and move contentedly into a new future...? (although contentedly is not the right word) These questions form the backbone of the story.

Danny does very well moving the narrative to and from the 1980s and 2004. As someone who stood on football terraces in the 1980s (albeit Upton Park!), I can vouch for the authenticity and grit. Likewise, as someone raised on a council estate in the 1970s/80s, I can feel my own past in Danny's descriptions of a certain class. This novel is not like anything the author has ever written before. At his launch last night, he spoke of "catharsis", and a burden he has carried as a witness who walked away from the horrors of Hillsborough (though, as he says, psychologically one cannot ever walk away); and yet, at the same time, he also manages to conjure the brotherhood that came with being a devoted football fan in the 1980s. Much was wrong with football back then (draconian policing, dangerously decaying and cramped stadiums, hooliganism etc), but  deep friendships were also forged in fanaticism. For Danny (and John Finch) Hillsborough changed all that. 

Yes, there are a lot of football references in this novel (the match details at times are astonishing), but this novel is also about Thatcher's Britain. Not just the ruthless application of her policies of the 1980s, but the legacy she has left behind. Fan is a comment on these things, among others. Despite a bleakness that runs through the book (how can it not given the subject-matter?), there is deep respect for all of the victims of Hillsborough and their families, and importantly there is also a note of hope. In the end, FAN, for me, is as much about trying to survive as it is about making sense of human tragedy. The writing is fast-flowing and riveting, the details amazing, and the moral purpose sure-footed. 

Danny said last night that he was trying to be as honest as possible in his novel; being true to himself and to the facts of the past. He has acheived this so brilliantly. For more on the author and FAN, please visit his site here:  Danny Rhodes

Danny will also be appearing at the WhitLit festival, Whitstable, on Sunday, May 11. Details here: WhitLit/Danny Rhodes

AFM