Not a cheshire cat in sight (Alison Wonderland - Helen Smith)

Member Name: MorganaDQ

Product:	Alison Wonderland - Helen Smith
Date:	30/05/01 (105 review reads)
Rating:

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What do you do when you suspect your husband's having an affair? Do you confront him, try to pretend it isn't happening, or do you hire a private detective to find out for certain?

Alison Temple decided on the private detective, and what a move it was too. You see, that decision was one that would change her life more than she could ever have known.

It might not have hurt so much if the 'mistress' had been stunningly beautiful, with legs up to her armpits (you know what I mean), but she wasn't :

"Perhaps the photo didn't do her justice but I was rather disappointed in this thin girl he was fiddling about with in the evenings. Apart from a fleeting impulse - which I resisted - to call his girlfriend with some hair and make-up tips, I chose to ignore them both and faded spectacularly out of my husband's life."

So she left him, and quite heroically too. Don't worry, this all happens in the first few pages, so I'm not spoiling anything for you. You should know me better than that by now.

It happened fairly quickly. The way in which Alison found herself working for 'Fitzgerald's Bureau of Investigations', the female detective agency she went to over her husband, was almost afterthought. Just a few weeks after her leaving her husband, she now found herself doing just what she'd paid another to do. Well, when you start to change your life, it can be difficult to stop you know.

Five years after she left her husband, Alison now lives with her housemate, Jeff. He's an inventor, and a very eccentric one at that. He worships the very ground she walks on, regularly writing her poetry. This is some of the simplest, oddest poetry I've read in a long time, and I love it for it's sheer childlike qualities. See if this doesn't make you smile just a little :

"Some people eat the icing on the cake
and discard the marzipan

But I never do

The hardened crust
Of sugar dust
Too sweet for me

The almond paste
Richer in taste
Is softer too

Some people eat the icing on the cake
and discard the marzipan
But I never do

I prefer the marzipan
It makes me think about you"

Am I the only one who loves that? I can't be, surely. It's these little bits of poetry, and the eccentricites of his inventions which explain Jeff. The friendship between Jeff and Alison is one which so many could identify with. They sit and discuss topics from the newspaper, and the dry humour, the constant banter between the two is so refreshing to read.

But I've strayed too early haven't I? I'm telling you about the characters before I've even finished telling you about the plot. It's been a while, bear with me.

So, as I said, Alison's been with the detective agency for five years doing the usual spying on husbands, day in, day out. She left her nine-to-five job and now she finds herself watching unfaithful husbands in offices, from nine to five. What a dry sense of humour fate has, if you believe in such a thing.

Alison seems quite content with her life. She enjoys her work, she's comfortable in the knowledge that someone (Jeff) loves her, and she likes it that way, preferring not to become too close to another since her husband cheated on her. She may not love Jeff back in 'that' way, but she certainly doesn't want him to stop loving her.

And now Mrs Fitzgerald, the agency owner, needs Alison's help with a very important assignment. It's 'Project Brown Dog' and it's highly dangerous. It seems someone has been cross breeding animals and Alison is assigned to discover the truth about the activities.

So that's the basic plot of the book. It took me a while to get there, I know, but as I said it's been a whil
e. Humour me. Go on, you know you want to.

Want another character to be going on with? Well Taron is quite a prominent one in this book. She's Alison's closest friend, and she helps her on her mission to find out the truth. But Taron has another reason for following Alison when she travels down to Weymouth to get closer to the 'action'. You see Taron thinks her mother could use an apprentice witch (yes, that's what I said) because she's becoming depressed and ill, and is "losing the battle against the forces of evil." So Taron's self-appointed quest is to find her an abandoned baby.

She's the kind of person who leaves pennies for people to find, to bring them good luck. She makes up stories about her life, and you begin to wonder just how much of it she believes. But she's also the kind of person you'd love to know. She's 'fluffy', but she's actually not annoying with it. So Alison and Taron pretty much work on the case together once they reach Weymouth.

I mentioned Mrs Fitzgerald earlier, or Ella as I'll now be calling her (come on, it's easier and quicker to type, don't look at me like that, you know you'd do the same). She owns the detective agency and is very much the figure of authority. There's no way I could describe her any better than the author did, so here you are :

"A tidy authoritative woman in her late forties, she has slightly curling hair, cut severely short at the back in an old-fashioned crop. She calls her glasses 'spectacles'. They're on a chain that she never puts round her neck. She waves them around or sets them down on the desk in front of her. Mrs Fitzgerald has small, dainty feet and a large bosom and bottom. If you overheard a conversation about her in a butcher's shop, you'd catch a note of admiration when the men behind the counter called her a 'big woman'." r>
See what I mean? How could I better that? I know I'm quoting more than usual this time, but I can't help it. When you read something so refreshing, you just have to share it.

Ella is the picture of authority to all around her, but she has her own worries. She believes she's starting to lose her mind, but never once tells another person her fears. If she did, who could they then look to for the guidance they needed? What's more, her brother Clive is somewhat odd to say the least, too. We see little glimpses of him throughout the book and it's plain to see he isn't quite 'normal' (whatever that means), so it's easy to understand why Ella should be concerned for her own sanity.

The rest of the 'cast' within this story are all as three-dimensional as the main characters. Helen Smith recognises the need for full characterisations with the more minor parts in order to keep the rest of the book real. And it is. There are so many truths littered throughout this book, so many aspects of your own life subtely mirrored within the varied characters that it's hard not to stop and think sometimes.

Even the psychic postman whom we see only very occasionally plays his own little role in this book. He may not prove to be neccessary to the outcome of the story, but this is the gift Smith has. She's able to write a character with such truth, whether it's humourous or not, that not one of them doesn't fit and they all have their role to play, however small it may be.

There's only one criticism I have about this novel, and it's the way in which the author chooses to change styles for different chapters. For the most part it's written from the perspective of Alison, and the humour that comes from her own little observations carries the book perfectly well. So why, with a handful of chapters, Smith felt the need to write so detached in order to explain some as
pects of the story and characters, I don't know.

The first time I came across one of these chapters it actually jarred me a little. I don't expect anyone else to understand what I mean, but I hope you do. You see, I'd gotten into her writing style very quickly. It was so very easy to read from the first line, but then to find suddenly the style has changed and the descriptions and explanations are so much colder and matter of fact than they were to begin with, it took me a moment to realise what was going on. Then when I'd finally gotten used to that too, it switched back. These 'fly-on-the-wall' chapters really did nothing to add to the novel in my opinion, but they also didn't spoil my enjoyment of the book as a whole.

I feel it only fair to warn you there is some swearing in this book, but it's always in context and actually does add to the dialogue. Not something I'd usually say, but it's true. Well I think so anyway.

Helen Smith has a way of looking at life through her characters that could charm the most cynical of readers, and always made me chuckle. The honesty, the almost child-like qualities her observations have at times is so very refresing to read and I loved it. Sure, it's not the most exciting of 'thrillers' available, but it's not meant to be. It's simply the story of Alison Temple, and how through a chain of events no-one could have foreseen, her life changes.

It's charming, it's humourous, and it'll actually make you think on occassion. And after reading this, her debut novel, it seems to me hers is a name to keep an eye out for.

So why the name 'Alison Wonderland'? Let me leave you with the very first paragraph from the book and you'll see :

"My name's Alison Temple and I used to have this line when people asked me if I'm married. I'd say, 'I'm waiting for Mr Wonderland an
d when I find him I'll get married. Until then I'm staying single.' The kind of people who need to know whether or not you're married don't see the humour in a joke like that."

So true.

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Publisher : Victor Gollancz
ISBN : 0575067187 or 0575402628

This title is currently available in two different editions at amazon.co.uk for £5.59 or £7.99.