50 LISTENER MARCH 7 2020
BOOKS&CULTURE
by ANNA ROGERSJ
ack, Ronnie and Evie – the very
names are redolent of seaside holi-
day entertainment on Brighton’s
famous pier in the summer of 1959.
Jack Robinson (actually and later
Robbins) is the compère, the frontman,
binding the acts together with his wit,
a song or two – When the Red, Red Robin
Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin’ Along – and a
bit of fancy footwork. But it’s his friend
Ronnie Deane, the Great Pablo, magi-
cian extraordinaire, and his assistant (and
fiancée), the “delightful, the delectable,
the delorious” Evie White, with her glitter-
ing costume, her ostrich plumes and her
stunning legs, who are the real stars of the
show.
But the events offstage that season and
the way Ronnie’s life has been shaped
by his childhood evacuation to Oxford-
shire during the war are the real business
of Graham Swift’s deft and subtle new
novel, Here We Are. He is the master of
period, of pinpoint-accurate dialogue, of
place – whether it be cramped, bombed-
out, hard-scrabble Bethnal Green, genteel
middle-class rural England or the gaudy
yet gallant flimsiness of an entertainment
style already under threat.
Ronnie’s years with Penny and Eric
Lawrence at their home, Evergrene (again,
the name says it all), inform the course of
his life, for mild-mannered, kind Eric is
also Lorenzo the magician, and he teaches
the boy his craft. This experience and his
subsequent success distance Ronnie from
his mother. When she dies, her only son
does not even get there in time to say
goodbye.
There are many moments of readingpleasure – “gleaming needles” of rain
“against still-dark clouds”, the “push and
dare” of an illicit relationship, the “inno-
cent, terrible act of waking up” when the
loved one beside you has died in their
sleep. The intimate, confiding tone Swiftuses for most of the book, especially for
Jack and Evie, is correctly gauged, but
there are just too many questions; they
can become intrusive and irritating.Y
et there is so much to relish and
applaud. Swift understands and
never judges the human condi-
tion – the everyday, unspectacular hurts
and betrayals and the surprising joys.
He is completely in control of character,situation and emotion. In less adept
hands, the changes in the Jack/Evie/
Ronnie triumvirate could have become
oversensational and/or sentimental. No
chance of that with this author. He is
adept, too, at writing about both men and
women: his portrait of Evie, from youth to
old age, is credible and touching.
Illusions – never tricks, Ronnie insists- are part of Here We Are, in both senses,
but there are no unnecessary fireworks
in this novel of quiet satisfactions, which
also gently farewells an
England that has now
gone. Swift leaves us
thinking about youth
and age, about family,
about chances taken
and missed, about the
nature of love. l
HERE WE ARE, by Graham
Swift (Scribner, $32.99)
Pulling a
Swifty
Virtuosic magic is
both the subject and
the delivery method in
Graham Swift’s latest
piece of storytelling.
Graham Swift is the
master of period, ofpinpoint-accurate
dialogue, of place.G
ET
TY
IM
AG
ES
Graham Swift: well-gauged tone but too many
questions.