Books : Fiction : Contemporary Fiction: 1970 Onwards : Authors A-Z : H : Hatch, Ben

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Books : Fiction : Contemporary Fiction: 1970 Onwards : Authors A-Z : H : Hatch, Ben

• The Lawnmower Celebrity

  Ben Hatch

  
  Ben Hatch saves Jay Golden, the 18-year-old hero of his debut novel Lawnmower Celebrity, from the A-Z humour of terminal adolescence by integrating a macabre twist: terminal illness through the death from cancer of his mother.

  Jay Golden's ultimate ambition is "to write a great novel, which will make me a major authentic voice for a generation". This fictional hero has closely studied Holden Caulfield in Catcher in The Rye and has probably slunk in front of the mirror practising the stances of Generation X, courtesy of Douglas Coupland--trying on a series of Mcjobs in kebab shops and lawnmower retailers. He's even got a bit of an Adrian Mole thing going on too, with the careful diary entries, the bemused humour, the cool girlfriend.

  Ben Hatch starts in with butterfly punches. Jay's diary entries are funny and sarcastic. They are full of mocking observations: "the only way to behave at work is not to care and not even to pretend to care. This is my strategy and is probably why I keep getting sacked". He tracks his deteriorating relationship with his dad and his girlfriend with fake irony, the timbre of teen angst. But then Ben Hatch lands a punch to the stomach, a winding blow of emotion and grief. As Jay describes his mother illness: "When I hug mum now I can feel every bone. Her eyes seem to be further into her head and her temples are so hollow half a thumb could disappear inside them." The careless pose is revealed for what it truly is--a desperate clutch at trying to cope with all that sadness and sorrow.

  Jay Golden is not a major authentic voice for a new generation but his superficial self-obsession combined with his heartbreaking loss make him a beguiling commentator on life. --Eithne Farry

  
   

• The International Gooseberry

  Ben Hatch

  
  Kit Farley, at the centre of Ben Hatch's The International Gooseberry, has turned drifting into an Olympic sport. After an unsatisfying career as TV reviewer for the Bucks Chronicle, he walks away from the mouldy remains of his friendships and his love affairs and hits the road. Playing the reluctant gooseberry to Carlos--a best mate becoming less matey by the minute--and Carlos's emotionally unstable girlfriend Dominique, Kit embarks upon a back-packing odyssey whose only limits are dwindling funds and the need to get back in time for his Dad's wedding. Stranded in a hinterland of flop-houses populated by drawling surf-bums, pursued by e-mails from his worried family, Kit finally realises that the only thing he's running away from is himself.

  One of the great things about travel is that you can never truly predict where you're going to end up. The same could be said of this outstanding work by Ben Hatch. It has all the trappings of a laddish coming-of-age yarn--replete with its pointless jobs, nightmare flat-shares, difficult girlfriends and uneasy nihilism. But what upgrades this novel into the First Class lounge is its sharply truthful treatment of relationships. The close bond between Kit and his brother Danny, ruptured by an event of heart-rending sadness, is the true driving force of the novel--a rich seam of emotional honesty underpinning its most comic moments. This is men's writing at its finest--an On the Road minus the drugs and with an admirable degree of heart. --Matthew Baylis

  
   

• Scotland with Your Family (Frommers With Your Family Series)

  Dinah Hatch, Ben Hatch

  
  
   

• The Lawnmower Celebrity

  Ben Hatch