The Queen of the Tambourine by Jane Gardam

[Mike]

A strangely compelling, enigmatic yet subtly amusing novel by Jane Gardam winner of the Whitbread prize in 1991. It is a very strange story more of a mystery than a straight story. The main character is having what can only be described as a nervous breakdown; her manic delusions take us into the story and lead us along in her world. She is becoming the streets busybody, she has taken to writing notes to her neighbours giving unneeded advice, she visits the local hospice run by the Nuns but they try to keep her at arms length. Well meaning but misguided she is losing her grip on her already tenuous reality but worse is to come as she begins a one-sided correspondence with her neighbour from over the road. Her neighbours life comes apart as her own does with almost catastrophic results.

Separating reality from delusion is the whole point of this story it is convoluted and sometimes misleading yet the clues are there. Putting together the pieces of the psychological drama unfolding among the pages is at first unsettling but as the drama unfolds there are enough clues, I didn't guess all the solutions try as I might. The main character is a diplomats wife from the old school and she has spent much of her married life in foreign countries being a loyal wife - her return to London appears to coincide with her retreat from reality yet her previous life comes and goes within the story giving the characters an up to the minute feel in the story only for the reader to find what has happened did so 20 yrs before.

Compelling, amusing yet poignant in places the narrative feels satirical in places even the Iranian revolution gets a mention. It is hard not to feel sympathy for the main character but it is also quite funny too - especially where the Nuns are concerned. Well written, amusing yet thought provoking I enjoyed the mystery in this quite short book which in some respects reminded me of John Lanchesters "The Debt to pleasure" which won the Whitbread best novel in 1996 with its twists leading to an unexpected final twist. A very good read indeed, amusing and unusual.