Book Review: Box Hill by Adam Mars-Jones

[juushika]

Title: Box Hill
Author: Adam Mars-Jones
Published: New Directions, 2020
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 140
Total Page Count: 564,350
Text Number: 2134
Read Because: reviewed by Rosamund, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Our protagonist is eighteen when he literally stumbles over a biker and into a sadomasochistic relationship. Reflected upon here in a conversational, concise but unedited-feeling dive: the examined but unstructured consequences of a formative sexual relationship. It's compelling, rendered oblique—not as a mystery, but veiled by what isn't spoken in the relationship, and how even a retrospective view evidences a lack of self-knowledge. Some of that circuitousness doesn't work for me, particularly in the protagonist's family life; but as a glimpse into a very specific culture and moment of time, so certain in its way is and yet so transient, yet still reaching in consequence, this really engaged me.

Comments

[starshipfox]

I'm glad you enjoyed it! It inspired me to seek out a lot more of Mars-Jones' work, none of which I liked as much. The film, Pillion, is based on this book, and is a very good, if flawed, piece of work in its own way.