Disappoint Me - Nicola Dinan

 'This is a most impressive debut novel and my ‘bookstinct’ is telling me it could be very important.'

I wrote that as a concluding sentence in my review of Bellies,  Nicola Dinan's debut novel. I'm now in possession of her second novel, Disappoint Me. She doesn't. Disappoint me, I mean. Far from it. If anyone thought that Bellies was a one off, a fluke, one of those 'everyone has a novel inside them' books never to be repeated, think again. If this new novel doesn't cement Dinan as an exceptional literary talent I don't know what will. This is writing of high quality in its intent and execution. The prose is sparkling, witty and insightful. It shows a writer who thinks deeply and the resulting story is so thoughtful.

The characters are intense and complex, the themes challenging and thought provoking. And the author demonstrates a perception that has you incredulous that she has been able to articulate so effectively things that you didn't know you thought. It's all that literature should be.

So what's it all about? 

'Max is 30, a published poet and grossly overpaid legal counsel for a tech company. She's living her best life! Or is she? The debris of years of dysphoria and failed relationships rattles around in her head. When she tumbles down the stairs at a New Year's Eve party and wakes up in hospital alone, she decides to make some changes. First things first: a stab at good old-fashioned heteronormativity.

Vincent, corporate lawyer and hobby baker. He's trad friendship group may as well speak a different language to Max, and his Chinese parents never pictured their son dating a trans woman. It's uncertain terrain, but Vincent cares for Max in a way she'd long given up as a foolish fantasy.

Vincent is carrying his own baggage. On his gap year in Thailand a decade earlier, he vied for the attention of a gorgeous traveller, Alex with secrets of her own. Is Vincent really the new face of the Enlightened Man, or will the ghost of his past sabotage his and Max's happiness?'

Like Bellies it is about the experiences of a trans woman navigating a thirty something world. But it is a dual narrative between Max and Vincent so you get both perspectives, all eloquently described. Parenthood, relationships and forgiveness form the central themes from a trans, homo and heterosexual point of view. All the characters count - Max's brother. Vincent and Max's friends, all the parents.  They are part of the whole story, participants not bystanders. The characters aren't always engaging but they are real, they are flawed as people are and - they disappoint. 

'People are what they are, and sometimes they're just an ongoing series of small disappointments.'

'Life is a series of happy endings and sad endings, a handsome lover or career often marking the board up between epochs. She'll, (Max's friend, Simone), find someone, or several people, but I don't think anyone can say any of us will find someone for forever.'

There's plenty of quotable maxims in the book. For me, anyway, one of the marks of a good book are those lines that you read and want to punch the air in celebration of their astute accuracy. 

Thank you Doubleday for an advance copy. It's been a privilege to read it.