Knock Turn

Songwriter and novelist Nichols (Suzanne and Gertrude) offers an elegiac story of a retired couple who travel along the canals of England on their boat. Mouse, 70, a former bookseller, and his wife, Bev, have let go of almost all their belongings, having resolved to spend their remaining days cruising the canals. The bulk of the narrative consists of Mouse’s reminiscences. He thinks often of his London bookstore; his quiet painter father, who died decades earlier; and other characters such as his father’s agent, Fritz. Mouse’s memories are often tinged with sadness, alienation, and regret. When he examines his relationship with his wife, he reflects, “Bev is a beauty and I’m not.” Later in their voyage, they are joined by a man named Poole, a traveler and new age eccentric. As the various characters converse about art, music, poetry and philosophy, Nichols keeps buoyant a narrative that might otherwise feel hopelessly sullen. Mouse’s father, in particular, gives esoteric but illuminating perspectives on the nature of painting. In one interview with a magazine, the father says, “My paintings don’t talk. They’re not about words. They’re prewords or postwords.” This taut account of a man’s attempt to reckon with mortality is one to remember. (Nov.)