Tag: as if

As If is the new novel by Isabel Waidner, a story of two men with strangely mirrored lives who want each other’s opportunities. Lewis was an actor, but since the death of his wife he’s too depressed to go to auditions. Korine has a wife and child, but feels unfulfilled. Both look strangely similar and went to the same school. A chance meeting leads them to talk in Lewis’ flat, and from there, their mirror lives turn upside down.

Waidner is one of my favourite current novelists so I was very excited for this book. As If definitely represents a new direction in their writing, though it retains many distinctive elements (in style and existential nature, but also the Prick Up Your Ears references and interest in class and opportunity). It is direct and reflective, without as many surreal turns as their previous novel (and my favourite) Corey Fah Does Social Mobility, but instead plays the dark comedy straight, making the book feel even more like a midcentury British play (fittingly, of course, for the theme of acting and the kinds of plays/playwrights referenced in the book).

As If is a strangely timeless novel that would make an accessible entry point into Waidner’s work, but it is also a deeply existential story exploring failures and chances. I like how the story feels so straightforward, but also anything but—a clash between the real and the absurd that creates a hum of humour under everything even as both men fail to get anywhere in their new opportunities. I went into the book expecting another book following Waidner’s previous novels, but  I got something else, and I’m starting to appreciate that maybe that’s what I needed, even if it wasn’t what I expected. Whilst reading, I thought it was good but not mindblowing, but now I’m finished, I find that I want to recommend it to everyone.