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A is for Angelica

by Iain Broome (Goodreads Author)

3.97 of 5 stars 3.97 · rating details · 58 ratings · 21 reviews

'My life is different now. I don't go to work. I don't have an office. I stay at home, hide behind curtains and make notes. I wait for something to happen.'

Gordon Kingdom struggles with the fate of his seriously-ill wife while patiently observing and methodically recording the lives of those around him: his neighbours.

He has files on them all, including:

-Don Donald (best f...more

Paperback, 1st ed, 256 pages

Published September 1st 2012 by Legend Press (first published August 1st 2012)

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Aug 16, 2012 Maya Panika rated it 4 of 5 stars

Oh dear lord, what a sad, tragic tale of loss and grief and the achingly slow descent into madness. And how funny it is.

Gordon Kingdom is fifty-two. He’s left his dreary job to look after Georgina, his wife, who is bed-ridden and incapacitated after a stroke. Gordon hasn’t told the doctor about his wife, making the choice to ignore reality even as it’s hitting him in the face with a spade, because he and Georgina have a pre-prepared plan, a system for her care, he knows he can look after her bet...more Oh dear lord, what a sad, tragic tale of loss and grief and the achingly slow descent into madness. And how funny it is.

Gordon Kingdom is fifty-two. He’s left his dreary job to look after Georgina, his wife, who is bed-ridden and incapacitated after a stroke. Gordon hasn’t told the doctor about his wife, making the choice to ignore reality even as it’s hitting him in the face with a spade, because he and Georgina have a pre-prepared plan, a system for her care, he knows he can look after her better himself. He spends his days observing his neighbours, keeping notes on the details of their lives, keeping watch through the day and night. Then Angelica moves in across the road and Gordon’s obsession with his neighbours becomes Angelica-centric - and begins to deepen.

At times I was reminded of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time in Gordon’s language and thoughts, his almost autistic attention to detail and the obsessive way he now deals with every tiny facet of his always-small and now fast-shrinking life. There are echoes of The Roundabout Man and Harold Fry, too, but A is for Angelica lacks the sweetness that lifted those stories out of depression and into melancholy. Iain Broome uses dark humour in place of sentiment to diffuse the tension and it works well, it feels real. His style is sparse and spare, he sticks to the point, the plot never wanders unnecessarily. There’s a wealth of beautiful detail but it never gets in the way of the story:
‘She sits and crochets in the light from her television. Its colours always changing.’
‘There’s a puddle on the floor and a hole in the roof. The wood is rotting and coated with moss. Along the wall is a line of nails. Some have tools hanging from them, other just shapes of tools drawn round with a felt tip pen. There’s a hammer where a spanner should be.’

A is for Angelica is a surprisingly compelling page-turner; a fast read and terrifically told but terribly depressing. I couldn’t decide if it was darkly comically tragically funny or comically dark and tragic. I feel the latter is most apposite, though I did laugh – sometimes out-loud – there are some wonderfully comic moments, but I cried more.

The end was inevitable but no less moving for all that and I suspect the tragedy doesn’t end with the final page. And was it just me, or was Angelica a terrifically annoying person? I used to know someone just like her. I know if I were Gordon, I’d have made sure my doors were always locked and kept my distance.
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Aug 10, 2012 Jenni rated it 4 of 5 stars

A is for Angelica starts off on an interesting premise - the protagonist being an older man who watches his neighbours and makes notes on them while juggling his own home life. Broome pulls it off well too, and it rarely gets boring - something that I was concerned would happen as it is too steeped in reality.

The protagonist, Gordon, is well-developed, yet Broome does not employ the use of special techniques, or long descriptions to do so. Instead, what drives most of the characterisation is sim...more

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May 18, 2013 Literary Relish rated it 4 of 5 stars

Gordon Kingdom lives in Cressington Vale, a perfectly suburban, uncontroversial and terribly middle class street whose various characters waltz through their daily routines and, in the main, lead highly predictable lives. Apart, perhaps, from Benny the boy across the road, who between the hours of 1 and 2am every morning settles down in his bedroom to paint with his eyes closed. We know this because, whilst caring for his seriously ill wife Georgina, Gordon spends his days peeping around his cur...more

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Oct 05, 2012 Tim Roast rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a very sad novel about loneliness. It is told through the eyes of Gordon Kingdom who is in his 50s and who clearly has some sort of autism. Everything he does is very methodical and he takes everything literally.

One day Angelica moves in across the road from him and he opens a file "A is for Angelica" because he keeps written files on what his neighbours across the road get up to. It is some sort of therapy for him to help with his coming to terms with the state his wife is in - she's ha...more

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Aug 14, 2012 Cams rated it 4 of 5 stars

I was alerted to this by Myke Hurley on Twitter, someone I know purely from his tech-related podcasts on the 70 Decibels network. My reading list is ridiculously long, so adding to it is not really something I need to be doing. But somehow, not only did this book get _added_ to my queue, not only did it appear at the _top_ of my queue, but it somehow got read, finished and starred before I knew what had happened.

And d'you know why that was?

Because it's very good, that's why!

Honestly though, I'v...more I was alerted to this by Myke Hurley on Twitter, someone I know purely from his tech-related podcasts on the 70 Decibels network. My reading list is ridiculously long, so adding to it is not really something I need to be doing. But somehow, not only did this book get _added_ to my queue, not only did it appear at the _top_ of my queue, but it somehow got read, finished and starred before I knew what had happened.

And d'you know why that was?

Because it's very good, that's why!

Honestly though, I've been slogging through the audiobook of Dance with Dragons for weeks now. My non-audio reading is dedicated right now to getting through Kourosh Dini's OmniFocus book (nearly there) and my coffee table book of Soviet pictures.

A is for Angelica was such a refreshing change, a breath of fresh air.

Firstly, the style. I've heard that this is Iain Broome's first novel. I find that simply remarkable. The storytelling was lean: short sentences, quick dialogue, no bloat. I was going to say that I would guess that the author uses Twitter, but I happen to _know_ that he does. It reads like it was written by a Twitter user, if that makes any sense. No bloat. You get me?

The style and content felt very English and made me think a bit of Nick Hornby or that other guy, Tony Parsons I think it is. That was refreshing. The time of year features well too, almost as a character. The descriptions of the dark and light, times of the day, the snow, the cold.

The characters themselves were enjoyable, particularly the interaction. Some of the stuff that Gordon came away with! He seemed kind of nervous, unconfident, antisocial, fearful of change, all to the extent of being creepy. Kind of like an Internet nerd or, something I have experience of, someone with Asperger's. So, let's just say I could relate.

The awkward beginnings of his relationship with Georgina illustrated his character very well I thought. And his devotion to looking after her _in secret_ showed another aspect of his character. And sneaking into Don's shed to get his hedge cutters back, the midnight tree-cutting, the observing of his street. He really is quite a difficult character to fathom, but strangely likeable for all that.

This book came along at the perfect time for me, so it gets four stars. It's not up there with my unforgettable favourite reads, so for that reason I can't give it five. But I will certainly be looking out for Iain's next novel!(less)

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Oct 08, 2012 Andy Angel rated it 5 of 5 stars

Gordon, the lead character in this book is a bit of an oddity. He spends all his time either looking after his wife (who has had a stroke) or spying on his neighbours (he keeps notes on all of them in his files).

He comes across at times as a mixture of Adrian Mole and the boy from The Curious Case of The Dog In The Night-time, but for all his quirks he is not a bad person.

The fact that he keeps his bed-ridden wife upstairs and tells nobody she has had a second stroke could be seen as sinister bu...more

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Aug 13, 2012 Louise Miller rated it 4 of 5 stars

Iain Broome’s debut novel is moving, poignant and heart-breaking. A whirlwind of conflicting emotions played out by Gordon, compulsively felt by the reader.

The novel is not filled with plot twists, but instead focuses beautifully on a simple tale of love, guilt and helplessness, letting the everyday characters move the story on. The characters are brought brilliantly to life by Iain’s meticulous writing.

The story flows effortlessly and I quickly devoured it, reading it from cover to cover.
It i...more

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Aug 26, 2012 Lindsay (Little Reader Library) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary-fiction

'I stay at home, hide behind curtains and make notes. I wait for something to happen.'

Gordon Kingdom watches the happenings on Cressington Vale, a street in a northern town, where he lives with his wife Georgina and dog Kipling. He keeps files of notes and his observations about the lives of those on the opposite side of the street. His wife has suffered two strokes, the first of which happened eighteen months ago, and he patiently cares for her at home, trying to cope, to continue some sort of...more 'I stay at home, hide behind curtains and make notes. I wait for something to happen.'

Gordon Kingdom watches the happenings on Cressington Vale, a street in a northern town, where he lives with his wife Georgina and dog Kipling. He keeps files of notes and his observations about the lives of those on the opposite side of the street. His wife has suffered two strokes, the first of which happened eighteen months ago, and he patiently cares for her at home, trying to cope, to continue some sort of existence, so lonely and so sad. No longer working outside the home, and with no children, Gordon records what he sees outside from his concealed viewpoint upstairs, in the house they've shared throughout their married life. There are several characters we meet, all seen through Gordon's eyes; there's Benny, who paints at night with his eyes closed, there's Gordon's best friend Don, and the new lady who moves into the street, Angelica. Gordon recalls how he started observing the little world in miniature around him:

'I found myself sitting by the window for hours on end, surveying the street. Letting the world drift past. Taking my mind off things. I watched my neighbours and got to know them better than I ever had before. Their changes in behaviour. Their simplest of movements. Their finest of details.'

He rarely encounters some of the people he keeps his files on in fact, until the arrival of Angelica, when things start to change. Gordon rarely sees his parents now. As he sits and thinks, Gordon also recalls times from his past, times shared with Georgina, and their parents. These events are sometimes happy, often rather tinged with sadness though. One of my favourite sections was the chapter entitled 'Umbrage', in which Gordon recalls a memory from just under a couple of years ago, when it was Georgina's birthday and they went to the coast. It's a lovely, happy recollection amidst the more troubled and unhappy thoughts that often dominate the moments he looks back on.

This is Iain Broome's debut novel, and it's a well written, emotional and thoughtful book with a story that flows well throughout. The novel is composed of short chapters, each with a relevant title that takes us through the alphabet, from Angelica, then Benny, to Birthdays and then Cressington Vale, and so on. This makes for a fairly quick read, though this is an emotional rather than eventful plot, and it's all delivered through Gordon as the first person narrator throughout, so we are intensely involved with his life. The author depicts the intense sadness and at times despondency present in Gordon's current way of life as a carer for Georgina, yet he manages at times to inject an element of humour into some of Gordon's encounters that I felt was very real, I could imagine someone like Gordon saying some of things he says, and doing some of the things he does. One example is when Georgina suffers her first stroke, during a neighbourhood watch meeting arranged by Gordon. The attendees are discussing the spate of milk thefts, and allocating shifts for keeping a look out. Even after what happens next, Gordon still remembers to remind Don about his shift. This sort of mundanity in the face of tragedy appears both surprising and yet likely too; trying to keep a hold of the small things.

The reader observes Gordon and is made to think about him and his unconventional behaviour, just as he watches those around him. At times it felt painful for me to be present with Gordon and party to his thoughts, and it is difficult when he can't admit the truth about his situation to himself, never mind to anyone else. He is determined to persist with his way of thinking; the alternative seems too painful, too much to contemplate. I found this a moving read that made me think. It captures the quiet sadness and loneliness that envelopes many lives, the spark of interest that someone new can inject. Sometimes Gordon's behaviour angered me and I questioned his choices, with him leaving me feeling both sympathetic towards him and at other times disbelieving; hence the story makes you think - what would you do?

A is for Angelica is about love, fear, the small things that make up a life, and the huge things that can suddenly change a life forever. It is made up of poignant observations, reminiscences, memories of the past and thorough scrutiny of the present. Contained in these pages there is sadness, grief and loss, the mundane and everyday occurences in a random life, not without some dark humour, and certainly offering us some truths. I look forward to seeing what this writer does next.(less)

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Dec 29, 2012 Fiona Ross rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Protagonist Gordon Kingdom's narration of his story and circumstances is so immediate and direct, you are right inside his head from the off. This book is a touching and perceptive study of real lives behind the anonymous, respectable front doors of Cressington Vale. A touch of the Rose Tremain in the way the author peels back the bland pretensions of society to reveal tooth and claw underneath.
Criticism of the harsher aspects of our 'welfare' state is so deftly delivered, you don't notice it un...more

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Mar 25, 2013 Sam rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2000s

Put simply: this is a beautiful debut novel. And a true testament to what thoughtful editing can achieve. Broome strips his writing to the bare minimum – the perfect complement to his methodical, to-the-point narrator (Gordon), and the unfortunate situation he’s in (caring for his seriously-ill wife).

Throughout the novel Gordon tries to live two lives:

Life One: he takes notes on what he can see outside his window. He passes the time by preoccupying himself with the everyday. What people do and w...more

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Oct 10, 2012 flamberg rated it 4 of 5 stars

it is a rather unusual experience - writing a review, or rather an extended wording of opinion, on a book written by someone you know. well, i hope it’s not a big stretch to say that i know mr iain broome. i read his blog, i listen to his podcast and i’ve met him on his signing event, and most importantly he follows me back (!) on twitter. on the modern internet scale it’s safe to say that we’re acquainted.

“a is for angelica” is iain broome’s debut novel. he went the old fashioned way and publis

...more

“a is for angelica” is iain broome’s debut novel. he went the old fashioned way and published it on paper via traditional publishing house. and, of course, there is a kindle version.

this novel wasn’t written in six weeks, or as nanowrimo challenge. it was in “development” for quite a long time. if you are intrigued, go to iainbroome.com and get the first hand information.

so. what’s the book about?
after reading it you will know everything about gordon kingdom, his dog kipling, who is angelica and why should you care about them.

it takes place in one of those quiet towns that are almost abandoned and every single piece of news is discussed for ages. such news was angelika’s arrival to a quiet respectable street.

this is the very beginning, so i’m spoiling nothing.

atmosphere in the book has strangely reminded me of the film “hot fuzz” where seemingly perfect and picturesque village happens to be a place of gruesome murders. “a is for angelica” is nothing like that, but it’s the mood you get from those pages that makes you think about good old england and falseness of first impressions.

many reviewers refer to it as a dark comedy. i struggle with this definition. whilst it definitely has humorous moments in it (often associated with kipling) but generally it’s has a fleur of desperation.

characters are very well written and presented to the very last detail in an elegant manner that doesn’t leave you with a thought “oh, exposition fairy, not again”.

gordon, main character, whose point of view reader follows, is not a very likeable person. he is judgemental, shortsighted in area of human interactions, and sometimes just creepy. but as the plot unravels, you understand him, get a inner view of his motives.

if you have ever encountered someone doing something incredibly silly or out of character, and wondered “WHY???”, try reading “a is for angelica”.

resolution is superb. it’s an open ending that leaves some space for your imagination.

i’m already looking forward iain’s second novel. though it might take a while. but readers are patient.�

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Jan 29, 2013 Mags Hobday rated it 1 of 5 stars

Officially the most depressing book ever, I got no enjoyment from this book!!!! I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone

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Sep 10, 2012 Nicola rated it 5 of 5 stars

Wonderful, tragic, moving, and achingly funny, this is an incredibly accomplished debut. More Iain Broome please!

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Feb 16, 2013 Veronika marked it as to-read

Recommended to Veronika by: booksandquills

I heard this book was depressing....awesome! lol

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Jan 24, 2013 Katy Noyes rated it 4 of 5 stars

Hard to comment on this one. I originally thought that Gordon's wife was dead and he had deluded himself into imagining her still alive.
The real story, of the stroke-ridden wife and her tired, loving and obsessive husband is sad, touching and slow. Their love story is gradually told and is achingly lovely, Gordon's constant spying and noting of his neighbours' every move creepy but almost understandable.
A very interesting novel, different but moving.

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Sep 17, 2012 Steve Rattray rated it 3 of 5 stars

It was alright I guess.

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Aug 23, 2012 Ardie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 50-books-in-2012-to-read, 50-books-in-2012-have-read

Both tragic and funny. The protagonist and narrator is such a fully-formed character, and through his life and the way he tells his tale we experience the quaint and trivial occurring alongside deeper and darker events.

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Aug 08, 2012 Anette rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: thebookbag-co-uk-review-books

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Feb 24, 2013 Sarah rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: gave-up

I tried to read this for my Book Club but just hated it. I found it dull and rather creepy with no redeeming features. I very rarely give up on a book but this one was too horrid!

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Jun 20, 2012 Jean rated it 5 of 5 stars

So honest and moving. This one was hard to put down.

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May 22, 2013 Kate marked it as to-read

Shelves: wishlist

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About Iain Broome

Iain Broome grew up in a small town in Derbyshire – the sort you only hear about when someone goes on Countdown. He is now 32 years old and lives in Sheffield, where he works as a researcher for Sheffield Hallam University. A graduate of Sheffield Hallam’s MA Writing programme, Iain has edited literary magazines, co-run a successful monthly spoken word event and currently maintains a popular websi...more

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