Review of Sadie, Call the Polis

Sadie, Call The Polis by Kirkland Ciccone

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Sadie, Call the Polis is a dark comedy set in Scotland, where we follow the journey of offbeat heroine Sadie Relish. In 1976, a heatwave 'hot enough to melt concrete' descends on Scotland, and while everyone wilts in the heat, a woman arrives in Little Denny Road with the keys to her new council flat. She is glamorous, indomitable, fierce. In tow are her two daughters, the youngest of which is Sadie. We see everything through Sadie's eyes, who navigates the difficult path she's been given in life. Narrated with Kirkland's special brand of dark intelligent wit, Sadie herself shines through the pages as a likeable, brave, kind, patient character who always deserves better than she gets. I suppose she is a working-class hero (heroine), but the book is completely without self-pity or an agenda. It simply tells it as it is, raw, honest, hilariously funny, cuttingly accurate. I love the way Kirkland deals with sectarianism in such a fresh and invigoratingly funny way. Only humour can tell it accurately, such as when Sadie encounters her new father-in-law's hatred of anything green. In this way Kirkland (and Sadie) manage to highlight prejudice and ingrained assumptions with such effortless grace and wit. Sadie's mother is a sex worker, slipping out of the flat at night in order to feed and clothe and house her two daughters. Sadie watches what is going on around her, and tries to untangle the dark threads of her life. A terrible secret lurks at the heart of her life, but she deals with this the way she deals with everything else, with humour, courage and warrior-like strength. She's an ordinary young woman, like so many ordinary young women, dealing with difficult odds, who is actually extraordinary. Her patience and kindness at the end of the book really shine through. We see her navigate childhood, marriage, pregnancy, motherhood, divorce, single parenthood, and her journey takes her right up to the present day, past the ominous moment of March 2020. I loved this book, and I also loved the writing, which for me is always an essential part of any good read. If I don't like the writing style, then I can't enjoy it. But Kirkland's prose is right there, cutting a nice line through life's matter. Oh, and I also loved the descriptions of central Scotland's iconic landmarks, opening one chapter with a description of the 'two decapitated horse's heads through the windscreen.' Never have the infamous Kelpies (landmark of Falkirk) been described in such a way.



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