Thanksgiving [Hardcover]

Mr. Dibdin has stepped aside from his well known, "Aurelio Zen", series on several occasions, I believe, 'Thanksgiving", to be easily the best. The work is fairly brief at 182 pages, a length that few Authors can manage successfully, however Mr. Dibdin excels. There is a great deal of geography covered as well as an array of human emotion. The main players are kept to a tightly controlled few, and every word his uses must justify itself, he leaves little to zero room for excess.

The idea covered is the preoccupation with the life and conduct of a spouse prior to her becoming the subject's wife. The similarity between this book and Mr. Banville's ends here, what remains to be shared is the quality of the work. Violence, jealousy, remorse, and irrational behavior all are explored, the question to be resolved is how will it end, how will the emotions be dealt with. There is an additional catalyst in a rather unsavory character that elicits virtually all you would expect from Mr. Dibdin's main character. Darryl Bob Allen is not one of the more likable characters a reader will have come across, however I also feel he is one of the best human creations that Mr. Dibdin has conjured. As for cameo appearances the airline pilot who shares the details of a crashing plane, while disturbing, is also brilliant.

This book has jarring, provocative exchanges, however as the book progresses and distance and time increase, the intensity becomes more rational and manageable. There is no great twist that will send you reeling, rather a conclusion that could be misread if read with too much haste. The book is an elegant story, and a great addition to this man's work.

The premise is simple : a widower attempts to find out about his late wife's life before she met him. He is a British journalist, she an American previously married to a redneck. To prepare for his meeting with the first husband, the protagonist takes a pistol.

The opening chapter is a tour de force. Atmosphere is convincing, and the tension of the meeting between the two men linked only by their late lover is cranked up through Dibdin's typical mastery of dialogue.

This confrontation with the past permeates the rest of the novel, and throughout Dibdin deals with love, loss, memory, and identity.

As with all his work the characterisation is deftly drawn. Particularly noteworthy are the first husband, and the protagonist's stepdaughter. The relationship that provides the hub of the novel is convincing, and the grief, and bereavement, are touchingly illustrated. One of Dibdin's merits as a stylist (a development in his more recent work particularly) is his tendency to show and not tell and at times this can lead to some writing appearing obtuse. This is no fault, and in a book such as this the dreamlike quality that pervades the novel is reminiscent of other great studies of longing, love, and desire such as Schnitzler's Dream Story.

The territory covered in this novel was also dealt with in Julian Barnes witty novel, Before she met me. It says much of modern British fiction that it is the well-known genre writer's novel that will live long in the memory, and that the much-feted Barnes' work seems slight in comparison.

For this reviewer, this is unquestionably Dibdin's finest novel.