Cruel to be Kind by
Tim Wilson
pbk out August 98
(Headline)
at £5.99
In this, his fifth novel, Tim Wilson continues to make the reader feel uncomfortable through his investigation of attitudes about which we feel guilty or ashamed. Here his central character lives through an entirely realistic and plausible situation in which her own beliefs, attitudes and understanding are questioned to the point where she begins to doubt her own sanity and ability to cope.
It is all brought about by one of those sudden, shocking and irreversible tragedies which happen to someone else. Laura Ritchie's husband is killed crossing a busy road on his way to work, leaving his wife and seven year old son, Simon, to pick up the pieces of their seemingly shattered lives. As more detail is discovered about the accident however, different feelings merge with the grief and the stabbing moments of guilt. David Ritchie's secret life is slowly revealed to both his wife and the reader, questioning perceptions and changing attitudes. Not only is Laura's life acquiring another unwanted dimension, but also the reader is gaining a greater insight into the tangle of their relationship and identifying more solidly with Laura and her suffering.
Then there is the driver of the vehicle involved, Mike Mackman, to whom no blame has been attached. In many ways he is as much a victim as the man he accidentally killed. He has to live with the guilt and responsibility of his actions. The inquest may have cleared him of all blame, but he feels a moral responsibility to do his best to compensate Laura for her loss. He is a man with a mission: to be a guardian angel to Laura, who suddenly finds herself under obligations to him that she had never wished for. This quite quickly develops into a sinister spiral of unease and growing fear as the desire to protect becomes the obsessive need to control.
What is harassment? When do another person's actions become harassment? How do you prove it? Neither the dictionary nor the law are any great help in establishing a definition which would enable an outsider to see clearly the extent and threat of the problem. One woman's ""harassment"" is another's ""kindness"". How can Laura claim to the police that she is being harassed by a man whose sole aim in life seems to be to want to help her? How can she expect an outsider to understand the sinister threat of the situation as Mackman's tenacity and determination develop? He has done nothing actually wrong.
What Tim Wilson does skillfully in his writing is to encourage the reader to identify so closely with Laura, that the reader becomes her sole confidante, the only person who can appreciate fully the potential threat of the developing situation she faces. As in his earlier novel ""Freezing Point"", Wilson draws a compelling picture of the individual fighting alone against other, seemingly more powerful and inevitably successful forces. He writes with a sensitivity and understanding of the loneliness of such a position and the reliance on a personal inner strength to bring a successful outcome.
The strength of this particular novel is that it deals with a contemporary problem, drawn with characters who are realistic, who have their faults as well as their strengths and who are in touch with normal, mundane every-day life as the reader will know it. The novel begins with a situation which could happen to anyone at any time and through its well-paced and controlled narrative, makes the reader re-appraise his/her attitudes and understanding of similar situations. It is a worthy new addition to Tim Wilson's list of successes and one which moves the genre a step forward in the examination of contemporary themes.
Frank Brown"
Cruel to be Kind by
Tim Wilson