Tag is a cracking story which has also has important things to say about youth; about middle age; about what it means to be considered gifted; about Wales and England, as well as some withering, satirical comment about contemporary life. It is also, in parts, very funny indeed. And in the character of Colleen, Stephen May has created a thoroughly modern small-town Miss. A motormouth underclass Holden Caulfield, if you will. A vividly alive fusion of wit, beauty and instinctive defiance of authority. A character who will linger in the mind long after you have finished the book.
Ray French -- Publisher: Cinnamon Press
TAG stands for 'Talented and Gifted'. Precocious, promiscuous and furiously bright, fifteen-year-old Mistyann is selected to attend a week's course in Wales with a leading American guru. Knowing that her struggling, alcoholic mother is unlikely to sign the permission form, Mistyann signs it herself. The female teacher who is supposed to be escorting her has to drop out at the last minute and is replaced by Jon Diamond, a forty-one-year-old Advanced Skills teacher and recovered alcoholic. It is, of course, a recipe for disaster, but one that is slow and pleasurable in the making. The device of the multiple narrative voice seems to be much in vogue at the moment, yet often fails because the voices are inadequately differentiated, leaving the reader struggling to determine who is speaking when. Stephen May, however, carries it off beautifully, capturing the tart, lingo-ridden teenage voice and the sardonic tone of the disillusioned mid-lifer with equal assurance. Although it is the relationship between Mistyann and Diamond that dominates here, with their individual and entwined stories as the focus, May surrounds them with a vivid cast of characters who add substance both to their lives and to the unfolding narrative. There were occasions towards the end of the book when I felt the boundaries of credulity were a little over-stretched, but my empathy for the characters was so well established by then that I could allow them (and their creator) pretty much anything. TAG is a sorry but hugely compelling tale, full of warmth and humour and genuine compassion for our human frailties. Most of us are talented and gifted in some way. None of us is perfect. And everyone makes mistakes. In Oscar Wilde's immortal words, 'We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.' -- Suzy Ceulan Hughes @ www.gwales.com
