Here We Are by Graham Swift
Here We Are is an enchantingly constructed tale with Swift moving in and out of a set timeline to deliver a mosaic of lives filled with love, loss, and illusion. Introducing the novel, we start with the flourish of Jack Robinson, waiting in the wings to begin the story. We soon meet the other two main characters, an act known as 'Pablo and Eve' — the magician (illusionist) and his assistant. It's the summer of 1959 on the Brighton Palace Pier in the days when the music hall and variety show acts are starting to wane and give way to television.
Back during World War II, an eight-year-old Ronnie Deane is evacuated from Bethnal Green to Evergrene, an Oxfordshire country home where he is cared for during the Blitz by the Lawrences, a childless couple. It's here that Ronnie decides to become an illusionist, learning the art of magic from Eric 'Lorenzo' Lawrence and working towards becoming a skilled magician.
Jack, the master of ceremonies and the one who advised the emerging magician Ronnie ('Pablo') Deane to find an assistant. Ronnie and Evie become 'Pablo and Eve,' working up to top-billing and an almost inevitable engagement. But when the passing of Ronnie's mother pulls him back home, Evie chooses to stay behind, having not yet met his mother. The delivery is nearly sleight of hand — is it this decision that starts them all down a different path — or was it set this way all along?
With Jack in Bethnal Green handling the details related to his mother's death, Evie and Jack begin an affair, leading Evie to break off her engagement to Ronnie. Despite this, 'Pablo and Eve' continue to perform and continue to draw crowds, with Ronnie now performing as the 'Great Pablo.' In what becomes his final performance on Brighton Pier, the Great Pablo takes them into his most significant and spectacular show.
Woven into the nonlinear story, we're with older Evie White, remembering her husband's death on its first anniversary. She goes out to have lunch and over the course of the day takes the reader back through her memories with her husband Jack, a famous actor, and to the times just before . . . when she was half of 'Pablo and Eve.' Still the tight-lipped, trustworthy assistant, Evie has kept Pablo's illusionist secrets and tricks — the ones she knew anyway. As she continues over the course of this slim novel to reminisce, particularly their pivotal last performance, her memories bring up old questions about the true events of the night of Pablo and Eve's last show.
Here We Are delivers its own brand of magic, and is full of the moving through time that reflects a "now you see it, now you don't" type of approach. There were times when Swift allowed his narrative to be confusing — I'd say purposefully so — emulating the moment in a magic trick when you've lost the cup hiding the ball. Swift's decisive and gorgeous writing enhances his characters with a brilliance as though directly from the spotlight. The one downfall of the story is its abrupt ending — almost as though the lights went out, sparking confusion and deflating the moment just a bit. But overall, a beautiful bit of character and narrative.
Audiobook, as narrated by Phil Davis: Being perfectly frank, Davis almost made me quit this book — very early on. His spoken voice, while probably less noticeable on screen or on stage when you get the benefit of seeing a body and face with the voice, is rather jarring in the ear all alone. Either the production value was hampered by COVID-19 or the producers couldn't be bothered, because I could hear (especially in the first half before I got accustomed to his voice altogether) every single mouth noise, gasp, and swallow. His voice itself was nice, but it was hardly ever in the show on its own, and had this not been so short a book, I probably would've swiftly switched to print to avoid the mouth popping, slurping, and gulping.
