This unusual novel is told from the point of view of Matthew, a 19-year-old man who still goes to school. He has a lot of time understanding other people and he has difficulty controlling his emotions.  He doesn’t seem to fit in well with the regular world, and his take on the world is distinctly odd. He is sometimes funny and often surprising in his observations.  There’s an obvious link to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. The narrator there had a form of autism, and the narrator here sounds pretty similar. We are not given a lot of information about exactly what Matthew’s diagnosis is, although schizophrenia is mentioned.  That’s surprising because Matthew only rarely mentions hearing voices, and much of his problems seem related to the loss of his brother ten years ago, and his role in that. Matthew gives many flashbacks of his childhood with his brother, and he hints at the accident that led to his brother’s death.  He blames himself for it, and he seems to have some kind of trauma.

So as a novel about the experience of mental illness, The Shock of the Fall is confusing.  It is better as an account of the experience of a mental patient (or mental health service user) in the UK. Matthew tells us about the treatment he gets, the people responsible for his welfare, and a lot about his relationship with his family and their friends. They live in Bristol, and he gives some descriptions of the city. There’s some mystery in the book about the past and about what will happen to Matthew, but mostly the narrative is focused on the present. The reader has to piece together what is happening. The unabridged audiobook read by Bruce Mann has plenty of energy; Mann brings Matt to life, and puts distinct emotion into the reading. His British accent is genuine and he is good at the Bristol accents.

This is an engaging novel with a writing style that makes the reader work at figuring out what is going on. Matthew is an interesting narrator, occasionally thoughtful and often naïve.  He quickly wins the reader’s sympathy with his distinctive combination of childlike unsophistication and adult profanity.

© 2015 Christian Perring

Christian Perring, Professor of Philosophy, Dowling College, New York