Viva Brighton Issue #73 March 2019

BITS AND BOOKS
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CATS SEEKING LAPS #10
BOOK REVIEW: GRACELAND
BY BETHAN ROBERTS
Pretty Lady Seeks Quiet Home
Name: Smudge
Age: 11
Occupation: Beautician
Me: I am a gentle gal, looking for a peaceful
home with ample hiding places in case visitors
come. I have long nails and long fur and
I like an evening of brushing, cuddling and
lap kneading. I’ll tolerate an old, tired dog in
the house as long as I’m respected and we can
snuggle on cold days.
Seeking: One or two doting humans with
little to no social life, willing to lavish me
with attention and grooming time. Must be
fur-tolerant and proficient in cat pedicure
techniques.
Interests: Well-kept gardens for an afternoon
stroll, fur brushes of varying stiffnesses,
long naps in obscure nooks, duvet burrowing.
Dislikes: Garden statuary, house guests, children,
cats, rush-hour traffic, open-plan living,
ceiling fans, wrong way back scratching,
performance art, toileting in the rain.
Words and picture by Cammie Toloui
cammietoloui.com / Insta: @cammie669
‘Two peoples divided by
a common language.’
Shaw’s crack about
America and Britain was
in my mind as I read
Graceland. That’s because
I kept thinking about
how language is used
in the Southern States,
how it has a flavour all its
own, a lilt to it that’s different from, say, the kind
of language New Yorkers use. I don’t think you
hear much about ‘jambalaya’ in Gotham, just as I
can’t imagine the young Elvis ordering a bagel.
It’s this attention to the acoustics of American
vernacular that makes Bethan Roberts’ novel work
so well. She understands the South better than I
understand the South East. The novel opens with
Elvis as ‘The King’ in Christmas 1957, relaxing
at Graceland. But into this world of lavish wealth
comes the news his mother, Gladys, has been
dreading: Elvis gets his call-up papers, and must
report to an Army base in Memphis. The novel
then switches to 1937, and through these parallel
timelines – pre- and post-fame Elvis – chronicles
the performer’s childhood and his early triumphs.
Elvis may well be a tragic figure, venially exploited
by Colonel Parker, stopped in his tracks when
he joined the Army, a performer who never truly
fulfilled his potential. But Roberts finds in his
relationship with his mother, Gladys, the depths
we hear in Elvis’s tender, velvet voice. And all of
this in prose that is as cool and clean as ‘The King’
was sulky and sultry. Graceland sings.
John O’Donoghue
Chatto and Windus, £12.99 hb
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