I pride myself on the books I buy (most of the time). Even when going outside my comfort zone, I am able to sieve through endless reviews and blurbs and feel a resonance for reads that I will find pleasurable. Things Can Only Get Better is not really a book I would ordinarily buy, and I cannot even remember where I got the prompting to buy it two years ago but it is a read that I am glad I bought and have thoroughly enjoyed. It is a poignant but simple plot that transverses a lot of topics. The prose is simple and decluttered, yet was thought-provoking. Things Can Only Get Better is a story of hope, dreams, becoming, forgiveness and family. It is a story that circles around four young teenagers and a septuagenarian widower, Arthur Calderbank. Arthur is a war veteran whose wife died seven years ago. He is so attached to her that he lives in the church compound next to the cemetery where she is buried. He marinated in his grief to the extent that he visited the cemetery every day. The daily ritual was a reason why he was piqued and curious about the moonflowers that were dropped at his wife’s grave on her birthday every year.
Things Can Only Get Better is set in the England of the 90s. Thatcher’s industrialisation is wreaking havoc on the industrialised north of the country; unemployment is on the rise and hope is in short supply, not just for the unemployed adults but also for the young. The teenagers in Things Can Only Get Better see nothing but a bleak future ahead. No one believes in them; not their parents nor their teachers. It is a depressing state. One of them decides to dream. A dream about forming a band. It is the actualization of this band that causes their paths to be crossed with that of Arthur. The teenagers are seeking hope in a hopeless town while Arthur is seeking help with the mystery of the moonflowers that unfailingly appear at the grave of his wife every birthday. One need is primary and life-affirming and the other is seemingly mundane but as the bond between the kids and Arthur is established, both needs get addressed and in the process a lot o issues come to the fore; bigotry, family, forgiveness, friendship and hope.
The beautiful thing about Things Can Only Get Better is how David Barnett humanizes his characters. They are so relatable and ordinary, both in their failures and triumphs. In this regard, Things Can Only Get Better reminds me of The Man I Think I Know. My only small quibble is with the ending. It is too clean and provides all the closures that one would dream of. We all know that life is often not that neat. In all, Things Can Only Get Better is a lovely, simple gem.
3.8/5
