Novel – 230 pages – scooped from the bookcase in Plymouth Starbucks
3 nods
The novelist, Sam Savage, wrote this – his first – novel in his sixties. His own personal history is rich and diverse, itself reading as something from fiction: a philosophy student, a bicycle mechanic, carpenter, commercial fisherman and letterpress printer. The Worm can deduce from such activity that Savage was rarely bored.
Firmin is the story of a rat born in counter-culture America in the early sixties. It follows Firmin himself, as he is neglected and eventually isolated from his brothers and sisters, his quest to find acknowledgment in the world of books, right through to his demise at the book’s end. The narrative certainly lives up to the book’s subtitle: ‘Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife’.
As well as being a critique on our own human relations (as too often in fiction, in tends to take a non-human to celebrate our qualities: such as Dumbo, the alien from E.T., and of course, the brave little toaster), Firmin is also a celebration of our history of literature. Firmin himself is born upon a copy of Finnegan’s Wake, the rat stating: ‘I was birthed, bedded, and suckled on the defoliated carcass of the world’s most unread masterpiece’ (p.12). He feeds himself upon a diet of Nabokov, of Lawrence and of Austen; he references the greats, always himself wanting to be one of these 'Big Ones'.
This is Firmin’s ever enduring agony: his awareness of the great, big world around him and his inability to ever fully take part. As well as being entertaining, the novel is a moving one, notably in Firmin’s encounters with humankind. He loves Norman, the book-shop owner, who sees the rat as a pest to be eradicated; he has a strong bond with Jerry, who in returns sees him as an innocent, silly plaything. Ultimately, Firmin is alone, and even sadder is his actual realisation of this loneliness.
The book is an entertaining read – made all the more worthwhile due to the oddity of the central character. It will not change the reader's world, and it is not a book to place alongside the 'Big Ones' - yet for a few hours, it will succesfully and comfortably transport them away into Firmin's mindset. An engaging first novel from an interesting author.
