Author: Jonathan Trigell
Publisher: Serpent’s Tale
Binding: Paperback
Publication Date: May 2009
Cham is something of a departure from my usual fantasy and science fiction reading addiction. Damon sent me this book in December but I put it away for a bit because the release date of this reprint stated on the ARC is in May. It’s Trigell’s second novel after Boy A, released in 2004. I haven’t read his first book but I understand it was quite a début.
Cham is a nickname of Chamonix, a town in the French Alps and the capital of extreme sports. The British main character, we get to know him by his nickname Itchy, is one of the foreigners in the town working in the tourist industry. In his case that means being a barkeeper. Itchy is not a man at ease with himself. Chasing women and boozing and hiding from himself occupy a lot of his time in Chamonix. Itchy is almost thirty now, most of his friends have settled down, have a career, children etc. Itchy is drawn back to Chamonix every winter though.
Like many of his colleagues, he lives in the cheap but still overprices apartments in Chamonix-Sud. As Itchy himself puts it:
The best views in Chamonix are from Cham-Sud, because from there you can’t see Cham-Sud.
Apart from being pretty, Cham-Sud is also in the possession of a huge underground parking facility that is currently being haunted by a rapist. The matter is being kept quiet so as not to scare the tourists away. Someone who knows Chamonix as well as Itch does, is better informed about what is going on in town. The rapist becomes an obsession to Itchy. His chance to redeem himself.
You’d think that catching this rapist would be the focus of the book. You’d be dead wrong. Itchy is just about the most self-absorbed guy you’ll ever read about, the book is about him. I don’t like Itchy, when you get right down to it he is a cynical bastard. Don’t get me wrong, the way Trigell writes about him you can’t help but feel sympathy towards him at times, but but you’ll soon be reminded Itchy is not a nice man. Though his everyday life in Chamonix and flashbacks to his first year at university we gradually find out what drives Itchy to go back to Chamonix every year. Trigell weaves bits of Itchy’s education on English romantic literature, the works of Lord Byron, Percy Shelly and Mary Shelly in particular. Something we wouldn’t have thought Itchy would be interested in, if it weren’t for the fact he is taking the course because of a girl he wants to get close to.
Byron, Shelly and Shelly have a strong connection with the Chamonix region. They spend the summer of 1816 there, resulting in, among other things, the for genre fiction hugely influential novel Frankenstein. The Mont Blanc region though the eyes of the romantic writers contains surprising similarities to that of Itchy. Although put in other words both appreciate the stark natural beautify of the mountains but Itchy also shares with Byron that he likes it for the simple fact that it is not England.
Trigell’s use of flashbacks and bits of course material and fiction inspired by the romantics interwoven with Itchy’s activities in Chamonix uncovers his past. Whether or not you agree with my opinion of Itchy, the Trigell makes this book in a fascinating character study, as well as letting us know what the author, who lives in Chamonix himself, likes so much about the town. Itchy’s witty commentary on the town, tourists, the industry he works in and people in general make it a very amusing read at times. Cham is not quite what I expected, not something I would pick up normally but I very much enjoyed reading it.
