Heading Inland---Way to go inside human brain

Heading Inland

by

Nicola Barker

[Published by Faber and Faber, ISBN 0571178081]

It is a collection of short-stories. The short-stories, included in this collection, are 1) Inside Information, 2) G-String, 3)The Three Button Trick, 4) Wesley: Blisters Braces, Mr. Lippy, 5) The Piazza Barberini, 6) Popping Corn, 7) Water Marks, 8) Back to Front, 9) Limptet, 10) Bendy-Linda, 11) Gifts, 12) Parker Swells.

All the stories are unique. It is a highly enjoyable collection, and to certain extent an unputdownable one. Nicola Barker is a very good story-teller. All the characters are well drawn and palpable. This book is about a funny, broody, saucy clutch of tales about the kind of people you sometimes meet but might prefer to ignore. She marries the mind-boggling plot with the aptest style. Her show of wit is remarkable. Another thing must be mentioned here---her ability to use le mot juste. She often uses the langue of the street, yet for stories are no way ordinary. The stores certainly will linger in your mind, Nicola Barker is a one-off. Her style is deceptively simple, just quirky enough and rounded off by a tangy aftertaste, leaving the reader puckish for more.

There’s Wesley, who drinks tea up his nostrils and is dominated by the need to free captive eels from London’s pie-and-mash shops; Ralph, whose giant erection becomes enmeshed in the antiquated wire mattress of a Roman Pensione; Gillion, who dates the intolerable Mr. Kip but saves the day with her G-String; and a small but voracious foetus who unwittingly discovers the dirt on eternal life.

With Heading Inland Nicola Barker proves two things. First, that she has the keen eyes and unflappable constitution of a city pigeon. Second, that she is one of the most versatile and original writers of her generation.

About Nicola Barker:

She was born in 1966. She lives and works in Hackney, London. She is the author of a collection of stories, Love Your Enemeis (winner of the David Higham Prize for fiction and joint winner of the Macmillan Silver Pen Award for Fiction), and two novels Reversed Forecast and Small Holidays.