Ben Hatch saves Jay Golden, the 18-year-old hero of his debut novel Lawnmower Celebrity, from the A-Z humour of terminal adolescence by integrating a macabre twist: terminal illness through the death from cancer of his mother.
Jay Golden's ultimate ambition is "to write a great novel, which will make me a major authentic voice for a generation". This fictional hero has closely studied Holden Caulfield in Catcher in The Rye and has probably slunk in front of the mirror practising the stances of Generation X, courtesy of Douglas Coupland--trying on a series of Mcjobs in kebab shops and lawnmower retailers. He's even got a bit of an Adrian Mole thing going on too, with the careful diary entries, the bemused humour, the cool girlfriend.
Ben Hatch starts in with butterfly punches. Jay's diary entries are funny and sarcastic. They are full of mocking observations: "the only way to behave at work is not to care and not even to pretend to care. This is my strategy and is probably why I keep getting sacked". He tracks his deteriorating relationship with his dad and his girlfriend with fake irony, the timbre of teen angst. But then Ben Hatch lands a punch to the stomach, a winding blow of emotion and grief. As Jay describes his mother illness: "When I hug mum now I can feel every bone. Her eyes seem to be further into her head and her temples are so hollow half a thumb could disappear inside them." The careless pose is revealed for what it truly is--a desperate clutch at trying to cope with all that sadness and sorrow.
Jay Golden is not a major authentic voice for a new generation but his superficial self-obsession combined with his heartbreaking loss make him a beguiling commentator on life. --Eithne Farry