Why Not?

Why not live one's dreams- I thought- especially when they come cheap?- so instead of just moaning about people not wearing tricorne hats any longer- I went on eBay and bought myself one.

The first time she saw me wearing it my mother was scornfully incredulous (it's something she's always been rather good at) "Is that a naval hat?" she asked. "Well, yes," I said, I suppose it is. Sort of..."

I wore it much of yesterday. It keeps the sun off. And yesterday was very sunny. I don't suppose I'll wear it to go out in because my tolerance for being pointed at is low- but there's nothing intrinsically impracticable about it.

Whenever I caught sight of my shadow in the sun I wondered whether someone might spot me from a distance and think I was a ghost.

Hawthorn and Child: Keith Ridgway

They're London policemen- and weird shit happens round them all the time- but none of it exactly happens to them. They witness the weird shit- and some of it is very weird indeed- but they're tangential to it. They don't see the context- what happened before and what happens after. Much of their time is spent gathering information on a fixer called Mishazzo- who is well dodgy- or is he?- because we only ever see him when he's riding in his car- between meetings. I don't think it's just because their creator's Irish that they make me think of Vladimir and Estragon.

Hawthorn and Child is a detective novel without the detecting- or at least without any detecting that gets us anywhere, a crime novel without much in the way of crime and never anything by way of resolution. Hawthorn is continuously making notes- like the recording angel- like a novelist in search of a theme- but he never uses them. Why, when I'm happiest making eggs for my friends- he asks himself- do I never think about things like that but only about the craziness and drama?

The stories- because it's as much a collection of short stories as a novel- are told in many voices- some of which are mad, some of which are lying- and, of course, it's all a fiction, anyway.