Mr Toppit by Charles Elton

Mr Toppit by Charles Elton
Buy Mr Toppit by Charles Elton at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Literary Fiction
Reviewer: Loralei Haylock
Summary: Darkly funny, at times absurd, but always insightful and accurate in its observations, Mr Toppit is and enchanting and haunting tale about the effects of fame and the devastating power of secrets.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 352	Date: April 2009
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 978-0141038001
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A Richard and Judy Summer Read 2009

This is such an odd book, it's very difficult to summarise. Starting with the haunting line:

And out of the Darkwood Mr Toppit comes, and he comes not for you, or for me, but for all of us.

You'd be forgiven for thinking it was some sort of fantasy-horror, featuring the menacing Mr Toppit wreaking havoc on life as we know it.

In reality this is the story of Luke Hayman, his mother Martha and sister Rachel, and how the sudden, meteoric rise to fame his late father and Arthur's children's books affect their lives. Jumping around from the British film industry in the fifties, Los Alamos and the creation of the atomic bomb, to the publishing industry, and the cutthroat show business of Los Angeles, Mr Toppit charts the ups and downs of the surviving Haymans, and the prominent characters in their lives, such as Laurie, an overweight stranger from America who was with Arthur, by chance, when he died, and Lila, Martha's German tutor, who illustrated the Hayseed Chronicles and would do anything to further the claim she has on the success of the books.

Elton's cast of colourful and quirky characters are completely bonkers, but so real and believable. Linked, by choice, relation or happenstance to Arthur Hayman and his books, they spiral around each other in an elaborate dance, the actions of one affecting the others in often devastating and far reaching ways. Titular Mr Toppit is not a character outside of Arthur's books, but rather representative of the link that binds them all together, the common ground that gives them such an influence in each other's lives. His shadowy nature mirrors the dangers of the secrets certain characters keep from one another, and the threat the truth can sometimes be.

The peripheral characters are just as well developed, from Laurie's alcoholic mother Alma, to her childhood crush, the perfect family man/possible wife beater, Rick Whitcomb. Though many of these characters only appear over a few pages, Elton's razor sharp ability to say as much by omission as he does through dialogue and narrative makes even the most inconsequential character feel real.

Darkly funny, at times absurd, but always insightful and accurate in its observations, Elton's debut novel is an excellent study of the effects of fame and the devastating power of secrets. More a series of interlinked life stories than a story in the traditional sense, it is both enchanting and haunting.

My thanks to the publishers for sending a copy.

If this book appeals to you then we think that you might also enjoy God's Own Country by Ross Raisin.

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