Reviews

Escape to an Autumn Pavement pulls me in two directions. Part of me wants to praise the language, prose, and evocative explorations of sexuality and relationships. I've never read a better rendition of a toxic, unsatisfying, heterosexual relationship. Johnnie and Fiona's romance captures the essence of what is so harmful in the so-called healthy, socially approved relationship. The other part of me has to grapple with the over-determined conclusion, on-the-nose explications of sexual variance, and vexed conclusion.

It is unlikely (read: nearly impossible) that Salkey read French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan (the relevant texts, "The Mirror-Stage as Formative of the I as Revealed in Psychoanalytic Experience" and
The Seminar, Book II. The Ego in Freud's Theory and in the Technique of Psychoanalysis, 1954-1955, published in French in 1949 and 1955 respectively and not in English until after the publication of Escape in 1959) but much of Salkey's text benefits from a psychoanalytic reading. Johnnie has a fear of "the body in pieces," behaves without knowledge of his own desire, and has constant interactions with a seemingly benign the other who remains named as such for the duration of the novel. That entry point, for me, significantly increases the value of the text and the productivity of engaging with it.

Still, even without this connection, it is a phenomenal text. Salkey is at his best in the head of Johnnie while he works through his complicated relationship with Fiona. These scenes are absolutely heart-wrenching and written with incomparable clarity and insight. However, the plot is organized a little less satisfyingly. How the novel ends is not the issue, but the climactic exchanges between Johnnie, Fiona, and Dick are oddly on-the-nose. Johnnie's final conversations with Larry are much more satisfying and thought provoking. Making Johnnie's "choice" (of course, we're to understand there is no meaningful choice involved) of hetero or homosexuality the axis on which the novel must turn is subverted by the way in which both options appear deeply unappealing and compromised. What Johnnie wanted, what he could articulate, is for his life to remain as it had been living alongside Dick. His desire seems to be in a realm outside of comprehension for himself or the reader.

There's no question this text is underrated and a delightful read for those who have an appreciation for formal innovation and insightful explorations of romance and relationship structures. The weaving of these points alongside concerns of race, nationality, and fidelity is quite brilliant.

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