Squaring Circles. All essential boxes are ticked!

So writes Sarah Jennings Independent Professional Reader. She says, Gerry Neale’s Squaring Circles is a book which has much in its favour. Not only is the book a captivating and utterly thought provoking novel, it is also an extremely valuable resource in terms of granting insight into the inner psyche, of the character who exemplifies so many of us and our traits, but, thereby, our own psyches, subconsciousnesses, modes of thought and methods of behaviour.

The style the author has adopted in Squaring Circles is tremendously sophisticated and effectual. By utilising the first person narration perspective so well, one is given a wonderful insight into how Jonathon perceives not only himself, but also the world around him and the other characters who make his week of self discovery so illuminating. This is an incredibly clever and successful way of drawing the reader right into the heart of the narrative and making the outcome of events a matter of no mean indifference to him.

Structurally, the work progresses very well and it is clear that here too meticulous attention has been paid to planning and plotting. I love the fact that the time scale of the work is so short. This is no long drawn out family saga, it is a pacey, punchy quick work which takes a week out of the life of its protagonist and uses that week to explore not only every facet of that character’s personality but also allows the reader substantial opportunity to explore his own.

Prose passages are expertly and excellently handled throughout the work and it is clear that Neale is a natural writer. There is nothing staid, dull or forced about the way he writes, quite the contrary, there is a sense of real urgency and thus, every thing that is show to us, from the perspective of Jonathon, takes on a vivid and dazzling realism, once again, drawing the reader into the work and making him take a backward step, observing his own life and behaviour patterns just as the hero is forced to do.

The dialogue too adds much of value to the work and introduced a sense of immediacy which really does make the reader feel like a fly on the wall, centre right in the heart of the story. All the verbal exchanges are realistic, believable and well placed, giving new dimensions to the narrative and varying the pace beautifully.

 
To succeed in the literary world in the present climate, an author must not only be able to write well, but be able to write exceptionally, not only have something to say, but to say it powerfully and must not only be able to invent a narrative, but to sustain that narrative for its duration. In Squaring Circles all these essential boxes are ticked and the result is a work which could, in my opinion, prove a suitable rival to those of already established, even prize winning authors.

One of the features of the work which makes it so successful is its total uniqueness. In all my time as a professional reader I have never come across anything quite like it before and Neale has done just that. The result is a book which would fit equally as well in the self help and spiritual development section of the bookshop as it would in the contemporary literary fiction department and this is not something which I actually thought it was possible to achieve, yet Neale has done so easily, skillfully and should be very proud of what is, in my opinion, bordering on a masterpiece.


The book is available from Amazon on www.amazon.co.uk