A Londoner on a downward slope

Thirtysomething Ray is a freelance tech journalist – an underachiever caught in a trap, with his wife a nurse expecting their first child. They are trying and failing to move from their one-bedroom flat in East London to become proud owners of a  small, oversized maisonette in an undesirable suburb, as his life falls apart.

The Adulterants opens at a house party without the cheese and pineapple on cocktail sticks saying “ We don’t have friends to make canapes”.

Garthene is at work, sop Ray is flying solo, among the guests are his circle of friends, Dave Finlay, a bearded focus puller in the film industry, Michael Bonner,  who still does cocaine in the loo despite his family responsibilities and the hosts of the party Marie and Lee, who “ always carried an air of tremendous financial –sexual security”.

There is lots of drinking and even more flirtation between Marie and Ray that crosses the line of no return. From here, the only way for Ray is down. Just when you think things couldn’t get any worse our Ray continues the downward spiral. Set in Clapton at the time of the London riots that flared up over several days in August 2011, the Adulterants follows Ray into his own destruction. First, he and Garthene are gazumped by cash buyers, then finding himself at the center of the riots –Ray accepts a couple of cans of looted large out of politeness and is photographed smiling at his street burns and taken before a magistrate. Ray who earns only 10p a word for his online articles, Michael and Kamara’s one-year-old twins rake in “ ninety an hour for a shoot”  as child models, then even five figures if they’re used in a big campaign. When Lee breaks up with Marie and moves on to Ray and Garthene’s couch, Ray is forced to work in a local coffee shop where he catches glimpses of the “ thirtysomethings who still hadn’t given up their dreams” on people’s laptop screens.

Ray’s systematic disintegration is although pleasurable to read.

The Adulterants is a hilarious tale of sensitive men and catastrophic open marriages, riots on the streets of London and internet righteousness with wit and wry affection.

 

 

The Adulterants by Joe Dunthorne, Hamish Hamilton £12.99, 192 pages.