A review by mattait
Natural History by Neil Cross

4.0

Neil Cross knows when to threaten, when to prod, and when to cut, with the precision of a skilled torturer. Set in the nineties, there's a creeping millenial dread backgrounding the impending personal apocalypse of his all too relatable characters. The tension while waiting for the other shoe to drop is (almost) unbearable, and when it does there's no relief or catharsis to be had - Cross and this book are too clever for that. What there is though is ambiguity and a sense of abiding mystery about the human condition that I found frustrating and perversely satisfying in a way that I guess I always should when confronted with my own profound ignorance. Cross, I think, is trying to get at things that resist taxonomy but nevertheless compel the attempt, and if he, and the reader, fall short that's as it should be. What we're left with, as with any good art, is a wonderfully lucid failure to explain. Which sounds like a meagre recommendation, but is far from.