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Beyond Black
Colette and Alison are unlikely cohorts: one a shy, drab beanpole of an assistant, the other a charismatic, corpulent psychic whose connection to the spiritual world torments her. When they meet at a fair, Alison invites Colette at once to join her on the road as her personal assistant and companion. Troubles spiral out of control when the pair moves to a suburban wasteland in what was once the English countryside. It is not long before the place beyond black threatens to uproot their lives forever.
This is Hilary Mantel at her finest--insightful, darkly comic, unorthodox, and thrilling to read.
This is Hilary Mantel at her finest--insightful, darkly comic, unorthodox, and thrilling to read.
432 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
About the author
Hilary Mantel
98 books7,376 followersHilary Mantel was the bestselling author of many novels including Wolf Hall, which won the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. Bring Up the Bodies, Book Two of the Wolf Hall Trilogy, was also awarded the Man Booker Prize and the Costa Book Award. She also wrote A Change of Climate, A Place of Greater Safety, Eight Months on Ghazzah Street, An Experiment in Love, The Giant, O'Brien, Fludd, Beyond Black, Every Day Is Mother's Day, Vacant Possession, and a memoir, Giving Up the Ghost. Mantel was the winner of the Hawthornden Prize, and her reviews and essays have appeared in The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, and the London Review of Books.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,184 reviews
March 15, 2019
There's not much here in the way of plot, but still there's a lot to recommend in this novel about a professional psychic--who really does see ghosts--plying her trade in the working class suburbs of London. The profession itself becomes an excellent metaphor for writing: the spirits though genuine are often difficult to discern, and even when discerned do not always appear when summoned, and therefore the medium is forced to make do with psychological manipulation, theatrical effects, and charlatanry.
The relationship between Alison the psychic and her manager Collete is effectively presented, the character of Morris the spirit guide--an obscene, dwarfish bookmaker--is entertainingly vile, and the hints concerning Alison's childhood are predictably dark and deftly placed within the narrative. Where Mantel really excels, however, is in descriptions of threadbare London neighborhoods, the mediocrity of British food, and descriptions of a spirit world equally threadbare and mediocre.
The biographical revelations that end the novel are suitably shocking, but I have to admit that by that time I barely cared, principally because the story itself is never compelling. The novel is, however, vivid in language and stylistically impressive. It is definitely worth a read.
January 13, 2012
Oh god. Where do I even begin? Lots of reviewers complained they didn't know where the book was going. Well, I didn't know either, but I thought it was a good thing. Don't you just love when you don't know where the book is going?
'Beyond Black' was going in all sorts of directions at once. It was a story about Alison, a medium, who can see and talk to ghosts and also happens to be very fat. It was a story about her obnoxious, nasty assistant cum manager (who weirdly reminded me of my very own assistant) and their very toxic friendship. It was a story of the world of professional psychics, broken childhood, and some real or metaphorical (depending on how cynical you are) ghosts haunting Alison. It was also a story about mental illness. There were so many different layers to this book, I am actually considering re-reading it (and I hardly ever do anything like that, because you know, so many books, so little time, etc.).
Be warned, this book is dark, drab, grim and depressing. People are dreary, English suburbs are bleak, even food is vapid. Redemption seems an abstract and improbable concept and we only have bits of black humour to cheer us up. Basically, it reads like a Polish book.
At the same time this book is beautiful. Mantel can write. Every paragraph is a little masterpiece.
The only thing that confused me were the abrupt changes of POV between Alison and her haughty assistant Colette.
'Beyond Black' was going in all sorts of directions at once. It was a story about Alison, a medium, who can see and talk to ghosts and also happens to be very fat. It was a story about her obnoxious, nasty assistant cum manager (who weirdly reminded me of my very own assistant) and their very toxic friendship. It was a story of the world of professional psychics, broken childhood, and some real or metaphorical (depending on how cynical you are) ghosts haunting Alison. It was also a story about mental illness. There were so many different layers to this book, I am actually considering re-reading it (and I hardly ever do anything like that, because you know, so many books, so little time, etc.).
Be warned, this book is dark, drab, grim and depressing. People are dreary, English suburbs are bleak, even food is vapid. Redemption seems an abstract and improbable concept and we only have bits of black humour to cheer us up. Basically, it reads like a Polish book.
At the same time this book is beautiful. Mantel can write. Every paragraph is a little masterpiece.
The only thing that confused me were the abrupt changes of POV between Alison and her haughty assistant Colette.
May 19, 2014
It's raw, this kind of work, and near the knuckle: unsupported by music, lighting, video screen, it's just you and them and the dead, the dead who may oblige or may not, who may confuse and mislead and laugh at you, who may give you bursts of foul language very close up to your ear, who may give you false names and lay false trails just to see you embarrassed.
Alison is a medium and a consummate performer. She soothes her audience, gains their trust and even shuts down hecklers with a few well chosen words. She suffers fools, if not gladly, then grudgingly; they are her bread and butter, after all. The catch is, this "fake" psychic really does see dead people.
Poor Al has not had a happy life. She spent her childhood being bullied and tormented by her mother's "gentlemen callers" who were also paying clients with criminal tendencies and vicious dispositions. Now, she's at the mercy of her snide business partner, Colette, who picks at her endlessly about her weight. As if that's not bad enough, her spirit guide, an evil little heavy-drinking imp, has been hanging out with a truly nasty crowd - the very fiends who made Alison's childhood so miserable.
People are right to be afraid of ghosts. If you get people who are bad in life - I mean, cruel people, dangerous people - why do you think they're going to be any better after they're dead?
This is one "sensitive" with a few too many demons to exorcise.
Though slow in places, it is beautifully written.
The world beyond the glass is the world of masculine action. Everything she sees is what a man has built. But at each turn-off, each junction, women are waiting to know their fate. They are looking deep inside themselves, into their private hearts, where the foetus forms and buds, where the shape forms inside the crystal, where fingernails click softly at the backs of the cards, and pictures flutter upwards towards the air: Justice, Temperance, the Sun, the Moon, the World.
I found this an interesting and unusual read. It would make a great movie, though it's unlikely that will ever happen, as a film about an overweight, middle-aged woman hardly promises boffo box office.
Alison is a medium and a consummate performer. She soothes her audience, gains their trust and even shuts down hecklers with a few well chosen words. She suffers fools, if not gladly, then grudgingly; they are her bread and butter, after all. The catch is, this "fake" psychic really does see dead people.
Poor Al has not had a happy life. She spent her childhood being bullied and tormented by her mother's "gentlemen callers" who were also paying clients with criminal tendencies and vicious dispositions. Now, she's at the mercy of her snide business partner, Colette, who picks at her endlessly about her weight. As if that's not bad enough, her spirit guide, an evil little heavy-drinking imp, has been hanging out with a truly nasty crowd - the very fiends who made Alison's childhood so miserable.
People are right to be afraid of ghosts. If you get people who are bad in life - I mean, cruel people, dangerous people - why do you think they're going to be any better after they're dead?
This is one "sensitive" with a few too many demons to exorcise.
Though slow in places, it is beautifully written.
The world beyond the glass is the world of masculine action. Everything she sees is what a man has built. But at each turn-off, each junction, women are waiting to know their fate. They are looking deep inside themselves, into their private hearts, where the foetus forms and buds, where the shape forms inside the crystal, where fingernails click softly at the backs of the cards, and pictures flutter upwards towards the air: Justice, Temperance, the Sun, the Moon, the World.
I found this an interesting and unusual read. It would make a great movie, though it's unlikely that will ever happen, as a film about an overweight, middle-aged woman hardly promises boffo box office.
September 23, 2021
Beyond Black is extraordinary. Very clever and highly original. Both extremely dark but also amusing - a bit like a supernatural version of a Mike Leigh film. Simultaneously inventive and subversive but, underlying everything, is a serious tale of abuse and an appalling childhood. That makes it sound grim however the other thing that makes it extraordinary is it's surprisingly funny and well observed, absolutely nailing surburban life in South East England.
The books centres around Alison, a large psychic who is a bridge between the living and the dead. Her prostitute mother has a murdered, invisible friend, Gloria. Her grandmother also has her own spirit guide.
Channelling the spirit world makes Alison feel illness and pain. She works in the world of psychic fairs, mind readers, and other occult practioners. Accompanying her at many events are a memorable group of friends and colleagues, and she makes a comfortable living.
Before long Alison has picked up Collette, a fantastic character who becames her assistant. Both have to contend with Morris, who is Alison's spirit guide, an ex-circus performer who was one of many men to have abused her as a child and a truly horrible individual.
The plot is not what really matters here though. It's the writing, the observations, the humour and the imagination that make this book so wonderful.
Aside from Wolf Hall, this is the only other book I have read by Hilary Mantel. Both make me keen to read everything else she has written.
5/5
Beyond Black (2005)
The books centres around Alison, a large psychic who is a bridge between the living and the dead. Her prostitute mother has a murdered, invisible friend, Gloria. Her grandmother also has her own spirit guide.
Channelling the spirit world makes Alison feel illness and pain. She works in the world of psychic fairs, mind readers, and other occult practioners. Accompanying her at many events are a memorable group of friends and colleagues, and she makes a comfortable living.
Before long Alison has picked up Collette, a fantastic character who becames her assistant. Both have to contend with Morris, who is Alison's spirit guide, an ex-circus performer who was one of many men to have abused her as a child and a truly horrible individual.
The plot is not what really matters here though. It's the writing, the observations, the humour and the imagination that make this book so wonderful.
Aside from Wolf Hall, this is the only other book I have read by Hilary Mantel. Both make me keen to read everything else she has written.
5/5
Beyond Black (2005)
June 22, 2018
Full review here
There is a reason Hilary Mantel won the Booker Prize twice.
Beyond Black (Picador, 2006) is mainly about the dead haunting the living, but it’s not in the way they go into the corners in dark and open creaking doors, there are no ghosts scaring the shit out of people as we see in horror films. The dead in Beyond Black is more like a mobbing boss, someone we can’t get rid of – we’re bound to. The way Mantel presents us the horror of facing the dead beyond death is so elegant, so different, so malicious and gritty.
This is a sad book, it won’t provide entertainment and fun, but it’s magically addictive and the writing is so beautiful. Dark, funny and witty. The scenes where mediums traded with audiences were the best and most enjoyable parts for me. And of course the parts about Lady Di.
There is a reason Hilary Mantel won the Booker Prize twice.
Beyond Black (Picador, 2006) is mainly about the dead haunting the living, but it’s not in the way they go into the corners in dark and open creaking doors, there are no ghosts scaring the shit out of people as we see in horror films. The dead in Beyond Black is more like a mobbing boss, someone we can’t get rid of – we’re bound to. The way Mantel presents us the horror of facing the dead beyond death is so elegant, so different, so malicious and gritty.
This is a sad book, it won’t provide entertainment and fun, but it’s magically addictive and the writing is so beautiful. Dark, funny and witty. The scenes where mediums traded with audiences were the best and most enjoyable parts for me. And of course the parts about Lady Di.
October 29, 2023
Hilary Mantel is an inventive and unique writer. This novel centres around Alison, a psychic, on the treadmill of shows at local halls and readings for private clients. This round of psychic fairs and sessions involves a group of other 'sensitives,' who add flavour and colour to what is, essentially, a rather dreary merry go round. Alison is a large lady, scarred by a dysfunctional and violent childhood. She finds Colette, recently separated, and initially keen to assist her but, as time passes, becoming gradually more vocal and critical of her employer.
The plot in this novel is less important than the characters and, as we follow Alison and Colette, on their journey, the reader is introduced to the world of spiritualism and those who have 'passed,' or who are, 'in spirit.' Although this sounds innocuous, essentially the dead are are difficult, lost, confused and, often, downright unpleasant, as the living. Alison's spirit guide is an uncouth, bow legged, former circus performer, whose aggressive and unpleasant antics cause her no end of upset.
Every time I approach a Mantel book, I am impressed by how different her novels are. This is a dark, disturbing and poignant read, but it is also encompasses a lot of dark humour, which saves the book from becoming depressing. Colette's snappish conversations with her ex, Gavin, are particularly joyful and, while Alison is the character you sympathise with, it is Alison's understanding of the less lovable characteristics of Colette, which makes the pairing work.
The plot in this novel is less important than the characters and, as we follow Alison and Colette, on their journey, the reader is introduced to the world of spiritualism and those who have 'passed,' or who are, 'in spirit.' Although this sounds innocuous, essentially the dead are are difficult, lost, confused and, often, downright unpleasant, as the living. Alison's spirit guide is an uncouth, bow legged, former circus performer, whose aggressive and unpleasant antics cause her no end of upset.
Every time I approach a Mantel book, I am impressed by how different her novels are. This is a dark, disturbing and poignant read, but it is also encompasses a lot of dark humour, which saves the book from becoming depressing. Colette's snappish conversations with her ex, Gavin, are particularly joyful and, while Alison is the character you sympathise with, it is Alison's understanding of the less lovable characteristics of Colette, which makes the pairing work.
February 5, 2023
(Original 1-star review below)
I tried this again listening to the audiobook and got on better than with reading: maybe because listening allowed me to skim over some of the grim seediness? The narrator also distinguishes the voices so that there's more of a sense of personality. In any case, I was relieved to be able to finish this on a second try as it's a real-life book group choice.
Make no mistake, this is dark, dark, dark, and the wit only lightens events a mere shade. Al's childhood is totally the stuff of nightmares - and it's no surprise that she's suffering a form of PTSD.
But the big question at the heart of the book is whether and to what extent Al is a medium able to speak to spirits of the dead?
This is still my least favourite Mantel to date: the core plot arc is thoughtful and clever but despite the wonderful writing, the whole thing drags on too long with a saggy middle. It's also quite a burden to spend so much time in the company of so many vile people and/or spirits. However well Mantel conveys the cacophony of their voices overwhelming our ability to 'hear' the story, just as they drown out Al's own thoughts, the resultant harsh noise was too much for me.
--------------------------------------------
Oof, no - I've loved other books by Mantel (the Wolf Hall trilogy, A Place Of Greater Safety, Eight Months on Ghazzah Street, Mantel Pieces) but my gut feel that this one just wasn't going to be for me were vindicated within pages and I dnf with relief at 20%.
Mantel's writing, as usual, is fantastic: witty, slightly off-beat, surprising - but the story of a medium and her companion working around the suburban, sleazy outskirts of London, complete with a lecherous, masturbating spirit guide (a real spirit or mental health issues?) defeated me. A long (long) description of Alison's spiritualist show, and back stories of a failed marriage (Collette) and an abusive childhood (Alison) just weren't doing anything for me.
A bit embarrassing as this is the choice of my IRL book group.
I tried this again listening to the audiobook and got on better than with reading: maybe because listening allowed me to skim over some of the grim seediness? The narrator also distinguishes the voices so that there's more of a sense of personality. In any case, I was relieved to be able to finish this on a second try as it's a real-life book group choice.
Make no mistake, this is dark, dark, dark, and the wit only lightens events a mere shade. Al's childhood is totally the stuff of nightmares - and it's no surprise that she's suffering a form of PTSD.
But the big question at the heart of the book is whether and to what extent Al is a medium able to speak to spirits of the dead?
This is still my least favourite Mantel to date: the core plot arc is thoughtful and clever but despite the wonderful writing, the whole thing drags on too long with a saggy middle. It's also quite a burden to spend so much time in the company of so many vile people and/or spirits. However well Mantel conveys the cacophony of their voices overwhelming our ability to 'hear' the story, just as they drown out Al's own thoughts, the resultant harsh noise was too much for me.
--------------------------------------------
Oof, no - I've loved other books by Mantel (the Wolf Hall trilogy, A Place Of Greater Safety, Eight Months on Ghazzah Street, Mantel Pieces) but my gut feel that this one just wasn't going to be for me were vindicated within pages and I dnf with relief at 20%.
Mantel's writing, as usual, is fantastic: witty, slightly off-beat, surprising - but the story of a medium and her companion working around the suburban, sleazy outskirts of London, complete with a lecherous, masturbating spirit guide (a real spirit or mental health issues?) defeated me. A long (long) description of Alison's spiritualist show, and back stories of a failed marriage (Collette) and an abusive childhood (Alison) just weren't doing anything for me.
A bit embarrassing as this is the choice of my IRL book group.
January 27, 2010
This is one of those books. You know those books, the ones that aren't bad, but aren't good, but you're not entirely upset you read, but they don't really inspire you to find anything more by the author.
(Thankfully, I already Wolf Hall so I know she can do better).
It's one of those books that you know could be better if something, but you're not sure what, was better or different. Yet, you feel like your stupid and not quite getting it. Until you realize The New York Times took ages to reveiw Nation so maybe they're not quite getting it.
It's not a bad book, but you feel an awesome desire to slap everyone. Really. The use of abuse feels a little sloppy when compared to something like Push.
There are, however, some very funny bits enough to keep me reading, but I was glad when it was over.
(Thankfully, I already Wolf Hall so I know she can do better).
It's one of those books that you know could be better if something, but you're not sure what, was better or different. Yet, you feel like your stupid and not quite getting it. Until you realize The New York Times took ages to reveiw Nation so maybe they're not quite getting it.
It's not a bad book, but you feel an awesome desire to slap everyone. Really. The use of abuse feels a little sloppy when compared to something like Push.
There are, however, some very funny bits enough to keep me reading, but I was glad when it was over.
August 21, 2013
Intermittently funny, sad, tragic, malicious and rather ghoulish novel; good in parts, but overlong and repetitive. It is certainly well written; Mantel is a great writer, as Wolf Hall has shown. The plot meanders rather a lot and doesn't really go anywhere.
The premise is simple. Alison is a psychic/medium, a good one, but rather disorganised. Colette becomes her sidekick and PA and organises her life. The dead, however are less easy to organise. Here's the key to the book. The dead are no different to the living, just as unpleasant, nasty, forgetful, vindictive. There is little of the grand reunions of families; most wander aimlessly, rather lost and are obsessed with trivialities. Mediums know this, but change the message to something more palatable. Spirit guides are generally not spiritual and thoughtful native americans or interesting foreign potentates. Alsion, most of the time, has Morris, a vulgar and crude circus performer who abused her as a child. He spends a large portion of the book doing unspeakable things with food and kitchen utensils. There are lots of spirits around Alison, most of them men who abused her in one way or another, who seem to be carrying on with their existences as they come and go.
The descriptions of the psychic circuit in the south of England, in dingy town halls and plastic hotels is very funny. As are the other members of the circuit, all looking for the next spiritual/psychic thing.
There is a good deal of flashback to Alison's horrific childhood; horrific beyond words and one wonders whether Mantel is making a link here. For all her upbringing though, Alison is relatively tolerant and kind. When she does become angry with someone (dispute over a car parking space), she is incisive and amusing. Her realtionship to the hard hearted Colette is central to the book. Colette is as damaged as Alison, leaving a loveless marraige, but unlike Alison has less of the milk of human kindness running through her veins. As time goes on, she is also abusive to Alison.
There is a good deal to provoke thought, quite a lot of humour (Alison and Colette living on a middle class housing estate and being mistaken for lesbians), some quite close to the bone descriptions of violence and abuse, which have more force because they are slightly understated; but ultimately the book runs out of steam before the end for me and the characters became arther irritating.
Nevertheless it was very easy to read, I liked the different take on death and afterlife and in parts it was very funny
The premise is simple. Alison is a psychic/medium, a good one, but rather disorganised. Colette becomes her sidekick and PA and organises her life. The dead, however are less easy to organise. Here's the key to the book. The dead are no different to the living, just as unpleasant, nasty, forgetful, vindictive. There is little of the grand reunions of families; most wander aimlessly, rather lost and are obsessed with trivialities. Mediums know this, but change the message to something more palatable. Spirit guides are generally not spiritual and thoughtful native americans or interesting foreign potentates. Alsion, most of the time, has Morris, a vulgar and crude circus performer who abused her as a child. He spends a large portion of the book doing unspeakable things with food and kitchen utensils. There are lots of spirits around Alison, most of them men who abused her in one way or another, who seem to be carrying on with their existences as they come and go.
The descriptions of the psychic circuit in the south of England, in dingy town halls and plastic hotels is very funny. As are the other members of the circuit, all looking for the next spiritual/psychic thing.
There is a good deal of flashback to Alison's horrific childhood; horrific beyond words and one wonders whether Mantel is making a link here. For all her upbringing though, Alison is relatively tolerant and kind. When she does become angry with someone (dispute over a car parking space), she is incisive and amusing. Her realtionship to the hard hearted Colette is central to the book. Colette is as damaged as Alison, leaving a loveless marraige, but unlike Alison has less of the milk of human kindness running through her veins. As time goes on, she is also abusive to Alison.
There is a good deal to provoke thought, quite a lot of humour (Alison and Colette living on a middle class housing estate and being mistaken for lesbians), some quite close to the bone descriptions of violence and abuse, which have more force because they are slightly understated; but ultimately the book runs out of steam before the end for me and the characters became arther irritating.
Nevertheless it was very easy to read, I liked the different take on death and afterlife and in parts it was very funny
October 20, 2021
“'I’m sure it will be clearer,’ Al said, ‘when it actually happens.’”
What a peculiar reading experience. A kind of buddy novel, where the buddies are ill-matched and don’t get along at all. Alison, Al, is a psychic. She’s sensitive, caring, soft, overweight and tolerant. Colette, all-business, is jaded, thin and critical, and convinces Al to take her on as partner.
What ensues is a romp through the intersection between this world and the next--the space Al operates in, not of her own choosing, and a place where those who have died hover all around, annoying her like bullies, talking endlessly of food and the money people owe them, and taunting her mercilessly about her horrific childhood.
“Al’s mum forgot to send her to school. ‘Good grief,’ she said, when the man came around to prosecute her, ‘you mean to say she’s that age already?’”
Colette, who sees Al as merely a money-making proposition, doesn’t see the spirits, doesn’t understand them, and has no patience for any of it. Their relationship never works, but the two serve as foils for each other, pushing them along in their respective journeys to find themselves.
“A woman of my age shouldn’t be wanting tea, she thought. I should be wanting--I don’t know, cocaine?”
There was so much I loved here: the humor, the quirkiness, the many distinct and unusual characters. This could have been a five star read for me if it had been half as long. Unfortunately, I felt much of it was a slog through repetitive scenes.
But Mantel can write up one side and down the other, so I couldn’t help but enjoy myself. The most fun for me was when the pair moved to a gated-community-like new development. The way they treat their small-minded neighbors--people who struggle with one threat after another no matter what lengths they go to control their little world-- is hilarious.
I can already tell I’ll be enjoying the after-reading experience much more than I expected. I believe Alison is going to, dare I say, haunt me.
What a peculiar reading experience. A kind of buddy novel, where the buddies are ill-matched and don’t get along at all. Alison, Al, is a psychic. She’s sensitive, caring, soft, overweight and tolerant. Colette, all-business, is jaded, thin and critical, and convinces Al to take her on as partner.
What ensues is a romp through the intersection between this world and the next--the space Al operates in, not of her own choosing, and a place where those who have died hover all around, annoying her like bullies, talking endlessly of food and the money people owe them, and taunting her mercilessly about her horrific childhood.
“Al’s mum forgot to send her to school. ‘Good grief,’ she said, when the man came around to prosecute her, ‘you mean to say she’s that age already?’”
Colette, who sees Al as merely a money-making proposition, doesn’t see the spirits, doesn’t understand them, and has no patience for any of it. Their relationship never works, but the two serve as foils for each other, pushing them along in their respective journeys to find themselves.
“A woman of my age shouldn’t be wanting tea, she thought. I should be wanting--I don’t know, cocaine?”
There was so much I loved here: the humor, the quirkiness, the many distinct and unusual characters. This could have been a five star read for me if it had been half as long. Unfortunately, I felt much of it was a slog through repetitive scenes.
But Mantel can write up one side and down the other, so I couldn’t help but enjoy myself. The most fun for me was when the pair moved to a gated-community-like new development. The way they treat their small-minded neighbors--people who struggle with one threat after another no matter what lengths they go to control their little world-- is hilarious.
I can already tell I’ll be enjoying the after-reading experience much more than I expected. I believe Alison is going to, dare I say, haunt me.
May 31, 2024
This is the type of novel that takes your breath away and makes you remember what an extraordinary writer Hilary Mantel was. (My first encounter with her work was A Place Of Greater Safety.)
Beyond Black is a horrifying novel but the shocks don't begin at the start, the merely creep up on you throughout the text and then batter you over the head with their brutality.
Alison (our heroine) is a psychic medium. She has a thoroughly disgusting spirit guide, Maurice, a weight problem and an upbringing that would make anyone's hair turn white. She is a survivor. Her psychic ability is never questioned and neither is the ability of any of the other sensitives "on the circuit". At one such event Alison meets Colette who has split with her hopeless husband, Gavin, and ends up working as Alison's assistant/accountant/manager. Colette does everything whilst moaning. She is probably one of the most mean-minded characters I've ever come across; a thoroughly horrible human being who takes out her disappointment with life on Alison.
As time goes on the pair move into a shared house (ostensibly to get away from the revolting Maurice and his crew (known as "the fiends") but the move turns out to be unsuccessful and as tragedies begin to strike Alison is forced to reevaluate her choices.
Beyond Black is not a book you can enjoy but it is compelling in its wretchedness. I became extremely protective towards Alison as she is surrounded by such nastiness. I could have cheerfully throttled Colette. Then again, if they'd not been ghosts I'd have done the same for Maurice.
It's an absolutely brilliant piece of prose. I listened to the audio version which was masterfully read by Anna Bentinck. A joy to listen to.
Highly recommended but you need to be prepared for the shocks.
Beyond Black is a horrifying novel but the shocks don't begin at the start, the merely creep up on you throughout the text and then batter you over the head with their brutality.
Alison (our heroine) is a psychic medium. She has a thoroughly disgusting spirit guide, Maurice, a weight problem and an upbringing that would make anyone's hair turn white. She is a survivor. Her psychic ability is never questioned and neither is the ability of any of the other sensitives "on the circuit". At one such event Alison meets Colette who has split with her hopeless husband, Gavin, and ends up working as Alison's assistant/accountant/manager. Colette does everything whilst moaning. She is probably one of the most mean-minded characters I've ever come across; a thoroughly horrible human being who takes out her disappointment with life on Alison.
As time goes on the pair move into a shared house (ostensibly to get away from the revolting Maurice and his crew (known as "the fiends") but the move turns out to be unsuccessful and as tragedies begin to strike Alison is forced to reevaluate her choices.
Beyond Black is not a book you can enjoy but it is compelling in its wretchedness. I became extremely protective towards Alison as she is surrounded by such nastiness. I could have cheerfully throttled Colette. Then again, if they'd not been ghosts I'd have done the same for Maurice.
It's an absolutely brilliant piece of prose. I listened to the audio version which was masterfully read by Anna Bentinck. A joy to listen to.
Highly recommended but you need to be prepared for the shocks.
August 4, 2022
Hilary Mantel's ghost story 'Beyond Black' is a somewhat haunting tale about two alternative, middle-aged women: a psychic and her personal assistant. They share a very close bond and live a gypsy-like lifestyle; travelling the country to perform shows and attend conventions in order to make ends meat. Initially, the story is well layered. On the surface, there is something warm and quirky about the lives of these two women that the reader can enjoy. Simultaneously, there is a more unsettling undertone, with both of these women have troubled pasts (more so the protagonist) and these back stories become gradually more divulged as the novel progresses. The eerie nature of the protagonist's work and her schizophrenic-like perception, add another uncanny layer to the story.
Needless to say, the novel's paranormal dimension is an inherent part of the story. While the protagonist's trade of psychic readings and communicating with the dead, is something that can be easily dismissed, Mantel initially does a good job at luring the reader into considering the possibility that her craft may be genuine. It's somewhat implied in the early stages of the novel that the subconscious itself could be considered a spirit, suggesting that there is something slightly supernatural about all of us. Additionally, the idea of having sharp instincts and predicting outcomes on little information, could be considered a form of psychic ability.
However, while the premise and the initial development are strong, the novel plateaus and then goes south. Rather than sticking to the intriguing idea of the protagonist's work being built on a psychological existence, Mantel settles for cheap gimmicks such as having ghosts/spirits move furniture, turn off/on lights, physically touch characters etc. When the friendship between the two women comes under strain and starts to collapse, the plot loses all sense of direction. Mantel begins to take unsurprising and uninteresting turns, and does not resolve the novel in a very satisfactory way.
Overall, 'Beyond Black' is fairly good but had the potential to be a lot better.
Needless to say, the novel's paranormal dimension is an inherent part of the story. While the protagonist's trade of psychic readings and communicating with the dead, is something that can be easily dismissed, Mantel initially does a good job at luring the reader into considering the possibility that her craft may be genuine. It's somewhat implied in the early stages of the novel that the subconscious itself could be considered a spirit, suggesting that there is something slightly supernatural about all of us. Additionally, the idea of having sharp instincts and predicting outcomes on little information, could be considered a form of psychic ability.
However, while the premise and the initial development are strong, the novel plateaus and then goes south. Rather than sticking to the intriguing idea of the protagonist's work being built on a psychological existence, Mantel settles for cheap gimmicks such as having ghosts/spirits move furniture, turn off/on lights, physically touch characters etc. When the friendship between the two women comes under strain and starts to collapse, the plot loses all sense of direction. Mantel begins to take unsurprising and uninteresting turns, and does not resolve the novel in a very satisfactory way.
Overall, 'Beyond Black' is fairly good but had the potential to be a lot better.
December 5, 2012
This novel is both horrifying and maliciously funny. Alison –Al- Hart, overweight medium, is making a good living, giving private readings and doing psychic fairs, but is always alone- at least, where living people are concerned. She can never escape from the dead, who follow her and bother her constantly. And here’s the thing: people don’t get any smarter or nicer when they die. They don’t undergo any spiritual awakening. If they were nasty and mean in life, that’s how they are in death. Al, survivor of a horrific childhood of poverty and abuse, finds she has an old childhood tormentor as her spirit guide. He swears, drinks, gropes women, and sits around masturbating. Only Al can see him, but that’s bad enough.
When fate brings bitter, recently divorced Colette her way, Al hires her as a manager/partner. Colette takes charge of Al’s finances and schedule, and they find themselves enjoying a moderate success. Al jumps at her chance to live in a place where no one has lived before, where she hopes she will encounter no spirits. But life cannot be nice for Al; nastiness follows her even into a newly built subdivision (which has its own special brand of horror). Even though she tries to do good things and think good thoughts, she is tainted by her past. She attracts badness to herself; she must come to terms with her past to rid herself of it.
The book is brilliant, and very dark. Mantel’s wit cuts like a knife through the middle class, the lowest of the lower class, the way heavy people are treated, real estate developers and New Age believers. This is not a cheery type of funny book; the title tells us how black the humor is. This is very unlike Mantel’s Cromwell books, and just as good in its own way.
When fate brings bitter, recently divorced Colette her way, Al hires her as a manager/partner. Colette takes charge of Al’s finances and schedule, and they find themselves enjoying a moderate success. Al jumps at her chance to live in a place where no one has lived before, where she hopes she will encounter no spirits. But life cannot be nice for Al; nastiness follows her even into a newly built subdivision (which has its own special brand of horror). Even though she tries to do good things and think good thoughts, she is tainted by her past. She attracts badness to herself; she must come to terms with her past to rid herself of it.
The book is brilliant, and very dark. Mantel’s wit cuts like a knife through the middle class, the lowest of the lower class, the way heavy people are treated, real estate developers and New Age believers. This is not a cheery type of funny book; the title tells us how black the humor is. This is very unlike Mantel’s Cromwell books, and just as good in its own way.
November 3, 2021
This was the last novel Mantel wrote before the Cromwell trilogy, and much as I love those books I have always been rather reluctant to read it, and I remember hearing extracts from a BBC radio serialisation years ago. This reluctance was because I have always been extremely sceptical of the paranormal and anything that claims to transcend conventional science. I finally got round to reading it thanks to last month's discussion in the Reading the 20th Century group, and I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected.
The central character is Ali, a medium in the home counties whose encounters with the spirit world are described throughout in a way that allows the reader to believe that they are true. The other main character is Colette, who becomes her manager/factotum/carer and attempts to put her business on a more professional footing. Then there are the spirits, who provide much of the humour in the book as well as some darker elements - there is some very British black comedy in this book, which is one of the reasons I enjoyed it so much.
The central character is Ali, a medium in the home counties whose encounters with the spirit world are described throughout in a way that allows the reader to believe that they are true. The other main character is Colette, who becomes her manager/factotum/carer and attempts to put her business on a more professional footing. Then there are the spirits, who provide much of the humour in the book as well as some darker elements - there is some very British black comedy in this book, which is one of the reasons I enjoyed it so much.
May 18, 2009
A page-turner. The first we've had for a while. By turns funny, ghastly and frightening. This book stayed with me, causing nightmares. The spirits inhabiting this world are thoroughly believable. I loved the conceit that just because a person is dead, it doesn't make what they have to say anymore interesting than when they were alive. I also loved the commercial world of the mediums with charlatans and everyone trying to make a quick buck. Some parts made me laugh out loud. Also thoroughly Dickensian in its style in places - a Dickens of the M25 rather than Holborn. Well worth reading.
February 13, 2022
The ghosts of a human tragedy, wrapped in the crystal-clear, satiric and yet equally warm-hearted Mantelian language of keen observation and deep humanity, making you believe the unbelievable
March 12, 2018
A little preface: I read this based on a Backlisted podcast. Backlisted is great fun. The main guys have a good time talking loudly about the books they are reading and discussing. They invite a few guests for each episode, and in the few episodes I've listened to those guests struggle to match the hosts charisma. In this episode they were all gushing about Beyond Black, when a female guest piped up with how she tried this book when it was new, and found it so painful to read, she gave up. Now that's brave. But, here's the thing, she was spot on.
Mantel got very personal with this book (and followed it up with a memoir). She was looking into modern soulless life in suburbia. Alison Hart is a psychic medium, as in like the real thing. She constantly speaks to the spirits of the dead and she makes her living travelling around and holding shows where she tells the audience about what the dead are saying. This is a modern audience, living in artificial neighborhoods removed from nature and short on history. They live meaningless lives, and are so removed from their cultural heritage, some don't even know the names of the grandparents. Although they don't really understand it, they are here, with Alison, to find some meaning.
Except Alison's skill doesn't provide this. She is an experienced performer. She knows that her audience actually doesn't actually care what the dead are saying, and probably would be pretty crushed to find out how pedestrian these dead. People don't get any better or wiser just because they've passed. So, she has to give them something else, a tangle of lies and truth, and common sense presented as personally meaningful.
I found the first 100 pages, where Alison takes on a manager who she tries to depend on, but who she doesn't really get along with, both brilliant and horribly painful. Colette is practical, but soulless, interested in how Alison works, but unable to understand her. And Mantel drags us through this relationship, relentlessly emphasizing what isn't there, without ever saying so. This is a major work, this novel, maybe a master work, and jagged little pill for sure. I pushed so hard through these pages and found them exhausting. But I kept thinking about these women and so I kept returning to the book. The book either lets up after a bit, or I got used to it, but I was able to cruise through the last three quarters and enjoy the complex characterizations and interactions. Alison Hart has a lot of past to struggle with. And her ghosts don't just lie in the background of her mind, they come up to her and talk to her, and harass her constantly night and day. There isn't really a way to hide from a ghost, or a whole collection of them.
I have to say I agree with the Backlisted crew who gushed about this work. It is ingenious and memorable and effective. It's a book a lot of readers chuck early on (and I can understand why). It's also a book that really hits deep into modern life. I think there is a reason Mantel's next novel took place in a very different time and place, it was Wolf Hall.
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12. Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel
published: 2005
format: 367 page kindle ebook
acquired: February
read: Feb 28 - Mar 9
rating: 4
Mantel got very personal with this book (and followed it up with a memoir). She was looking into modern soulless life in suburbia. Alison Hart is a psychic medium, as in like the real thing. She constantly speaks to the spirits of the dead and she makes her living travelling around and holding shows where she tells the audience about what the dead are saying. This is a modern audience, living in artificial neighborhoods removed from nature and short on history. They live meaningless lives, and are so removed from their cultural heritage, some don't even know the names of the grandparents. Although they don't really understand it, they are here, with Alison, to find some meaning.
Except Alison's skill doesn't provide this. She is an experienced performer. She knows that her audience actually doesn't actually care what the dead are saying, and probably would be pretty crushed to find out how pedestrian these dead. People don't get any better or wiser just because they've passed. So, she has to give them something else, a tangle of lies and truth, and common sense presented as personally meaningful.
I found the first 100 pages, where Alison takes on a manager who she tries to depend on, but who she doesn't really get along with, both brilliant and horribly painful. Colette is practical, but soulless, interested in how Alison works, but unable to understand her. And Mantel drags us through this relationship, relentlessly emphasizing what isn't there, without ever saying so. This is a major work, this novel, maybe a master work, and jagged little pill for sure. I pushed so hard through these pages and found them exhausting. But I kept thinking about these women and so I kept returning to the book. The book either lets up after a bit, or I got used to it, but I was able to cruise through the last three quarters and enjoy the complex characterizations and interactions. Alison Hart has a lot of past to struggle with. And her ghosts don't just lie in the background of her mind, they come up to her and talk to her, and harass her constantly night and day. There isn't really a way to hide from a ghost, or a whole collection of them.
I have to say I agree with the Backlisted crew who gushed about this work. It is ingenious and memorable and effective. It's a book a lot of readers chuck early on (and I can understand why). It's also a book that really hits deep into modern life. I think there is a reason Mantel's next novel took place in a very different time and place, it was Wolf Hall.
-----------------------------------------------
12. Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel
published: 2005
format: 367 page kindle ebook
acquired: February
read: Feb 28 - Mar 9
rating: 4
November 18, 2010
This book doesn't have much in the way of plot, although some revelations about the main character's past are finally gotten to by the end of the book, after 400 pages of hinting. The characters were interesting for a while, but the slowness of the story moving forward makes the reader tired of them. Also, tired of all the secondary characters. And almost every character in the book is nasty and unpleasant in some way. In a lot of ways, the book is very brutal and grotesque, and bloody and gross, and these things keep coming at the reader, page after page, until you get a bit fed up with it.
I struggled to finish this book. There were certainly interesting aspects of it, and the plot did move along however sluggishly, and toward the end a lot of the elements come together, but overall I got tired of being mired in all the disgusting muck, the miserable lives of the characters, and the constant evilness of the wretched spirits.
I struggled to finish this book. There were certainly interesting aspects of it, and the plot did move along however sluggishly, and toward the end a lot of the elements come together, but overall I got tired of being mired in all the disgusting muck, the miserable lives of the characters, and the constant evilness of the wretched spirits.
August 8, 2016
This is the first Mantel I've read since the late 1990s when I discovered Eight Months on Ghazzah Street, A Change of Climate, and An Experiment in Love. (I'll get to the Wolf Hall-business at some point.) Here we have two eccentric English ladies (and a foul-mouthed dwarf spook), and sometimes the relationship between the women reminded me of a marriage. For example this exchange, when one character retracts a suggestion she's made to the other, since the other keeps insisting she can't take it on:
I take it back.Despite the hilarious "why do they they think we're lesbians!" refrain and the witty, droll commentaries on contemporary England, television, suburbia, the death of Princess Diana, psychic fayres (two rival male psychics are named "Merlin" and "Merlyn," of course), there is tragedy and unspeakable pain at the heart of this story. I say "unspeakable" because Mantel writes herself and the reader right up to the edge of the appalling -- to go further would have unbalanced the novel and been disrespectful to those who have suffered child abuse. (This is not a pornography of violence.)
That's not the point. I have to tell you why [I can't do it]. You have to know.
I don't have to.
You do. Or you'll keep coming back to it again and again.
I won't. I'll never mention it.
You will, You're that type, Colette, you can't help mentioning and mentioning things. I'm not getting at you. I'm not criticizing. But you do mention, you are -- Colette, you are, one of the world's great mentioners.
At some point on your road you have to turn and start walking back towards yourself. Or the past will pursue you, and bite the nape of your neck, leave you bleeding in the ditch. Better to turn and face it with such weapons as you possess.
December 20, 2016
Un romanzo, questo della Mantel estremamente bizzarro. Temi interessanti, forse poco sviluppati. In certi punti è sicuramente un po' lento, anche se adoro il suo tipo di struttura.
October 10, 2022
I really liked this book, although like might not be the right word to explain it. It is unlike any book I have read, the characters are memorable, the story original, but a world I was happy to be leave.
This is the story of Alison, a very large, very sad and lonely clairvoyant. She is the real thing, the dead have spoken to her since she was a neglected and abused child growing up with a prostitute mother who made extra money performing abortions, and a gang of dog fighting, murdering thugs who tormented Alison while they were alive and are still tormenting her from the other side, airside as she calls it.
Alison hires Colette, a hard-hearted, lonely divorcee to be her personal assistant and business manager. Colette wants Alison to write a book and its through the writing of the book that Alison starts to recall all that she endured growing up.
Where is the comedy in here you might ask? It is there, but it is dark, very dark humor. Alison is friends in the psychic business, some who are legitimate psychics and some who are able to play the game. It's here that we find some humor.
This book is not for the faint of heart. This book is for a clear eyed realist who knows that life is terrible for many people, or for readers who believe in Karma and Rebirth, and know that they way out of hell is to care more about the suffering of another being than about one's own suffering, or for those who like macabre, edgy stories with just enough hope to not leave one despondent.
I'm glad I read it, but I couldn't recommend it to many others.
This is the story of Alison, a very large, very sad and lonely clairvoyant. She is the real thing, the dead have spoken to her since she was a neglected and abused child growing up with a prostitute mother who made extra money performing abortions, and a gang of dog fighting, murdering thugs who tormented Alison while they were alive and are still tormenting her from the other side, airside as she calls it.
Alison hires Colette, a hard-hearted, lonely divorcee to be her personal assistant and business manager. Colette wants Alison to write a book and its through the writing of the book that Alison starts to recall all that she endured growing up.
Where is the comedy in here you might ask? It is there, but it is dark, very dark humor. Alison is friends in the psychic business, some who are legitimate psychics and some who are able to play the game. It's here that we find some humor.
This book is not for the faint of heart. This book is for a clear eyed realist who knows that life is terrible for many people, or for readers who believe in Karma and Rebirth, and know that they way out of hell is to care more about the suffering of another being than about one's own suffering, or for those who like macabre, edgy stories with just enough hope to not leave one despondent.
I'm glad I read it, but I couldn't recommend it to many others.
Read
June 13, 2017This is the third book by Mantel that I've read and I'm very struck by how different it is from the other two. There's almost no common ground except her tendency to slip back and forth between the two main characters' points of view constantly, even sometimes within the same paragraph. The subject matter is fascinating and as usual, very well researched. I did wonder at times how she planned to wrap it up - it is a bit shapeless in the middle - but the end is suitably fitting.
November 1, 2023
So dark and scary and yet so witty. Mantel is now firmly on my favourite author list.
First read: 2013; re-read 2018.
First read: 2013; re-read 2018.
Read
August 26, 2022Hilary Mantel’s Beyond Black could just as easily be titled Beyond Weird or even Beyond Brilliant.
Beyond Black is the story of ”Alison [who] was a Sensitive: which is to say her senses were arranged in a different way from the senses of most people. She was a medium: dead people talked to her, and she talked back. She was a clairvoyant; she could see straight through the living, to their ambitions and secret sorrows, and tell you what they kept in their bedside drawers and how they had travelled to the venue. She wasn’t (by nature) a fortune-teller, but it was hard to make people understand that. Prediction, though she protested against it, had become a lucrative part of her business.”. Brought up in Aldershot, now rated among the UK’s worst places to live, Alison’s childhood was peopled by a parade of visits by seedy punters to her mother. She’s also morbidly obese: ”She imagined how it would be if she woke up one morning, to find she had shed layers of herself, like someone taking off a winter coat — then two coats, then three. . . . She took handfuls of flesh from here and there, repositioned and resettled them. She viewed herself from all angles but she couldn’t produce a better effect. I try my best with the diets, she said to herself; but I have to house so many people. My flesh is so capacious; I am a settlement, a place of safety, a bombproof shelter.”. Alison is joined by Colette, her business manager, who ”was sharp, rude and effective.”
In Beyond Black, Mantel constantly balances Alison on a tightrope teetering between slapstick and the fantastical paranormal on the one side, and pathos and emotional horror on the other side. Alison ultimately descends from the tightrope triumphantly, moving beyond her newly retrieved remembrances of unimaginable childhood abuse and exploitation encouraged by her prostitute mother.
My previous reading of Hilary Mantel was confined to her epic, career defining Cromwell trilogy and several recent short stories. If hadn’t recalled the first page of her Bring Up the Bodies in which Cromwell sees dead children reborn as falcons, I wouldn’t have believed that Mantael who wrote the Wholf Hall series and Mantel who wrote Beyond Black were the same novelist. I’ve since learned more about Mantel’s pre-Cromwell novels: it’s on to her Every Day is Mother’s Day and Vacant Possession soonish.
Beyond Black is the story of ”Alison [who] was a Sensitive: which is to say her senses were arranged in a different way from the senses of most people. She was a medium: dead people talked to her, and she talked back. She was a clairvoyant; she could see straight through the living, to their ambitions and secret sorrows, and tell you what they kept in their bedside drawers and how they had travelled to the venue. She wasn’t (by nature) a fortune-teller, but it was hard to make people understand that. Prediction, though she protested against it, had become a lucrative part of her business.”. Brought up in Aldershot, now rated among the UK’s worst places to live, Alison’s childhood was peopled by a parade of visits by seedy punters to her mother. She’s also morbidly obese: ”She imagined how it would be if she woke up one morning, to find she had shed layers of herself, like someone taking off a winter coat — then two coats, then three. . . . She took handfuls of flesh from here and there, repositioned and resettled them. She viewed herself from all angles but she couldn’t produce a better effect. I try my best with the diets, she said to herself; but I have to house so many people. My flesh is so capacious; I am a settlement, a place of safety, a bombproof shelter.”. Alison is joined by Colette, her business manager, who ”was sharp, rude and effective.”
In Beyond Black, Mantel constantly balances Alison on a tightrope teetering between slapstick and the fantastical paranormal on the one side, and pathos and emotional horror on the other side. Alison ultimately descends from the tightrope triumphantly, moving beyond her newly retrieved remembrances of unimaginable childhood abuse and exploitation encouraged by her prostitute mother.
My previous reading of Hilary Mantel was confined to her epic, career defining Cromwell trilogy and several recent short stories. If hadn’t recalled the first page of her Bring Up the Bodies in which Cromwell sees dead children reborn as falcons, I wouldn’t have believed that Mantael who wrote the Wholf Hall series and Mantel who wrote Beyond Black were the same novelist. I’ve since learned more about Mantel’s pre-Cromwell novels: it’s on to her Every Day is Mother’s Day and Vacant Possession soonish.
May 6, 2021
Hilary Mantel describes this book as having turned out ‘more horrid than anything I could have imagined writing’, and who am I to argue. It is profoundly horrid. The title is perfectly chosen to encapsulate the horrid in this world and the next.
Brief plot summary: Alison, a successful psychic/medium, teams up with Colette as her business manager. The novel follows the arc of their growing closer then apart, set against the grim social realist backdrop of unlovely English suburbia, Alison’s horrific childhood, and worse still, the afterlife and figures from her past who won’t leave her alone.
So first there are two main characters, Alison and Colette, could not be more different; both are complex women and wonderfully drawn. Alison: large, benign, generous, colourful people-pleaser; Colette: thin, critical, frugal, beige control-freak. Opposites attract, and their partnership is successful business-wise, but they also repel of course, and the two women become increasingly irked by one another.
Then there is setting of the degraded outer London Green Belt, which is perfectly evoked: landscapes of suburban sprawl; motorways and retail parks; sinister wasteland, caravans and outbuildings; ugly new housing developments built on who knows what lies beneath; suspicious / hostile neighbours, and crime-infested families. The underside of supposedly leafy affluent south-east England (which I know all too well), an uneasy relationship in an uneasy setting.
Also there is memory: Alison knows that she witnessed terrible things, and had terrible things done to her, but has blocked out what and by whom. She can receive messages from random dead people on behalf of clients, but not remember what happened in own her life.
And then there is the spirit world. The problem with the spirit world is it’s just the same as this one, only worse, and eternal. Bastards in this life are bastards in the beyond, only you can’t get rid of them. Alison’s business is giving reassuring and helpful messages to her clients from those who have passed; little do they know she is tormented day and night by her childhood abusers. The afterlife is endless boredom and utterly banal. There is no peace or escape or salvation. Your memories, grievances, damage and loss haunt you forever. The newly dead often don’t appear to realise they are actually dead (as a darkly amusing encounter with Princess Diana shows), and it gets worse from there. Alison’s ‘spirit guide’ Morris and his pals are utterly revolting. Thing is, Alison’s real world living life mother is just as bad. Beyond black indeed.
For all this, there is light in the darkness. There is a lot of dialogue and it’s where HM’s mordant wit comes through. Colette does excellent snark; the supporting cast of bewildered dead people get some great lines, and the purveyors of woo on the psychic fair circuit are nicely satirised. But the real light is Alison’s will to the ‘good act’. She is not a saintly or heroic figure, but she is compelled to balance the evil done to her by doing good, and she really tries. It’s not a moral tale but there is a message that it’s better to do the right thing in this life, because there isn’t going to be a reward after that.
There so much more to be said about how this amazingly multi-dimensional novel covers good and evil, family history, social history, social psychology, landscape, the condition of England, and the question of what happens after we die, which has nagged at humans since we began. This book kept expanding and growing after I’d finished it, strands coming together, images and references connecting. Then when I listened to an interview with the author (below), I realised there was even more to it. I don’t want to read it again because horrid; I do want to read it again because there is so much I missed.
I might have to invite Hilary Mantel to my dinner party with Shirley Jackson and Patricia Highsmith. She won’t mind that they have both passed on.
For anyone who’s read this far, you may be interested in an in-depth discussion with Ms Mantel about this book, with some fascinating insights into what it’s all about, particularly where it draws on her personal experiences, and her social views/politics - cbc.ca/player/play/2178638241
Brief plot summary: Alison, a successful psychic/medium, teams up with Colette as her business manager. The novel follows the arc of their growing closer then apart, set against the grim social realist backdrop of unlovely English suburbia, Alison’s horrific childhood, and worse still, the afterlife and figures from her past who won’t leave her alone.
So first there are two main characters, Alison and Colette, could not be more different; both are complex women and wonderfully drawn. Alison: large, benign, generous, colourful people-pleaser; Colette: thin, critical, frugal, beige control-freak. Opposites attract, and their partnership is successful business-wise, but they also repel of course, and the two women become increasingly irked by one another.
Then there is setting of the degraded outer London Green Belt, which is perfectly evoked: landscapes of suburban sprawl; motorways and retail parks; sinister wasteland, caravans and outbuildings; ugly new housing developments built on who knows what lies beneath; suspicious / hostile neighbours, and crime-infested families. The underside of supposedly leafy affluent south-east England (which I know all too well), an uneasy relationship in an uneasy setting.
Also there is memory: Alison knows that she witnessed terrible things, and had terrible things done to her, but has blocked out what and by whom. She can receive messages from random dead people on behalf of clients, but not remember what happened in own her life.
And then there is the spirit world. The problem with the spirit world is it’s just the same as this one, only worse, and eternal. Bastards in this life are bastards in the beyond, only you can’t get rid of them. Alison’s business is giving reassuring and helpful messages to her clients from those who have passed; little do they know she is tormented day and night by her childhood abusers. The afterlife is endless boredom and utterly banal. There is no peace or escape or salvation. Your memories, grievances, damage and loss haunt you forever. The newly dead often don’t appear to realise they are actually dead (as a darkly amusing encounter with Princess Diana shows), and it gets worse from there. Alison’s ‘spirit guide’ Morris and his pals are utterly revolting. Thing is, Alison’s real world living life mother is just as bad. Beyond black indeed.
For all this, there is light in the darkness. There is a lot of dialogue and it’s where HM’s mordant wit comes through. Colette does excellent snark; the supporting cast of bewildered dead people get some great lines, and the purveyors of woo on the psychic fair circuit are nicely satirised. But the real light is Alison’s will to the ‘good act’. She is not a saintly or heroic figure, but she is compelled to balance the evil done to her by doing good, and she really tries. It’s not a moral tale but there is a message that it’s better to do the right thing in this life, because there isn’t going to be a reward after that.
There so much more to be said about how this amazingly multi-dimensional novel covers good and evil, family history, social history, social psychology, landscape, the condition of England, and the question of what happens after we die, which has nagged at humans since we began. This book kept expanding and growing after I’d finished it, strands coming together, images and references connecting. Then when I listened to an interview with the author (below), I realised there was even more to it. I don’t want to read it again because horrid; I do want to read it again because there is so much I missed.
I might have to invite Hilary Mantel to my dinner party with Shirley Jackson and Patricia Highsmith. She won’t mind that they have both passed on.
For anyone who’s read this far, you may be interested in an in-depth discussion with Ms Mantel about this book, with some fascinating insights into what it’s all about, particularly where it draws on her personal experiences, and her social views/politics - cbc.ca/player/play/2178638241
February 26, 2015
Beyond Black is an uneven book that doesn't seem to know what it wants to be when it grows up. The main character, a genuine psychic named Alison, is a character you develop great sympathy for during the story. The storyline following how she unravels the questions about her tormented childhood is creepy and fascinating. She seeks to discover why dead people haunt her, especially a gang of wretched characters she calls "fiends" who act determined to make her life miserable.
The main problem the story offers is the secondary character, a humorless, cruel, angry woman named Collette who becomes Alison's manager/tax adviser/promoter. Collette is so miserable and one dimensional in her meanness you begin to hope Alison grabs a frying pan and whacks Collette in the head. Amusingly at one point Alison has similar thoughts but she keeps Collette around for seven years; Alison even has a house built for them to live in. Cue the lesbian jokes which are unnecessary and cheap. You sense Alison is so desperately lonely she'll endure Collette's insults and verbal abuse.
The book's other flaw is the writing style. Perhaps I am a simple dope who doesn't understand literary conceits, but when tense changes in the middle of the paragraph, or suddenly the dialog is written as COLLETTE: What do you mean? ALISON: Nothing, this reader thinks "Gee, I am reading a book, not enjoying a story."
Only my desire to discover Alison's secrets pushed me to finish the book.
The main problem the story offers is the secondary character, a humorless, cruel, angry woman named Collette who becomes Alison's manager/tax adviser/promoter. Collette is so miserable and one dimensional in her meanness you begin to hope Alison grabs a frying pan and whacks Collette in the head. Amusingly at one point Alison has similar thoughts but she keeps Collette around for seven years; Alison even has a house built for them to live in. Cue the lesbian jokes which are unnecessary and cheap. You sense Alison is so desperately lonely she'll endure Collette's insults and verbal abuse.
The book's other flaw is the writing style. Perhaps I am a simple dope who doesn't understand literary conceits, but when tense changes in the middle of the paragraph, or suddenly the dialog is written as COLLETTE: What do you mean? ALISON: Nothing, this reader thinks "Gee, I am reading a book, not enjoying a story."
Only my desire to discover Alison's secrets pushed me to finish the book.
August 7, 2014
This has to be one of the worst books I have ever had the misfortune to read! I read this book for a book group, and not one of us who was there had anything good to say about it, no plot, characters were badly written, can't believe this was written by the same person who wrote Wolf Hall. Would have given this book no stars if I could, do not read this book at any cost!
February 16, 2023
I had this book recommended to me, but I’ve had to DNF about 20% in. I did skim a few more chapters, but there was no sign it was going to get any better if I stuck with it. Slow, boring, miserable, and definitely too long. I just didn’t care what happened. The characters were unlikeable and it just rambled on. Reading other reviews, it seems I’m not the only one to feel like this. It’s a book without a plot or a point. Shame, because I had high hopes for it.
November 25, 2023
3.5 stars, rounded up
Hilary Mantel’s writing chops are fully evident here, in service of a rather unsavoury story. Alison is a professional medium to whom a gang of dreadful spirits flock, a posse of menacing characters who tormented her as a child when they were men in her bawd mother’s life. The novel can be seen as a story of childhood trauma persisting into adulthood, but it works on other levels too. It’s a slyly humorous dig at middle-class respectability, when an uptight business manager swoops into Alison’s life, imposing order on her chaotic finances and helping her acquire the appurtenances of upwardly mobile striving. It’s also a bit of a peek at Mantel’s writing life, the medium giving life to the characters crowding her brain. I will very much miss her.
Hilary Mantel’s writing chops are fully evident here, in service of a rather unsavoury story. Alison is a professional medium to whom a gang of dreadful spirits flock, a posse of menacing characters who tormented her as a child when they were men in her bawd mother’s life. The novel can be seen as a story of childhood trauma persisting into adulthood, but it works on other levels too. It’s a slyly humorous dig at middle-class respectability, when an uptight business manager swoops into Alison’s life, imposing order on her chaotic finances and helping her acquire the appurtenances of upwardly mobile striving. It’s also a bit of a peek at Mantel’s writing life, the medium giving life to the characters crowding her brain. I will very much miss her.
June 24, 2020
Hilary Mantel's Beyond Black is the most subtle horror book (with dark humor) you can ever read! There is a maddening dissonance between what is happening in the story and her simple prose - which makes it enjoyable. (Like the silence in a horror movie?)
What happens in the world beyond Black (death) - Spirits who have passed, the souls which refuse to pass, the undead? Ms.Mantel explores this crowded space (The ratio of spirits:living is 80:1) through an appropriate protagonist - A medium coming to terms with her past. And of course through her past - explores the very worst of the living.
Alison is that mid-forties obese medium and joining her is an efficient, skeptical and acerbic partner Collette. Alison is a "sensitive" but she knows her audience and works the scene to make money. In fact, we start off with an almost humorous episode of Alison working the scene during one of her sessions - making wrong guesses, recovering and owning the stage. And then we see she is not a complete fraud as she allows contact. She gives private readings and along with her friends tries to maximise revenues.
We meet Alison's spirit guide Morris who is a lowly, lecherous spirit who is a menace to manage creeping on women, vanishing off with his drinking friends. He and his friends are despicable and grow in significance with Alison's past. We see the world through the eyes of Alison and it is a very scary place - like when she surveys a development site, she sees the dead bodies. Collette wants to improve earnings through Alison's book - and in the process tried to understand her history.
There are multiple humorous sections - like when after Diana's death there is a flood of customers who empathise with her who want to know what she has to say and the gypsies make a fortune. Or the real estate strategy for selling a land in the middle of nowhere. The 'normal people' are mostly susceptible and ignorant. Collette is dominating and through logic keeps doubting Alison's methods (in a sense asking the questions the reader might have)
The gore and the buildup to the reveal was chilling. She doesn't spare the reader by smoothing the edges. We can see the author's own projection when she is trying to come to terms with her past - of how memories are a defense mechanism and why they should not be breached.
The weakest link is probably Collette's storyline and to some extent some of the characters who are introduced in the middle (like the vagrant). But somehow I felt the last 15% made it up for the slow buildup.
Loved it and will recommend to people who can experiment.
What happens in the world beyond Black (death) - Spirits who have passed, the souls which refuse to pass, the undead? Ms.Mantel explores this crowded space (The ratio of spirits:living is 80:1) through an appropriate protagonist - A medium coming to terms with her past. And of course through her past - explores the very worst of the living.
Alison is that mid-forties obese medium and joining her is an efficient, skeptical and acerbic partner Collette. Alison is a "sensitive" but she knows her audience and works the scene to make money. In fact, we start off with an almost humorous episode of Alison working the scene during one of her sessions - making wrong guesses, recovering and owning the stage. And then we see she is not a complete fraud as she allows contact. She gives private readings and along with her friends tries to maximise revenues.
We meet Alison's spirit guide Morris who is a lowly, lecherous spirit who is a menace to manage creeping on women, vanishing off with his drinking friends. He and his friends are despicable and grow in significance with Alison's past. We see the world through the eyes of Alison and it is a very scary place - like when she surveys a development site, she sees the dead bodies. Collette wants to improve earnings through Alison's book - and in the process tried to understand her history.
There are multiple humorous sections - like when after Diana's death there is a flood of customers who empathise with her who want to know what she has to say and the gypsies make a fortune. Or the real estate strategy for selling a land in the middle of nowhere. The 'normal people' are mostly susceptible and ignorant. Collette is dominating and through logic keeps doubting Alison's methods (in a sense asking the questions the reader might have)
The gore and the buildup to the reveal was chilling. She doesn't spare the reader by smoothing the edges. We can see the author's own projection when she is trying to come to terms with her past - of how memories are a defense mechanism and why they should not be breached.
The weakest link is probably Collette's storyline and to some extent some of the characters who are introduced in the middle (like the vagrant). But somehow I felt the last 15% made it up for the slow buildup.
Loved it and will recommend to people who can experiment.
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