"He almost took the wrong turning at the next roundabout. Muriel remained silent but pointed a contemptuous finger, at the last moment, in the correct direction"Its that little clause at the last moment that captures the delight of this odd awkward story. The awkwardness is not of the writing, the writing is a pure delight, Beryl Bainbridge has a great ability to capture dialogue and internal thinking in an off the wall amusing fashion. No, the awkwardness is in the plot which is weird, unnerving and deliciously uncomfortable. A man, succumbing to the pressure of his mistress, asks a bloke with whom he works to come to supper and bring his wife so as to give his mistress, Binny, a sense of worth or recognition. She assumes they are close friends of his but we know that the man is a work colleague and Edward, the mistress' beau, has never met the man's wife. Thus he regularly calls Muriel, Miriam. The awkward pre meal chat morphs into the awkward chomping through over cooked supper (the guests arrived late in part because of the quotation at the head of the review). A drunken next door neighbour of Binny trips up the steps and wobbles her way into the supper gathering, her overly made up face and dubious dress look out of place in the atmosphere, an atmosphere which you could quite happily pare with an elegantly turned fruit knife. She imbibes a tad more and then falls noisily asleep and then, just as we had forgotten about her lying in amidst the discoloured soft furnishings, she projectile vomits her way right back into the conversation. The vomit is preceded by four failed bank robbers smashing their way into the house and then the police encircle, the hostages chat to and are ignored by their captors except for one of the miscreants who seems kinder but shows himself worse.The story ends but doesn't really; Is there a death, Is there an escape, Is there a resolution to the many relational threads that seem left blowing in the wind.........read it, and see what you think or would guess or might assume.
Edward Freeman is a middle-aged, middle-class tax accountant, a pipe smoker and a keen gardner, married to Helen but having an affair with the working-class Binny Mills on the side. Binny is divorced, has three children and doesn't really ask much in terms of commitment from Edward, but some sort of show of togetherness would be nice.So a dinner party is organised at Binny's house, with Edward's friend George Simpson and his wife Muriel making up the foursome. George is glad to have made this concession to Binny, though he doesn't even particularly like George and has never even met Muriel. He worries that something may go wrong though. It does, only not as he imagined. Edward is somewhat pompous, George an adulterer himself, Muriel is clearly unhappy with her husband and Binny receives no respect from her two eldest children and her best friend, Alma, is an incorrigible alcoholic. None of them are people built for a crisis.Beryl Bainbridge is a really fun novelist, witty and concise, sharp as a tack as she jerks her characters around, though not without a certain empathy and pathos. 'Injury Time' is a little slight perhaps, but it certainly raises a few laughs.Short and bitter-sweet.
Do You like book Injury Time (2003)?
It was hard to walk while listening to this book as I had to keep stopping to double up with laughter. The humour is black, there is no doubt about that, it reminded me of one of my favourite films "In Bruges". Loved the major characters. Especially loved Binny's neighbour, Alma, she was very special. The humour, the characters and the plot were all executed beautifully. The end was abrupt, I couldn't believe it stopped when it did, but, upon reflection, I could understand Ms Bainbridge's intention. I am all for trying some more of her novels.
—Kristyh
