The Gallopers is a curious beast. In 1950’s England, Eli begins a passionate relationship with Jimmy, a fairground worker. The relationship is of the brief, passionate and sexual kind that lingers in the mind and often defines whom we are of people. It’s one where the latter is emphasised, with sex scenes that although well-written are just as easily perfunctory and brutal.
It’s written in a sparse, first person stream of consciousness and that gives the air of something dream-like, almost imagined. And midway through the books there is a change of tone as Eli and Jimmy’s affair is depicted as a playscript some thirty years after that latent heat is still there. Who wrote it? It’s not explained and although most books use an omnipotent, omniscient narrator is a daring change of tone.
It has the maturity and growth a second novel should have and where there are rough edges, Ransom has the skills to make the ride smoother next time around, the sweeteners is already in his skill set.
My thanks go to Muswell Press for a review copy.
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