Little Scratch

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Undercutting the darkness are glimpses of wry, well-observed humour enhanced by the visual wordplay: the confused negotiation of an office tea-round, an insufferable poetry reading and the dark pleasure of reading a disgruntled Tripadvisor review. Adapted from Rebecca Watson’s ‘daringly experimental debut’ novel ( Guardian), little scratch is a fearless and exhilarating account of a woman’s consciousness over the course of 24 hours. The charged narrative records in precise detail her impressions of a deceptively ordinary day - the daily commute, office politics and a constant barrage of texts on WhatsApp – and as the day goes on, she gradually starts to unveil the trauma of a rape that is consuming her. Exploring how the human mind internalizes, distracts, and survives the darkest moments, Katie Mitchell, with sound score by Melanie Wilson, brings Miriam Battye’s adaptation to compelling life. and being confused at how still it (my face) was, how it wasn’t moving when in my head things were so loud, rising furious right out and yet I did not move, did not seem to feel or wince or, look at that face! look at that frozen face (I used to think), prod at it as if it wasn’t mine

Rebecca Watson is one of The Observer’s 10 best debut novelists of 2021 and was shortlisted for this year's Desmond Elliott Prize. Even as I wrote the review it was tempting to refer to elements of the plot that fit closely what I understand of the author’s life and experiences (in a way I am all too conscious I am far more likely to do with a female rather than make author). And very knowingly by the author the one time when the book diverts to a WhatsApp group chat (otherwise the narrator leaves them unread, instead just communicating with her Mum and her Him) it is for a brief discussion on female auto-fiction. and I merely want to select the right book from my shelf that’ll interest him (the shelf inside my head I mean), so that I’m not just delivering any old thing, I love a circadian narrative and had heard interesting things about the experimental style used in this debut novel. I even heard Watson read a passage from it as part of a Faber online preview event and found it very funny and engaging. But I really should have tried an excerpt before requesting this for review; I would have seen at a glance that this wasn’t for me. I don’t have a problem with prose being formatted like poetry ( Girl, Woman, Other, Stubborn Archivist, the prologue of Wendy McGrath’s Santa Rosa), but here it seemed to me that it was only done to alleviate the tedium of the contents.T he story works on several levels and, within a minute, can draw both wry humour and gnawing horror from office life, and find weary familiarity and startling surprise in everyday routines.' Scratching as a bodily reaction to her environment, and a not very healthy relationship with food, are signals that far from all is well, and her assistant job at a newspaper features and abusive boss. However far from gloomy or heavy, Rebecca Watson brings a lot of humor in the book. The audiobook read by her is very well done, you feel the mood of the narrator shift and change and can really feel a part of her rambling, ever active mind. Despite these niggles, I remain in awe of the innovative structure of the novel – even though it did not, in my opinion, quite reach its full potential. I have to stop myself, I know I will stop myself so my body scratches faster, gets in more moves in less time, if you’re going to make me tear away so soon I better get my pound’s Some angry men have also been in touch. A typical response is anger at the passage when the narrator says:

Overall I thought this was an excellent and impactful book treating an important if difficult subject –#MeToo and sexual assault in the workplace and female agency in the face of male obliviousness. legs moving like a soldier, in front of mirror, face seems calm, can’t tell the heat under my tights, me, completely separate from my body, but still in itI read Mayflies by Andrew O’Hagan over Christmas. It’s really moving. The way he captures the romance of friendship is quite a rare thing. It’s also a beautiful celebration of spontaneous life, which feels really brutal to read during a pandemic. Watson has now extended her story to run throughout a single day, from the moment the narrator wakes, groggy, mildly hungover, late for work, until the moment she surrenders herself to sleep. Nothing truly exceptional happens to her – she commutes into central London, waits out the hours at work and then meets her boyfriend for a Friday night out – and yet every moment feels filled with life and with jeopardy. Besides hilarious passages right from ordinary live we also get to see how whatsapp forms the main platform for the main character to fret over her relationship with her Him. A few men said they had changed as a consequence of reading the book; but it is mostly women who identified with the message and thanked her.

On her influences, Watson cited Sarah Kane (playwright); Virginia Woolf; especially Between the Acts ; Eimear McBride; Meena Kandasamy—the link is ‘performative voices’ Extract, from the original short story, with a nice plug for a book from the wonderful Fitzcarraldo Editions I usually find the assumptions funny or psychologically interesting, at other times a tedious balancing act of correcting or letting go. People’s reactions are not mine to control; nor, in a way, is the book.

down into the corridor (averting my eyes, upwards, away from the red and orange concentric circles across the carpet), upper arm preparing to negotiate the swing doors, nudging myself and the soup carefully slowly slowly through I just finished little scratch, which I should have finished the same day I started it, but I found my interest starting to lag half way through. I think it was a smart, interesting style, but for me, if it had been shorter it would have been more impactful.

little scratch brings us into a day in the life of a woman making her way in the workforce of London, dealing with sexual harassment and her own thoughts. The cast features Morónkẹ́ Akinọlá ( The Niceties, Finborough Theatre), Eleanor Henderson ( Pass It On, Lyric Hammersmith), Eve Ponsonby ( Longing, Hampstead) and Ragevan Vasan ( Name, Place, Animal, Thing, Almeida). Overall. 4.5 stars - and a strong contender for the Goldsmiths Prize shortlist. [Addition - which it indeed made!]

The poetry reading awkwardness is hilarious, but the musings around how to deal with rape are a very ample counterweight, brought in a claustrophobic manner, with thoughts like: