Insignificance by James Clammer (Galley Beggar Press)

Life hasn't been so good for Joseph Fobes, this past while. Both life and his job as a plumber have got Joe into some very awkward and uncomfortable places. Then there's his wife, Alison, who has for some time been infatuated by another man. A man with long hair and a beard, if you can believe the pictures (although Jesus never looks like a man from Bethelem in any of those pious paintings). More problematic still is Edward, the son they had together. A son who refuses to believe that his mother is his mother. What he did to her was the cause of a breakdown from which Joe is trying to recover when we meet him, calling to the house of Alison's friend, Amanda to undertake a job they two women have concocted together. A try-out for Joe to see if he's "up to the job".

What transpires over the course of the day the novel leads us through is rendered with the care and attention Joe wants to apply to his work. We learn a lot about the precise nature of that work and get the first of many wry, quizzical comments from an omniscient narrator who is quick to add some commentary, as we garner details of Joe's life and later, when the foreground perspective changes, about Alison's life.

That narrative voice is compelling, confidential and amusing. "The need to mention the weather, to make a complaint in fact, has been pressing for some time so we might as well deal with it now, this moment is as good as any other." We can trust such a voice to tell us what we need to know. Both the language used and the style of narration are perfectly matched to the details of Joe's work and to his beleaguered life. Descriptions of nature may be beautiful, but this is not the place for such pastoral immersions: "ivy twined in every place you looked, the general picture is a familiar one, we shan't go on, the last thing anyone needs is more nature writers." That narrator could be eloquent if he wished to be but, in the British way, he doesn't want to be thought of as grandiose. However, that inhibition doesn't preclude some unusual language constructions.

"There were better places to eat than here but the man Joseph had found himself driving this way unconsciously, the feeder roads guiding him without blockage across roundabout and past petrol stations, in front of an SUV showroom decked with hangings of rugged empty landscapes, pleasantly then to be conducted inside the perimeter of the retail park where ahead reclined both superstore and the coffeeshop which was its most exciting zone."

When Alison's life becomes our focus of attention, we not only learn about the reasons for her ever-increasing religious devotion, but we arrive at a clear view of one of the main issues with which the novel deals so effectively: the extent to which we reach accommodations with ourselves so that life, with all its vicissitudes and intractable difficulties,

can be endured. Here and later when Joe begins to unravel, we also realise how that accommodation is linked to keeping so much of what we feel and fear to ourselves. It is bemusing, but not surprising, to realise how little Joseph and Alison - who have spent many years together - really know about one another.

All of what we achieve in a day, just by surviving, may be insignificant to everyone else, but for each of us, it represents the gap between the possible and the impossible. In 'Insignificance', James Clammer has written what often seems like an intuitive novel, one that is both very entertaining to read and, through that affable narrative exposition, is a reminder of the balancing act we all perform, every day.