The Benefactors is about grift, abuse and minor acts of kindness in Belfast. Wendy Erskine’s tremendous first novel is stacked with many voices and disparate sounds as it slices through the strata of a city in motion. There is new money in tech and hospitality. Execs in the voluntary sector are pitching for the post-conflict dollar and can play the Troubles card on demand. There is a rotten character to much of the effort, plus a teen culture in the ’burbs that sneers about smicks, free school dinners and DLA sportswear.
The scale of the work builds on two great collections of short stories, most recently Dance Move in 2022. The Benefactors is a story without a main character, more an ensemble performance, like a nervy Chekhov drama. Everyone is compromised and lacking in some way. Yet even the gym-toned uber-dogs have their secret histories and are capable of unscripted acts. Bronagh, the high-scoring CEO of children’s services who muses about “bourgeois morality” at an appalling juncture, finally drops the hypocrisies and starts swinging.
Wendy Erskine by Khara Pringle
The book pans from the walk-in wardrobes of Ladyhill to the Shore Road nan with the harsh colour balance on her TV. The book is wise not to moralise, but Boogie earns dharma in his taxi cab while Misty Johnston aims for a gracious reset as the story closes. The author writes well about the imperfect shoes, the chipped nail varnish and dashboard air fresheners. This panoramic quality plus an eye for social manners recalls Tom Wolfe and The Bonfire of the Vanities, which in turn was channelling Dickens, Thackeray and Balzac.
It’s a book that’s even better on second reading – better to appreciate the semitones and the mesh of narrative speakers. Quality work. The Benefactors is a gift.
Stuart Bailie
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