Review: Some Rise (Furnass Towers Trilogy Book 2) by Richard Snodgrass

In the second installment of the Furnass Towers trilogy, Some Rise, Richard Snodgrass has again woven a complex family drama into a gripping work of literary fiction.

The novel focuses on the Sutcliff family: brothers Harry Todd and Dickie and their Mother Kittie. The fuse is lit when Harry Todd, after being away, comes back to town like the prodigal son to see Dickie and his mother. Although Harry’s return raises questions, they accept him at first – Dickie, however, keeps an ear to the ground, for what he knows about Harry’s past shades the present. Then, like a slowly fraying rope, some horrid family secrets are eventually revealed.

Setting the novel with the backdrop of the 1980s in a town that is dying the slow death of the steel industry, Snodgrass at once mirrors the deterioration of family and setting. It is not as far reaching as The Building, the first book in the series, but what is lost is breadth is gained in depth.

The most striking thing about Snodgrass’s prose is how it manages to capture a sense of place without venturing into the messy field of vernacular. Peppered throughout are lines of description that could only have come from an 80’s industrial town, and lines of dialogue that ground the characters in time and place.What Snodgrass does best is effortlessly switch between characters. There is the sense that the story exists as a core and each character – each point of view – captures one slice. As the pages turn, more and more is revealed until it reaches a fever pitch in the third act that isn’t too be missed.

On a deeper reading, Snodgrass’s allusion to archetypal family dramas becomes clear. The dynamic between the brothers and the mother is almost biblical, with fundamental truths about the nature of jealousy and maternal love. While not quite in the same realm as say East of Eden, the theme of brotherly love and hate is potent. And the mother herself, Kittie, pulls the motherly marionette strings, is an equally compelling and vividly drawn character.

Alongside the kaleidoscopic narrative, Snodgrass injects a sense of mysticism into the story. Harry Todd, living in their new house, has a feeling somebody else is there; the presence nips at his heels as he walks up the stairs. They are all dealing with ghosts, in one way or another. With the house that seems to speak, and dead people lingering, the allusion to the other world in this book gives the story that much more depth. Once again, as in the first book in the series – a building can have a character and life of its own.

Read in succession, The Building and Some Rise work to create a fully fledged history of Furnass, and an epic story following the families who have lived in this town over the years. A sequel that improves on its predecessor – in part because the combination of the two is telling such a rich and layered story – Some Rise is an impressive work of fiction in what is shaping up to be a great literary series.