My Dearest Jonah by Matthew Crow

My Dearest Jonah

Matthew Crow

Two stories for the price of one here. Verity and Jonah’s lives are glimpsed through their letters to each other – a lurid mix of crime, drugs and pole dancing. The formal structure and ornate language keep a tight rein on the melodrama – this is sharp, clever and more than a little disturbing.

Extract
I think I’ve talked for long enough, tonight at least. By now the rooster outside is filling his lungs and a milky residue is beginning to swirl in the sky like the first drops of cream in well-brewed coffee.
God I hate morning.
I hope you are no longer upset, Verity, and that your next letter will intone as much. I hope, too, that for your sake you’re in control of whatever situation you have gotten yourself into, and for what it’s worth you’re forever in my thoughts.
If possible – and not too much to ask – please keep your fingers crossed for me tomorrow. As well as financial reasons (a pressing matter in themselves) the solitude of unemployment in an alien town is beginning to take its toll. I sometimes forget where my thoughts stop and the real world starts. Only yesterday I walked into the town’s general store and instinctively went to open a beer straight from the fridge. It’s the company I miss. Nothing quite as grandiose as camaraderie.
Parallels
  • Paris Trance by Geoff Dyer
  • Pulp Fiction - film
  • Legend of a Suicide by David Vann
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Violence
Explicit sexual content