Bad Influence
William Sutcliffe Hamish Hamilton, 163pp, £10
ISBN 0241141400
William Sutcliffe's latest novel shows how easily innocence can be corrupted by external forces. Like Mark Haddon, in his own prizewinning Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Sutcliffe simply and realistically records the confusions of a troubled world of childhood.
Ben is a bright, gregarious lad living in a north London suburb with his parents and two elder siblings. The most important things in his life are Olly, his ginger-haired best friend, and winding up his brother, Donny. In his head Ben creates a hierarchical system of his friends and enemies, and carefully calculates every incident or conversation so that he will emerge victorious, either by sneaking into Donny's bedroom or by winning an argument with his parents. Like Haddon, Sutcliffe illustrates Ben's childish thoughts and obsessions with crude sketches, graphs and Venn diagrams representing his brother's malodorous room, or his sister's relationship with her best friend.
The bad influence comes in the form of Carl, a slightly older boy whom Ben encounters bouncing a ball as high as he can in the street. It is clear that Carl is a troubled child when he starts messing around with a chainsaw in Ben's back garden. After he waves it around in front of Ben's father's face, it is obvious that hanging out with Carl will lead to nothing but trouble. For Ben, this incident reverses the balance of power: despite all his dad's assured control, there is not much even he can do against a boy with a chainsaw.
Carl's malign influence on Ben's world spreads like a virus to his sister and, most threateningly, to Olly. Sutcliffe portrays Carl with increasing menace. A dysfunctional child from a broken home, he is the personification of all that Ben's parents fear. He is the sort of kid who will ride down the steepest hill in the park and not care about falling off, or steal from a sweet shop just for something to do.
His effect on Ben is like a drug: "I know he's bad, but I want to be with him." The attraction lies in the possibility of the unexpected: "With him around, things happen. New things." Carl drags Ben and Olly towards what they like to think is grown-up behaviour.
Ben tags along on bike trips to Wemb-ley, plays violent games with a deck of cards and even skips school. Sutcliffe relates these scenes with comic precision, describing Ben's inner conflict with rare understanding. Poor Ben wants to save his best friend from this "nutcase" - but, most importantly, he has to stay popular at the same time.
At once innocent and intelligent, Ben makes a sympathetic narrator. Unlike so many novels told from a child's perspective, Sutcliffe spares us from tiresome fantasies or maudlin confessions. His skill lies in his ability to invest everyday situations with excitement and adventure. He allows readers to become young again, and reminds us just how difficult and perplexing life can be when you are ten.
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