We Come Apart, a collaborative project between Crossan and Conaghan, is a three-part novel written in alternating voices. The text is in a fractured format, which will be familiar to Crossan’s fans. As you would expect from writers at the top of their game, it seizes the reader’s attention from the first page.
Fizzy and her Mum are about to wind down, eat supper and head to bed one Tuesday evening. But Fizzy begins to root through her dress up box to find the perfect outfit for Mrs Crumbleboom’s party next door. While her Mum needs some convincing, the two head over to the party and enjoy lots of treats, rock music, and exploring Mrs Crumbleboom’s house. Mum brings Fizzy back home before they can see the fireworks, but a compromise is made when they make a blanket fort and watch the fireworks from the window together.
Allison has run away from home and her abusive father. Taking refuge in an abandoned house in a Cornish seaside town, she finds it is the home of Marla, an elderly woman with dementia. Marla mistakes Allison for Toffee, a childhood friend, and Allison likes the idea of a new identity and name, of being ‘sweet and hard, a girl with a name for people to chew on. A girl who could break teeth’.
The only thing Fizzy wants is a puppy and while her mother would never support such a venture, Fizzy is adamant that she would be excellent at looking after one. Unperturbed, Fizzy draws her perfect pet in precise detail – a golden curly haired dog with a shiny black nose. When Fizzy visits her next-door neighbour’s garden and discovers that Mrs Crumbleboom is looking after a pet that is exactly like her drawing, Fizzy sees it as sign that Bandit should be hers. She bends the truth creatively enough that Mrs Crumbleboom agrees to let Fizzy bring Bandit home with hilarious consequences.
In Staten Island, Joe is a champion athlete, but when word arrives from Texas that a date has been set for the execution of his older brother Ed, the last thing he is going to do is run. Instead, he resolves to face this immense tragedy head-on and travels to a forlorn prison town to spend these precious final days with his brother.
As with One, Crossan has decided to tell this story in free verse. This sparse, poetic style, where every syllable counts, manages to capture and portray the thoughts and fears of Joe and allow us to empathise with him in a way that prose could not.
