An Abdication by JS Mitchell (1969)

 This forgotten book falls into the remit of the deep pocket of novels coming under the heading of 'Late 60s/Early 70s Experimental', a few of which are still celebrated, most gone like this one, but a very defined period which needs expanding for modern readers. It consists of a series of scenes in the life of a thirteen year old schoolboy: nags at school, socially among the boys, and politically with the temperaments of teachers; nags at home with parents who are perhaps a little distant and disconnected; nags more broadly in the world with angers, small bursts of sexual feeling, fears, cussedness and bewilderment. It displays a coolness, where emotions are seen without positivity or heat or need of warmth - more in the zone of curious encrustations on being. Its form is alphabetized, with each section having a heading, and arranged from "Abdication" on the first page to "Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z" on the last. None seems all that much more important than any other, which emphasizes the random quality of using alphacode as the arrangement. Many have sees and see alsos at the end, meaning that one can choose to jump ahead to another section which is somewhat related, or resist the urge and stay alpha-consecutive. Mitchell sometimes has some fun with these, sending the reader on long goose-chases through the book, back and forth until they end up back where they started. This quality of randomness makes me wonder about the intention. Could this have been another example of the novel-in-sections-in-a-box, the most notable example of which is BS Johnson's The Unfortunates? It would certainly work that way, though I don't feel it suffers from being bound together by Faber in the ordinary mode. In the end, it is enjoyable and quietly plangent, its random and overly even quality being the only (and expected) issue, where there's the feeling of a distinct lack of umbrella of arc. It has arcs - only they're tucked away within the confines of each section.