Sticklebacks and Snow Globes

B.A. Goodjohn

There was a unicorn in my first snow globe. It had ‘With Luck from Ramsgate’ in gold letters on the base. I haven’t got it anymore. Dorothy let all the water out. I’ve still got twelve. Seven up there on my windowsill, and five on that shelf over my bed. That’s where I put my favourites. I’m going to give ‘Jesus in the Wilderness’ to my sister though. It’s got yellow snow. My sister says snow globes are just things in glass balls, but she’s wrong. It’s like the whole world’s inside, ready to shake. You can fit anything in there. Little things like squirrels. Or big things like the Taj Mahal. That’s in India where Keesal comes from.

Tot is good at watching, waiting and working things out. And there’s a lot that demands close attention: her own epilepsy, an older sister who never wants to play anymore, a best friend who’s changed her name to Roger, and a father who dreams of making it as a jazz trumpeter in New Orleans.

Sticklebacks and Snow Globes captures daily life on a 1970s council-house estate just outside of London through the experiences of a group of neighbourhood kids. Accompanying Tot are her sister, Dorothy, who is increasingly preoccupied with her own grown-up problems; Stacey, who longs to be a boy; Lilly, who is getting herself a bit of a reputation; and let’s not forget Keesal the ‘Paki’ and Seamus the retard. And ruling the roost are the hard-working, put-upon mothers with all their scary tales of womanhood to absorb.

In her beguiling debut, B.A. Goodjohn follows these endearing characters over the course of one year, reminding us all of the pleasure and pain of childhood. Sticklebacks and Snow Globes will appeal to anyone who remembers being young, whether with nostalgia or with horror. With echoes of Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, M.J. Hyland’s Carry Me Down, and David Mitchell’s Black Swan Green, Goodjohn’s novel dissects the intricacies of working-class lives, but this time it’s from the girls’ perspective.