Hole

In the first person novel “Hole”, Erik is a young man struggling with anxiety and OCD who is already reaching crisis point when his girlfriend leaves him and his famous uncle dies. Tasked with repairing his uncle’s run down cottage, which he has been left in the will, he sees an opportunity to regain control of his life and re-win his girlfriend’s love. Alex, a half-forgotten childhood memory from the little cottage town, re-enters his life, complicating Erik’s already muddled thought processes. Along with other real and imagined catastrophes, Erik’s connection with Alex threatens to derail his plans. He does his best to stay on track, but unlike Erik’s catastrophic thinking, Alex is real, and helps Erik to eventually realize what he truly wants. Erik begins to heal, and finally finds peace - but not before he makes a brief trip back to Jen and everything that made him unhappy in the first place. The novel follows a traditional plot structure that shows the growth of the main character through an escalation of action and gradual, but not linear, improvement. Erik’s inner struggle is mirrored by an external struggle for his ex-girlfriend, his attempts to “fix” things and his need to control outcomes. The novel was inspired by such works as J.P. Donleavy’s The Ginger Man, in terms of its aura of chaos reflecting the inner turmoil of the character, as well as Lucky Jim (Kingsley Amis) in terms of its comedic elements and strong narrative voice.Arts, Faculty ofGraduat