Strange Nervous Laughter is both the definitive Durban love story
and Bridget McNulty’s fond farewell to her hometown.
It’s funny when someone you know becomes a published author. I remember talking to Bridget McNulty at a messy picnic one Saturday afternoon, back when we were both bouncing around Durban’s eclectic, leafy Berea and hanging out with mutual friends. She already had a title for her book- Strange Nervous Laughter – and two publishers were vying for it. Bridget was breathless and fizzing with excitement as she exclaimed, “Once this gets published, I’ll be the luckiest girl in the world!”
A year or two later and we’ve both ended up living in Cape Town. Bridget’s book shines down from the shelves all over town and things, for this ebullient young talent, are falling into place. But then, people who say, “For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to be an author” and possess the same “dream it; do it” passion as Bridget unashamedly does, deserve their nook at Exclusive Books. It’s early summer when I finally manage to reconnect with her in Gardens for a coffeethon - several book launches, readings and radio interviews after the book’s release. She’s tired after the recent ‘whirlwind’ but also as infectiously lively as ever; vivid green eyes and all.
Strange Nervous Laughter literally sparkles on the table between us. It is, to nutshell, the story of three passionate, interweaving relationships, set during ‘the hottest summer Durban’s ever experienced’. Bridget grew up in Durban and has the life of the city ‘permeated into my skin’. The story unravels authentically in the locales all long-time Durbanites know, from the markets of Grey Street to the seedy but elegant Golden Mile.
Yet it’s the characters in the settings that bring this book alive. They are fully fleshed out and feel like people you could easily know. Before sitting down to write, Bridget spent years simply taking notes and observing people - “I stole blatantly from everyone I know, comments and words and little personal quirks” (It’s true – she carries a notebook everywhere and is likely to stare at your fridge magnets when over for tea).
The result: six fully formed characters that reflect contradictory parts of Bridget herself. “No favourites!” she swears. SNL has a refreshing openness. It wears its emotions on the cover and feels all the more real for it. Anyone adrift in the heady early days of a new relationship – or trying to stitch together the abrasive tatters of a doomed one – will find a friend to relate to in Strange Nervous Laughter – and there are six to meet.
Beth is a cashier who levitates when she’s happy (just a foot or so); Mdu can communicate with whales, and rescues the lost, amnesiac Aisha from the sea. There’s, Pravesh, a hearse driver who, disturbingly, knows when someone’s going to die, and always passes Beth at the supermarket. Meanwhile Meryl, a conflicted lesbian, is getting to know a waste handler called Harry, who’s trying to set the world record for most green food consumed. Eclectic, quirky characters to say the least; all with some ‘magical realism’ tendencies. It’s like a gentler Heroes.
Still, they are very much rooted in real life. The book kicks off with a jarring event straight out of tonight’s e News, that sets in place a kind of destiny, which will ultimately draw all six characters in, with some very surprising outcomes. It’s a book about love – but real love: often as unpredictable as a schizophrenic racehorse. Happy endings are not a given – but then this isn’t Mills & Boon. “I wanted to write in a distinctive voice” says Bridget, “and I wanted to write accessible fiction with a true, deeper meaning. I think it’s criminal that people who ‘don’t like reading’ only ever read trashy romance books.”
For Bridget, “any relationship makes perfect sense in retrospect; but we’re not living in retrospect. We’re all trying to muddle our way through every day, without hurting too many people. And we screw it up! All the time. But it’s not malicious and that’s what I tried to convey with the relationships in SNL.”
By late afternoon, we’re both a little wired. Partly the coffee and partly the change we’re both still in the throes of, just a few months into Cape Town life. This brings me around to the obvious question of when Bridget’s going to write her “Cape Town book”.
“Not until next year!” she chuckles. “I need to get under the skin of this city, the way I have with Durban. Right now it’s too new and fresh for me. I don’t want to write about a city the way people see it. I want to find the real heart of it, and the heart is often messy and unpredictable and seedy. As with human hearts, that’s going to take time to discover.” We say cheers on the sidewalk and I wonder where this young writer, who has already achieved much, will be in another year’s time. Bridget hops onto her scooter and weaves her way up Kloof Street,to blend into her new home; observing, learning and loving as she goes.
‘Strange Nervous Laughter’ is out now from South Africa's Oshun Books (a division of Struik).
Find out about upcoming tea parties with Bridget McNulty in Durban, Joburg and Cape Town on www.bridgetmcnulty.com
and follow her writing on www.blog.bridgetmcnulty.com or www.thoughtleader.co.za/bridgetmcnulty.
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