Floored: a Collaborative Novel

This novel is an exercise in joint authorship. The sections of the book are identified by the name of a character in the narrative. The narrative for each character is written by a single author, though which author wrote which section is undisclosed. It is also undisclosed whether authors edited each other’s sections.

Six teenage characters get into a lift at the headquarters of an organisation which bears more than a passing resemblance to the BBC. In the lift, the six witness a seventh character, Steven Jeffers, suffer a heart attack and die. In each of the succeeding six years these same six people meet to remember the one who died. They also share the vicissitudes of their own lives.

Three of the group have stories that are particularly memorable.  Kaitlyn has Stargardt syndrome, a progressive form of visual impairment, is feisty and feminist. Before her story ends she needs an assistance dog.  Joe is badly treated on account of his being overly trusting and sometimes a trifle naïve, but retains his pleasant personality. His mother has early impact Alzheimer’s, with devastating impact on the family. His story is raw and beautifully written. Sasha lives with her father, her mother having abandoned both of them. Her life is devoted to pleasing her father. She feels a strong desire for independence, moderated by her reluctance to leave her father wholly alone. What will Sasha decide to do?

In the opinion of this reviewer, who is familiar with the work of four of the seven authors, it would have been helpful to the critical process to know which author was responsible for each section. It would also have been interesting if the seven joint authors had left a note evaluating their experience of the shared effort of creating this novel, especially as the result of their collaboration is on the whole praiseworthy.

The weakness of this book lies not in the quality of the episodes it contains but in the structure in which the episodes are set. Six people can easily get in a lift. They might easily witness the death of the seventh. But it is less easily credible that they would feel driven to assemble every year in memory of the deceased. The willing suspension of disbelief endures while the reader is engaged in reading. But put the book down and the narrative implausibility comes to haunt you.