Valentines Review: "Kelly+VIctor," Niall Griffiths

This is the best doomed love story ever. This is a story of two very fragile people, nice people you'd like to see "win" and go on to a happy ending but you quickly realize that's just not possible for these people.

Very shortly after New Year's 1999, we meet Victor, a perfectly nice young guy with the expected millenial binge-over, reduced employment prospects, lots of friends and no one to share his life with. Victor meets Kelly, a perfectly nice young lady with the expected millenial binge over, a crappy job and no one to share her life with and an instant, passionate inferno ignites. The narrative is in two parts: Victor's, then Kelly's, and we get to see the same events from two viewpoints, and how similar they are.

Kelly+Victor is a story of that genuine and invaluable love we all hope for and hope will heal us. It's also the story of that couple who can only destroy each other: here not because they bring out the worst in each other but because they bring out everything in each other.

Character is one of the many ways Niall Griffiths shines. Victor and Kelly and the people around them are real people, whole people and nothing two-dimesional about them. They have good, they have bad, they have bad breath and doubts and petty grumbles. He never tells you who his people are, he builds them for you in the story. The story is the characters and the characters are the story and you come to know them through what they do and what others do around them and through their very distinct voices. Griffiths' narration is rich and poetic, his descriptions of events and surroundings passionate and full.

This isn't a comfortable love story, it isn't Barbara Cartland, but it is very beautiful and powerful and a joy to read.