Little Scratch

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Miriam Battye and Katie Mitchell have turned 24 hours inside a frenzied mind into something like a piece of music' yes yes the silence the silence the slowing down the switching into whatsapp to explain consent to men who I thought would get it, at least them, How! How are they not with me here! and keeping strength, keeping expressions fixed, that do not imply anything, imply always nothing because it’s the stillness again, the carefully selected stillness Blisteringly honest and unflinchingly intimate, little scratch is extraordinary – and indispensable’ The I

The authorial figure in the book is actually telegraphed for those that read it properly. She is “R” (naturally!) I would look in the mirror (a different sort: toothpaste-marked, pink cup by tap) and hear rising voices The cast features Morónkẹ́ Akinọlá ( The Niceties, Finborough Theatre), Eleanor Henderson ( Pass It On, Lyric Hammersmith), Eve Ponsonby ( Longing, Hampstead) and Ragevan Vasan ( Name, Place, Animal, Thing, Almeida). Rebecca Watson is one of The Observer’s 10 best debut novelists of 2021 and was shortlisted for this year's Desmond Elliott Prize.A meticulously choreographed vocal performance - terrific cast and mesmerising sound design’ Independent My book, I should make clear now, is a novel. little scratch is a fictional day-in-the-life of a young woman (who, yes, has a boyfriend). Told in the first person, the narrator lives in London and works as an assistant full-time in a newspaper office. The reader inhabits her mind as she goes about her day, getting up, going to work, and cycling to the pub – all while attempting to surmount a trauma that she has yet to fully confront. The most original idea I took from the book is that it’s OK for a victim of rape to think in terms that are highly sexual, and passionate. Watson’s language of sex is graphic, assertive and quite a contrast to stories in which rape happens and the victim is left traumatised at the thought of future sex. The ordinary kindness of a distant colleague bringing a cup of tea to the protagonist’s desk when she can tell the other woman is tense, and the protagonist’s thought that, if she (a woman whose name she doesn’t even remember) can notice the change, how is it possible that her own rapist cannot see or be moved by what he has done? That ruined me.

The story originally started life as a prize shortlisted short story – and that story forms the midpoint of the day and is reproduced in full in the novel and gives a good sense of the book – much better than I think I have or can manage or that the formatting on Goodreads easily allows. Overall I thought this was an excellent book treating an important if difficult subject –#MeToo and sexual assault in the workplace.

October 2013

Mitchell’s usual sound designer Melanie Wilson is on hand to add atmospheric flourishes, notably an injection of ambient dread at the right moments and a few swish surround sound effects.' In interviews it’s like a dance as Watson frequently felt she was being pushed to say that the story was autobiographical. Its not. Some interviews were really uncomfortable as a consequence. Undercutting the darkness are glimpses of wry, well-observed humour enhanced by the visual wordplay: the confused negotiation of an office tea-round, an insufferable poetry reading and the dark pleasure of reading a disgruntled Tripadvisor review. whilst in the toilet I tear) face unmoved, (frantically collecting skin under my nails), teeth tight, chin set against my tongue Bias is too adhesive for denial to do much. But the assumption and the expectation can be unpleasant. During one live radio interview, it increasingly became clear that the presenter wanted me to say that the protagonist’s trauma was my own. They would ask a question and not get the response they wanted, only to try another way.

Even as I wrote the review it was tempting to refer to elements of the plot that fit closely what I understand of the author’s life and experiences – and the one time when the book diverts to a WhatsApp group chat (otherwise the narrator leaves them unread, instead just communicating with her Mum and her Him) it is for a brief discussion on female auto-fiction. The poetry reading awkwardness is hilarious, but the musings around how to deal with rape are a very ample counterweight, brought in a claustrophobic manner, with thoughts like: hurts to bend my legs a bit, can feel behind my knees skin relenting, too stiff to wrap around the bone quite right, tearing, paper not made to flex this way An image! not my spoon! not my phone! (although I can see that too, an emoji of a pig, which distracts me for a second but oh no I am not letting this go, yes an image, a bookThe novel began in a real incident when the author was asked at work what she was reading and her mind went blank (an experience that resonates), which she turned first into a story, which was shortlisted for The White Review Short-Story Prize, and then into this novel:

In interviews Rebecca Watson talks about the inspiration of Virginia Woolf, and because Little Scratch is a full on stream of consciousness from start to finish, the disjointed layout works well. It would have made a worse book, but I could have. I could have, but crucially, I’m not sure what difference it would have made. People spot all sorts of details that should be unfamiliar. Scratching as a bodily reaction to her environment, and a not very healthy relationship with food, are signals that far from all is well, and her assistant job at a newspaper features and abusive boss. However far from gloomy or heavy, Rebecca Watson brings a lot of humor in the book. The audiobook read by her is very well done, you feel the mood of the narrator shift and change and can really feel a part of her rambling, ever active mind.I will keep walking, I decide, walking, and just go out the other door as if this was only ever an intended throughway but ah ahh free The thing is the problems such as getting up, the scratchiness etc all stem from the same problem and the book goes into a dark rabbit hole, where we find out that the narrator has undergone a traumatic experience.