Debut novel Submarine showed Joe Dunthorne to be a capable comic writer. His second novel, Wild Abandon, continues in the same vein but is a stronger, more consistent work.

17-year-old Kate and her younger brother Albert have grown up in a commune in South Wales, which was started by their parents to move away from the capitalist living of the city and build a self-sustaining community. The golden years brought many people in, but its popularity is waning, leaving only the established members and the occasional wwoofer looking for work on their travels. The slow disintegration of the community mimicks a larger collapse of relationships within: Kate’s parents, Don and Freya, have drifted apart and Freya wants to leave. Kate, too, trades the ‘Rave House’ to live with her boyfriend. In Kate’s absence Albert finds an unhealthy solace in apocalyptic theories, preparing for the end of the world with his best friend Isaac, and doing his best to warn others. His sister, he feels, is already lost, and his parents may not make the cut when the time comes either, but he still hopes to save a few souls. Don struggles to come to terms with the collapse of his family and the commune, and in a last ditch attempt to save the community, he organizes a huge party to coincide with Kate’s A-level results, making a publicity campaign to draw in a younger crowd, to make the commune ‘cool’ again. The party is a success but does not reunite the family, and he must accept that the one thing beyond his control is fixing this rift.

The author twists the stereotypical ideas of rebellion in Wild Abandon. The commune is no longer the symbol of freedom and life without restraint; instead Kate feels stifled by the environment, and Freya too. Kate flees in search of a ‘normal’ family life as it – and her parents’ marriage – breaks down around her. Escape is a recurring theme, not only in Kate and Freya’s desire to get out, but in Don’s decision to create the commune in the first place: all of the characters are running from something. It shows the damage caused by an inability to communicate, as Freya is unable to explain to her husband why she must leave, while Don must imagine that he is loving a stranger before he tries to stop her leaving. It is a novel about growing up too; Kate is leaving for university and Albert must cope without her for the first time. Don tries to resist change, but not all of the changes in the novel are negative; Kate has grown into herself while studying college, and Freya hopes Albert will too when he starts a new school.

Dunthorne has laced this story with a black humour that is at times morbid; it is occasionally a dark read, dealing with the collapse of relationships, and in Patrick’s case, a brief loss of sanity, but never overwhelmingly so. Albert’s obsession with the apocalypse drives the book’s ending, and it is a sombre one, with the reader never quite sure if it is a joke or truly the end of the world, but the book is littered with humorous quips and set pieces. However, the comic nature does not cloud the theme of escape and the characters are generally sympathetically portrayed and well-rounded. Wild Abandon is a more mature effort than Submarine, not without fault, but an enjoyable read nonetheless.

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