Including a crossword in a piece of fiction is brave, especially if there are cryptic clues that pertain to the plot. In the world of the story, the clues need to have been plausibly set by a professional, tested and edited.
State of the Union at the Guardian Bookshop
Martin Amis tried this in Lionel Asbo with, at best, mixed results. For Inside No 9, Steve Pemberton did so well, his fictional puzzle became that day’s real-life Guardian crossword.
For State of the Union, Nick Hornby takes a different approach: he uses clues that really have been set by a professional, tested, edited and indeed published, as Arachne’s Guardian 27,536 in June last year.
A crossword appears almost immediately in the novella, which is also a 10-part BBC short-form comedy. Tom has one for company, waiting in a pub for Louise before a session of marriage counselling. (He solves in Biro, which tells you something.) Later, in a key moment and a rare exterior, we see a puzzle on the tarmac outside.
As things build (episode seven of the TV version), along with some discussion of the relative merits of solving on newsprint and printed-out PDF, Arachne’s clues appear. For the benefit of those who aren’t yet confident solvers of cryptics, here’s what’s going on, with links to bits of our guide to how clues work:
27ac Game of cricket put strain on marriage (4,5)
[ wordplay: synonym for ‘strain’ + synonym for ‘marriage’ ]
[ TEST + MATCH ]
[ definition: game of cricket ]
16ac Party touring Russian capital heading off to share bed (6,2)
[ wordplay: name of a political party, going around (‘touring’) currency of Russia (‘Russian capital’) minus its first letter (‘heading off’) ]
[ DUP going around ROUBLE minus its first letter ]
[ definition: to share bed ]
So we have TEST MATCH, DOUBLE UP and SCALLYWAG. More importantly in the story, such words as “mate”, “bed” and especially “put strain on marriage” are awkward in context. We also get, when Louise reminds Tom “Remember we’re team-building, not point-scoring”, a sense of the good and the bad of solving puzzles together and – like in Brief Encounter – the puzzle begins to tell us more about the relationship.
I have questions: did Hornby get lucky in finding a puzzle with suitable keywords (or does he solve every day)? Does Tom use a way of printing that uses less ink? Did Arachne, who told us that she can’t remember most of her own clues, remember her own clues? (Actually, I know the answer to that one: she didn’t.)
If you have your own questions or reactions, leave a note below, and we’ll come back to State of the Union.
For other book group titles, see:
