The Arena of the Unwell

Product Information

I started reading it immediately (not for any great impatience but rather convenience) and I read over half in one sitting; I finished it off the next day. So when two slightly older men show interest in Noah he becomes intimately involved and entangled in their lives. The author articulates with painful precision the anguish, desperation, and loneliness in Noah, and my heart really went out to him. The offhand comments and jokes (like Mairead's girlfriend and Noah's coworker Jenny having been an emo) really build up a picture, and one that makes you both want to be at a gig and really not, seeing as Noah isn't exactly using music in a healthy way a lot of the time. There was a lot around who can find places within sports and fitness (and what kinds of bodies), which felt like the perfect use of body horror.

Soon, Noah is drawn into the complicated relationship between Dylan and his flatmate Fraser, and as everything else falls apart around him, Noah is drawn into a co-dependent world, all as Smiling Politely prepare to release their first album in years.Their volatile relationship and living situation do not make for a good environment, as they seem to enable each other to engage in harmful behaviours. Es gab keinen richtigen Spannungsbogen- hat sich immer mal wieder gesteigert, mal ist die Blase geplazt. After he and his friend Mairead go to a secret comeback gig by their favourite band Smiling Politely, Noah runs into Dylan, a bartender he’s wanted to approach for ages. A coming of age novel for people who like or came of age themselves deeply into music, The Arena of the Unwell spirals the reader into not only sticky floors and spilt pints, but a hard-to-put-down toxic relationship amidst the realities of NHS cuts for mental health services. It has good queer, but not necessarily positive, representation (Mairead, yes; Dylan and Fraser, no).

The Arena of the Unwell is a gritty and exhilarating exploration of loneliness and longing, obsession and jealousy, queerness and male intimacy. Unfortunately, the way this part of the story concludes didn't feel as impactful as I felt it was supposed to. Konemann’s prose is not particularly stylish or refined, but the book is extremely readable and difficult to put down (I found), wanting to find out what happened next in the lives of his 20-something, seemingly going-nowhere, party kids. this had, in my eyes, the most real, unfiltered and related representation of anxiety and depression i’ve read in quite a while, maybe ever.Pulled into a toxic and codependent relationship with Dylan and his brooding, enigmatic friend Fraser, Noah bounces distractedly between sweaty gigs and clubs, swapping beds and friends along the way. Konemann captures that intensity brilliantly; at times I felt like I was still peeling the grime of last night’s gig off my skin. In 2002, World of Books Group was founded on an ethos to do good, protect the planet and support charities by enabling more goods to be reused.

Noah becomes wholly consumed by their relationship, to the point where he compromises himself to belong with them. Also, I felt that the Smiling Politely part of the story, although well-integrated through press releases and interviews, etc. It's funny and well written but in the latter half devolves into a series of things that just seem to happen because something has to happen. As for grounding, I spent a lot of time in Camden in my first few years in London – I lived there and I worked there, and we usually went to the pub in either Camden or Kentish Town as well.If such a conflict is going to be a part of a story I feel like it needs to be a more integral part of the novel. Not just those of the main trio, but also those of Noah’s best friends, and even his boss were all in need of expansion. Additionally, there were several elements of the story which felt underdeveloped or didn't go anywhere. In the strange and shifting dynamics between Noah, Dylan and Fraser, Konemann speaks to the sometimes messy, often complicated nature of queer relationships and desire – especially with a supposedly straight boy in the mix.