Crux by Gabriel Tallent book review: feats of wild imagination

Crux is US author Gabriel Tallent’s second novel after his highly acclaimed debut My Absolute Darling, and it shows a similar visceral depth to its predecessor. 

Dan and Tamma are high school seniors on the cusp of adulthood, both fanatical about rock climbing but with potentially diverging paths laid out in front of them. Dan is a straight-A student whose parents are super-keen that he goes to college, something they never did.

They frown at his close friendship with Tamma, a snaggle-toothed, foul-mouthed girl from the wrong side of the tracks. She’s a more extreme character in every sense, taking chances on the rock face just as she does in life, and she’s determined to move into professional rock climbing.

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While Dan and Tamma’s friendship is platonic (Tamma is a lesbian), it is also intense and deeply felt, and Tallent really gets under the skin of that formative relationship. He’s also incredibly good at describing both the physical landscape and the psychological pull of rock climbing. The novel is peppered with Dan and Tamma’s gorgeous, specific language with respect to their passion, which lends a strong sense of veracity to every page. 

The other thing that leaps from the pages is Tamma’s wild and wonderful character. She’s untameable, with no respect for the vagaries of people or the machinations of power, a fantastic spit in the eye of polite society. 

With the heavy weight of familial expectations and responsibilities pressing down on the pair, the tension and conflict in the story gradually gathers momentum, making for an intense and heartfelt climax that nevertheless stays true to the characters as the author has established them. Lovely stuff.

Crux by Gabriel Tallent is out now (Fig Tree, £18.99). You can buy it from the Big Issue shop on bookshop.org, which helps to support Big Issue and independent bookshops.

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