Book review: Caledonian Road by Andrew O'Hagan

This is an immense novel. 640 pages. Immense in scope. Immense in characters. Immense in culture and class vision. Andrew O'Hagan shines a spotlight on post-covid, crime ridden, ammoral Britain then takes the reader on a roller-coaster ride of darkness. There are sweatshops in Liecester, crime gangs in Dover, drug lords in London, dark dealings on the dark web, murder, theft, betrayal and much nastiness. And Russians. The underclass, the lower class, the middle class and the British elite are all invloved in corruption, criminality. Everyone except Elizabeth, Campbell Flynn's ever faithful wife, it seems is involved in some dodgy dealings. There are lots of plot lines, lots of characters requiring a lot concentration from the reader with so much going on. There is also a lot of F*** words. A lot. There is something deeply unsettling about O'Hagan's propehtic view of crime-ridden Britain. "Prince Andrew is finished" he writes. Wow. "Every step in life you find the ice growing thinner" the author writes. Then read as Campbell and others fall through that thin ice. If you like your novels deep, depressing and dark - this one is for you.