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Daniel Smith
posted 10 May 2006

Demo is a thoughtful but ultimately over-ambitious debut novel by Alison Miller. It centres on two young women, Clare and Laetitia, who are involved in protests against the Iraq war. Demo doesn't just relate their experience of protest, though but explores the lives of Clare and Laetitia and their relationships with the people around them. This works to some extent with the character of Clare, but not with Laetitia. And unfortunately, Laetitia's lack of transformation applies equally to almost all the other characters in the novel, a problem not helped by the crowded events of the last part of the story.

The novel is divided into three parts. In the first section Clare travels with her older brother Danny to Florence, where they meet up with Laetitia and Julian who are friends of Danny. They have all travelled to Florence in order to protest, although Clare is less politicised than the three older characters. Clare's description of her time in Florence is perceptive, revealing both the character's fragility and strength, and the use of a Glaswegian dialect adds to the personal nature of Clare's narrative voice. The reader sees the protest and those involved through Clare's eyes. Clare describes the various people involved in the march, from the organised banners and protest of the trade unions to the light hearted approach of the 'fairies'. Clare also describes how she loses her virginity to Julian, and the way she talks to the reader about her first experiences of sex and Julian's rejection of her is genuinely moving. As this section progresses it becomes clear that Julian has a total disregard for other people's emotions, especially that of women.

It is the following section by Laetitia that sets the novel into decline. As Laetitia is in competition with Clare for Julian, she is Clare's 'enemy' and so becomes the reader's 'enemy'. It is as if the author recognises this and now wants to show the story from Laetitia's point of view, writing in Standard English in order to emphasise that it is Laetitia's voice. But Miller fails to generate sympathy for Laetitia. The character development is clichéd and at times slightly tedious. I didn't care that Laetitia's parents were divorced and that her mother was an alcoholic. It all seemed very predictable.

This problem is compounded by Miller's desire to accomplish too much with this section that is separate from the story. She crowds it with political issues and narrative techniques. Firstly, there are all the issues surrounding Laetitia's family, divorce, alcoholism and Laetitia's disgust at their right-wing politics. Then race is introduced when Laetitia moves in with Julian, as Laetitia 'doesn't expect' his flatmate Jed to be Asian. Unemployment and political issues are then raised through discussions between the characters in the flat. Their views seem vaguely left-wing, but little time is given to their discussions. The reader is reminded on numerous occasions of the tensions between Standard English and other dialects of the British Isles. It is almost as though the reader is being lectured on both contemporary political issues and ways in which to express them through a novel. For example, there is no need for me as an English student to say that the novel shows many examples of intertextuality. Julian, an English student within the novel, identifies it himself, 'its intertextuality, darlings, interf**kingtextuality.'

When Demo returns to Clare's point of view it is too late. Laetitia's section has lost the reader and has not developed any of the characters involved. Clare's final section is crammed with changes to the characters, but these are obviously rushed and superficial. Farkhanda, a character only mentioned briefly in the book up until now, goes through a rushed series of changes. Farkhanda is Clare's best friend but they are separated at the end because of religion, specifically Farkhanda's belief in Islam. Julian seems to undergo no transformation at all (save a change of hairstyle). He remains an uncaring 'trustafarian' who has the same negative attitude toward women that he did at the start, using Clare for sex at the end of the novel, even though Laetitia is pregnant with his child.

Demo begins as an engaging story about one young woman's experiences growing up, exploring her view on politics, religion, sex and relationships. The focus of the story then becomes lost as the author tries to introduce too many new elements to the novel. The last section fails to compensate for these mistakes. A promising but ultimately disappointing read.