Although George Mournehis never intended his book to be read like a fable, his background as a Court Clerk for the Ministry of Justice does make one suspect. “In a courtroom setting,” he remarked, “I see both the dark and lighter side of human nature.”
As we soon see, the story concerns one Marcus Lamb, a thirty-year-old fashion magazine editor delighted when his pregnant girlfriend Emma leaves him. But his proclivity for beer and skittles becomes quickly undermined when he learns he has inherited his grandfather’s beloved and unglamorous North London allotment along with the titular Mulberry Tree. With previous convictions stacking up and an antagonistic neighbour to deal with, Marcus Lamb contemplates…childhood.
One of the great surprises is that The Mulberry Bush is one of “redemption not morality.” It is truthfully a simple tale of blooming responsibility but a necessary one from the author’s eyes who wanted to show the haven of beauty in allotments and how they “revert to the primal task of growing your own food.”
This theme of independence is relevant when amidst the Mournehis’ usual suspects of author influences Hardy, Dickens, Orwell, Arundhati Roy and Vikram Seth, he settles eventually on Steinbeck. In fact one of the author’s favourite novels is “Of Mice and Men.” Yet the weary west of John Steinbeck’s tragic work never appears into the northern niceties of Mournehis’ vision without merit or intent. As the author says, “one of the themes of the novel is beauty in all its forms.” While Steinbeck aimed to criticise when writing, “I see too many guys with land in their head. They never get none under their hand,” Mournehis notes that allotments are “an Ark upon turbulent seas…a diversion from the monotony and misfortune in our lives,” as one of his characters, Benjamin puts it; you realise the grass is greener from either side.
Though when George Mournehis tells of his experiences, The Mulberry Tree’s origins become much clearer: “I have maintained an allotment with my father – Costa – on Wolves Lane in Haringey for about fifteen years. I first started going there when I was recovering from illness. I found that being outdoors, close to the earth and to nature rehabilitative and grounding.”
All this makes the story more forward thinking as we find the incorrigible man, Marcus, striving not for stuff of dreams but pursuing memory, love and beauty.
An optimistic storyteller with great potential; we’ll see what the next year brings us from the author who passionately believes in the perfectibility of man. From one reader, who puts it far better than me, “The characters leave footprints in your heart, and days after finishing this novel you will miss them.”
Kindle edition is currently available at Amazon.co.uk for £1.53
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Mulberry-Tree-George-Mournehis-ebook/dp/B00CXSYYJK
Review by Michael Karanicola
