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First Novel

First Novel (Cape, 2013) is actually Royle’s seventh. The novel is an investigation into identity and the distinctiveness of first novels, widely assumed to be autobiographical and often more experimental, sometimes obviously weaker, or markedly better, than later works. Royle found himself drawn to writers who had disowned their first novels such as Philip Pullman and John Banville. His novel is about choice, between right and wrong, left and right, good and bad. His research for this book included studying Kierkegaard’s Either/Or, encouraged to do so by fellow author (and namesake) Nicholas Royle, and he used a line of Kierkegaard’s about identity as an epigraph. But the eclectic research process also included poring over back copies of the Guardian for its photographs of writers in their studies. Paul’s (the novel’s protagonist) weak sense of identity leads to an obsession with the Writers’ Rooms series. A narrative thread is revealed as being part of a bildungsroman written by one of Paul’s students. Because of personal tragedy, Paul finds it impossible to make choices. Royle sought implicitly to question the assumption that first novels are autobiographical by reflecting this uncertainty in the novel’s theme of either/or. Further research included the practice of teaching creative writing – Royle elected to teach literature courses about first novels – as well as, for the plot, exploring dogging sites researched online. Among first novels, Royle studied James Lasdun’s The Horned Man for its investigation into good and evil, Siri Hustvedt’s The Blindfold for its structure, Jane Solomon’s Hotel 167 (one of a number of first novels surveyed that were never followed up), and Nicholas Royle’s experimental Quilt. The latter was of particular interest to NR because of the way in which the coincidence of the author’s name feeds into the question of identity.