The unnamed narrator of Luke Kennard’s novel is an out-of-work actor living in London. His last job was three months ago, he is behind with his rent and has “measured out my life in coffees I cannot technically afford”. So when he comes across an advert – “Male actor required for psychological enquiry. Non-speaking but discretion and devotion to restrictive performance requirements obligatory” – he offers his services.
The job, he discovers, is at a university working under a psychology professor named Dr Blend. There he must strip to his underpants and zip himself into a black leather bag, in which there are two eyeholes and further holes for his feet. The actor is expected to sit silently in the bag during seminars while students contemplate his presence.
The inspiration for Kennard’s Booker-shortlisted campus comedy is a 1967 social experiment, conducted at Oregon State University, where a student attended classes inside a black bag in a test to see whether other students would grow attached to his presence. It also nods to Yoko Ono’s 1964 conceptual artwork Bag Piece, in which gallery-goers were asked to climb inside a large black bag.
Kennard, who is the reader, mines this surreal conceit for laughs as the protagonist does battle with revolving doors and tries to pay for coffee using a card taped to the inside of the bag at chest height. As with his prose, the author’s delivery reveals him as a master of comic timing and a mordant bon mot. Yet beneath Black Bag’s winningly oddball exterior are more sober reflections on human relationships and what it is to be a man.
• Available via John Murray, 9hr 12min
Further listening
Battle Axe: A Memoir
Margaret Hodge, William Collins, 14hr 43min
The veteran Labour politician narrates her book detailing 50 years in frontline politics, from her early career as a leader of Islington council to her time as an MP during the Tony Blair and Gordon Brown premierships and her recent work as the UK’s anti-corruption champion.
I Shoot Rock Stars
Tim Pope, Wildfire, 10hr 6min
Pope, a music video director, recalls wild moments with musicians of yore, from the time he dressed Freddie Mercury as a “giant Mediterranean prawn” to filming the Cure performing inside a wardrobe. Read by the author.
