Book Review
David Coventry’s Performance is a groundbreaking exploration of life with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME), a chronic illness that defies conventional understanding of time, memory, and narrative.
Blurring the boundaries between memoir, novel, and autofiction, Coventry creates a literary tapestry that is as disorienting as it is Illuminating.
The book is not a straightforward account of illness but an intricate performance of remembered
experiences, fractured timelines, and imagined possibilities. From a mountaineering accident in
Canterbury to literary festivals, breakups, and surreal encounters, the narrative weaves through moments of vivid intensity and deliberate ambiguity.
Coventry’s illness serves as both subject and method, reshaping his writing into a form that resists traditional storytelling conventions.
What sets Performance apart is its ability to immerse readers in the lived reality of chronic illness without succumbing to despair. The text captures the distortions of awareness and time imposed by ME, while also finding flashes of humour, beauty, and connection.
Coventry writes, “At best, my life senses itself, feels itself as a thousand pieces of fiction,”
a sentiment that encapsulates the book’s fragmented yet deeply human approach.
Through its purposeful unreliability and refusal to conform, Performance becomes more than a memoir—it is a profound meditation on identity, resilience, and the stories we tell to make sense of our lives. It is a generous and unforgettable contribution to the literature of illness, offering a rare and transformative perspective on the world within and beyond the self.