Naturalized evil yields lack of narrative tension in Graham Swift's The Light of Day

What is it about?

Graham Swift's The Light of Day had a particular effect on me: it lacked narrative tension. The article tries to account for this lack. The explanatory sequence for the novel is the following: a study of [1] parental images of the Biblical God leading to [2] the way feeling and truth/justice are separated, this in turn to [3] naturalization of guilt and evil; with naturalized evil finally leading to [4] a deflation of narrative tension. Behind this lack is another absence, that of teleology.

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Why is it important?

For me Graham Swift's earlier work, particularly Waterland, exhibits a narrative tension which I feel is lost in The Light of Day. What may also be of interest is that behind such loss may be teleology, a category which is often treated dismissively in literary criticism because of its 'totalitarian' associations.