NW

The fourth part of the novel places Natalie in a setting that by now seems both strange and entirely unnatural: back on the streets of northwest London. If in “Host,” the narrator notes that Natalie has forgotten her roots and what it was like to be poor, in “Crossing,” Natalie unavoidably confronts the poverty and geography of her youth. Wandering aimlessly through the space of her old stomping grounds in NW, Natalie also confronts the ghosts of her past, represented by Nathan. The outer contrasts between the two are stark: the successful lawyer, wife, and mother of two meets the criminal and possible pimp. Indirect evidence begins to mount that Nathan is involved in Felix’s murder and is on the run from the police. 

Paralleling how a reformed Felix’s visit to Annie does not reduce Annie to a flat, weak caricature, Nathan’s interactions with Natalie have him asking probing, serious questions about her life. Nathan may be a criminal and murderer, but he is also able to confront Natalie about the false facade of her life precisely because he wears his wrongdoings and mistakes openly, and precisely because he is connected to Natalie’s roots: “I done some bad things Keisha I’m not gonna lie. But you know that ain’t really me,” he tells her, emphasizing, “You know me from back in the day” (366).

On the run from the police, Nathan also enables Natalie to escape from the structure of her life, physically (via their flight through the streets) and chemically (via the drugs Nathan supplies her with). In this moment, neither her “real” life nor her drug-fueled flight with Nathan can be said to be more authentic than the other. She is able to put her life and fate on pause, however, and “Crossing” similarly slows down the narrative of NW considerably. While “Host” comprises nearly 200 rapidly moving short sections stretching from Keisha’s youth to Natalie’s present day, time in “Crossing” is far less compressed. Its sections are named after roads and geographic locations in NW, emphasizing place over time. 

Natalie’s journey with Nathan through the London district is far from linear. Heading up Albert Road, she is blocked by an incident (Felix’s murder scene). She then backtracks before heading to Caldwell, where she runs into Nathan. They move from location to location in the old neighborhood before winding up at the bridge on Hornsey Lane. The novel moves readers from place to place along with the characters, taking them along but not divulging where they are going or what they are doing. Distraught or at least shaken by her falling out with Frank, Natalie is on an aimless journey that matches the spiritual directionlessness she faces in life, the “nowhere” she told Frank she was heading toward as she left their home.

Indeed, it is only at the bridge that Natalie realizes she has subconsciously been heading there the entire evening. As Annie and Felix casually mention in “Guest,” the site is famed as “Suicide Bridge” (169). Having thus foreshadowed the event, Natalie nearly goes through with the act but ultimately stops herself, feeling saved by an unnamed force. In the final part of NW, called “Visitation” like the first part, that something proves to be a pull toward the very spaces and people of home that Natalie has been trying to escape.