illustration by Mitch Blunt
Aye so, here are my reviews in The Big Issue of The Free (Faber) by Willy Vlautin and Boy, Snow, Bird (Picador) by Helen Oyeyemi. I liked Oyeyemi’s book well enough, and I thought The Free was absolutely terrific. I’ve long been a fan of his work, and this is his finest novel, easily one of the best things I’ve read in ages.
Every now and then a new review for one of the books pops up. Over at Endless Falls Up, Ray Garraty finds a lot to love in Gone Again, though to be fair he loves the first half of the book more than the second half. Apparently, he loved Smokeheads but hated Hit & Run. Each to their own, eh?
I was delighted to be asked to take part in a Scottish Book Trust podcast recently, discussing Michel Faber’s seminal debut novel Under the Skin alongside Sarah Stewart and host Danny Scott. It was great to revisit the novel, especially in the wake of the new movie version, and I found it both terrifying and hugely enjoyable second time round. You can hear all the blether at the SBT website here. Enjoy!
Dx
Heads up!
I have a new book coming out on May 1st, called THE DEAD BEAT. Here is the front cover:
And here is the back cover, with the blurb:
The eagle-eyed amongst you will spot a couple of things. Yes, that’s North Bridge in Edinburgh, where a lot of the action happens. And yes, that’s a quote from The Breeders’ song ‘I Just Wanna Get Along’. Though it’s set mostly in the present day, the book contains a lot of alt.rock and grunge stuff from the early 90s.
Anyway, just warning you that I’ll be plugging this fucker for a while, so feel free to ignore me.
Best, folks!
Doug
illustration by Mitch Blunt
A book about cheese? Kind of, yes. A book about eating turtle meat? After a fashion. Read about them here.
Fellow readers and writers, how do we feel about big plot twists?
I’ve recently read a couple of books that had big, ‘da-da’ reveals, and in both cases I just wanted to throw the book across the room. You know the kind of thing – ‘Oh, it was her all along’ or ‘Wow, it was the guy on the train, didn’t see that coming’ or whatever. The rug is pulled out from under the reader.
I can’t quite put my finger on why I didn’t like it, maybe it was just these specific cases, but they felt kind of cheap, I guess, unearned, somehow. Like cheating. I dunno. Do you know what I mean or is it just me?
I’m not having a go at people who read or write these books, and they undoubtedly take a lot of skill, writerly skill that I just don’t have I think. I guess that sort of thing is just not for me. There’s plenty of room in the world for all kinds of books, so I guess I’m just wondering what the appeal is for folk who like em?
Sorry, this is a bit rambling. Been thinking about it a lot as I’ve been writing a first draft recently. I keep having ideas for big twists, but I haven’t put them in. Maybe it’s just if they’re embedded in the story and the characters properly, then they would work, but I rarely feel that when I come across a book like that.
So, in summary, how do we feel about big plot twists?
Just typed ‘THE END’ on the first/second draft of my next, next novel, THE JUMP. It’s set in the shadow of the Forth Road Bridge, involves suicide, and is as cheery as that sounds. Actually, though it is the saddest thing I’ve written, it is also kind of uplifting, maybe. Kind of.
It also features this terrific tune by Frightened Rabbit:
Some of you might know that I was one of the co-founders of the Scotland Writers football team. Here we are in this picture, all happy cos we had just beaten Austria. Anyway, I wrote a blog about it over at the Dear Scotland website, please do check it out.
Cheers, Dx
illustration by Mitch Blunt
Aye so, here is my Big Issue column reviewing Barracuda (Atlantic) by Christos Tsiolkas (Atlantic) and The Virgins (John Murray) by Pamela Erens. Both fine in their own, very different ways.
Aye so, I didn’t much like Jonathan Lethem’s Dissident Gardens. Here’s my review in the Independent on Sunday today. Why do authors feel the need to write the Great American Novel? Just tell stories, guys.
Doug Johnstone 