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Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

If nobody speaks of remarkable things.

21:54 / 08.04.04

Anyone read? I'm about 100 pages in and loving it.

09:42 / 09.04.04

Could you expand on why you like it, what it's about and the things you'd like to talk about, please? Bit of a non-thread, this, otherwise...

11:31 / 09.04.04

Heh. True enough, I guess.

City in the north of England. Ordinary day. People are enjoying the last of the summer sun. Students are packing to leave. There's someone having a barbecue. There's someone touching up the paint on his window sills. And then something terrible happens. Something they'll never forget.

The story is told in two strands. Firstly we witness the events of the day, before, during, and after the incident. We get snatches of action from all the lives as we move in and out of the houses. We build up pictures of each character from the reactions of others to them as much as anything. In the second strand one of the students looks back from a 6 year vantage point as her life id going to change again.

It's a wonderfully poetic novel somewhere between Dylan Thomas and Jim Cartwright but with it's own voice. A lingering, almost impressionistic book about the lives of people who never speak of remarkable things.

Anyway, wondered if anyone had read it and had any comments.

17:38 / 09.04.04

Ariadne told me she liked it and so I gave it a try, but I put it down after about 15 pages as I thought it was cliche-ridden amateur rubbish. I suppose it could have got better after that but the style was really a turn off for me and I didn't want to have to get out the red pen and scrawl all over someone else's book!

I'm sure Ariadne'll be along soon to decry my poor taste ...

11:36 / 10.04.04

I loved it. I'd agree that the actual prose isn't perhaps the best, but the characters and the way he builds the story are just brilliant - it's one of the few books that has stayed in my head for a long, long time after reading it.
Have you finished it yet? I don't want to spoil it by going on about my favourite things if you're still reading!

15:02 / 10.04.04

No, with work commitments I've not had the time to read any more since posting but I've enjoyed what I've read. Great debut novel, so far.

11:47 / 26.04.04

I'm reading this book at the moment and really enjoying it. There's something about the tone of it, that makes me want to cry reading every sentence, and a strange loneliness to it. Even though most of the characters are spending their time with other people, a loneliness hangs over the book.

11:22 / 03.06.04

I just finished reading it. Ever so poignant.

At first I had a bit of difficulty keeping track of who was who, due to the lack of names used, although the one with the friend named Sarah was quite easy to follow, and I suppose she was the main character really?

I particularly liked the young girls and their talk of angels and skipping down the street with floating ribbons, and how everything seemed magical. It made me want to stand on one foot. I also liked the urban archaeology bit, with the necklace made of shards of broken glass.

Icicle> I felt like that too! Just the way it seemed so simply written, but was moving, and each sentence seemed filled with a kind of sadness.