Recently re-read this for the fourth time - absolutely bonkers and brilliant!
I’ve read all the novels but find the alter ego science fiction series much harder to love. ‘Espedair Street’ - which some feel is based on Fish - is another favourite. Sadly missed.
A true gentleman, Mr Winwood. I acted for him almost 30 years ago in recovering monies stolen by his former manager. (What a thing to happen to a rock star, who’d have thought that that could happen!) He always used to turn up to meetings dressed in a tweed-type jacket, an immaculate shirt and a shoelace tie.
I think that it’s the only time that I’ve met someone who played with Jimi Hendrix on 'Electric Ladyland"!
Christmas present. 2 books in one volume. Reading the Tirpitz book at the moment.
Haunting, direct, beautiful tale of losers in a different, more desperate America than the one of common mythology. If you enjoy Vlautin’s songs (such as those for forum favourites The Delines), I highly recommend his novels.
Here’s a sample. Two brothers are about to make a series of tragic decisions after one of them runs over and kills a boy on a bicycle:
Bad luck, it falls on people every day. It’s one of the only certain truths. It’s always on deck, it’s always just waiting. The worst thing, the thing that scares me the most is that you never know who or when it’s going to hit. But I knew then, that morning, when I saw the kid’s frozen arms in the back of the car that bad luck had found my brother and me. And us, we took the bad luck and strapped it around our feet like concrete. We did the worst imaginable thing you could do. We ran away. We just got in his beat-up 1974 Dodge Fury and left.
My brother bumps in to him from time to time in his local pub and sometimes chats with him. Steve comes across as a very nice unassuming guy.
I have been a long time fan of his ever since the days of Spencer Davis and seen him gig many a time from the days of Traffic right through, but unfortunately I have never met him… maybe one day in the local pub with my brother!
Richard
He used to be very quiet in meetings, allowing his Texan wife (Genia) to speak for him. She didn’t have his gift of silence!
I’ve a first edition. It was indeed bonkers and brilliant. For some reason I’ve never felt the reason to read anything else by him.
Looks as though it might have been written for me.
On my Kindle ‘’waiting for the price to drop’’ list.
‘The McCartney Legacy - Volume 1 / 1969-73’ by Allan Kozinn & Adrian Sinclair
700+ pages to cover 4 years. I am going inside and may be some time.
I saw Willy a few weeks ago in Ramsgate - musically rather than ‘literally’.
Iain Banks was a great writer, although (much like you) I prefer his ‘straight’ novels to the science fiction that he published under the name Iain M Banks.
‘The Wasp Factory’ was, I think, his first published novel and is the book that I would recommend to anyone who wants to ‘try’ his fiction. It was adapted into a short TV series thirty or so years ago.
He also wrote a fascinating (non-fiction) book about touring the Scotch malt whisky distilleries, touring them all by car. (I would post the title, but my ‘unhappy’ Mac is still not letting me search at the moment.) That’s a book to treasure for anyone wanting to have an informative (and amusing) guide book for lovely tour of Scotland. (But don’t do it in Aug/Sept, when you’re likely to be eaten alive by midges.)
Another Scottish author who writes fascinating, disturbing stories is Christopher Brookmyre.
Then we have Irvine Welsh (of ‘Trainspotting’ fame).
Beyond them, if the bug bites, you have John Buchan (whose ‘shabby little shockers’ - his words, not mine - include ‘The 39 Steps’, beloved by Alfred Hitchcock and others), and the ‘Ettrick Shepherd’, James Hogg.
Just finished Rabbit at Rest. Brilliant, but one of the most depressing novels I’ve ever read - at least if you’re a senior like me.
Puts you off tucking into salty snacks doesn’t it!
Story of a Wall Street financier in the early 20c told from several different perspectives by unreliable witnesses - or are they? Self deception and self promotion abounds. A good read with an interesting structure.
I think we had a recent PM with a very similar name to the title of that book?