June | 2019 | Guy Portman's Blog

The 10 Books I’ve Read In 2019

Jun 28 2019

As is my custom at the halfway point of the year, I am devoting this post to the books that I have read so far in 2019. You will notice a preponderance of dark and Transgressive Fiction. This is because they are my favourite genres.

I hope you find something that is of interest to you. Click on the links to read my reviews.

Spencer’s Risk by Andy Greenhalgh

Genre: Black Comedy

Spencer’s Risk is a third person, thespian-themed work that offers an authentic insight into the mind of a compulsive gambler.

My Review: Spencer Leyton’s life is spiralling downhill. He has split from his wife, is virtually estranged from his kids, his career is in tatters, and he has a serious gambling problem …(more)

My Opinion: Humorous but turgid

Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk

Genre: Transgressive Fiction

Survivor is an innovative and erudite social commentary, brimming with satirical observations.

My Review: Tender Branson, the last survivor of the Creedish Church cult, has hijacked an aeroplane, which is now flying on autopilot. His objective: to dictate his life story onto …(more)

My Opinion: A satirical extravaganza

Neon Empire by Drew Minh

Genre: Dystopian/Sci-Fi

The author may well have created an accurate reflection of where we are invariably heading as a society, but it comes at a heavy price.

My Review: Set in the near future, Neon Empire is a dystopian sci-fi novel based in a high-tech city called Eutopia. The place is a latter-day combination of …(more)

My Opinion: Convoluted and confusing

Child of God by Cormac McCarthy

Genre: Southern Gothic

Child of God is a tautly written and concise work of ‘country noir’. Themes include loneliness and necrophilia.

My Review: Having been dispossessed of his land, Lester Ballard is now homeless and eking out an existence in the backwoods of Sevier County, East Tennessee. For food, he steals and forages. For … (more)

My Opinion: Excellent

Job by Joseph Roth

Genre: European Literature

This fableesque story with its obvious parallels to the Biblical character by the same name will appeal to fans of the Austro-Hungarian author.

My Review: Biblical teacher Mendel and his family are Jews residing in the town of Zuchnow, in Tsarist Russia. Mendel has a wife called Deborah, three sons and …(more)

My Opinion: Okay

The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami

Genre: Short Stories

This curious and comical Kafkaesque hotchpotch of a collection encompasses a variety of themes including relationships and loneliness.

My Review: This compilation of seventeen first-person short stories are set for the most part in Japan during the economic boom of the eighties. These tales, which blend banal …(more)

My Opinion: Bizarre and amusing

American Pastoral by Philip Roth

Genre: Historical Fiction

This tome is in essence an elegy to the death of The American Dream. Much of it is devoted to detailed character exploration.

My Review: ‘The Swede’ Seymour Levov is a towering, athletic blond-haired Jew with striking good looks. The affable high school baseball phenom seems destined for …(more)

My Opinion: Arduous but rewarding

Women by Charles Bukowski

Genre: Dirty Realism/Transgressive Fiction

The story follows the exploits of ageing lowlife and Bukowski alter ego, Henry Chinaski.

My Review: Fat, ugly fifty-something Henry Chinaski is a degenerate drinker, gambler and womaniser residing in downtrodden East Hollywood.
After a lifetime spent toiling in …(more)

My Opinion: Good

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Genre: Post Apocalyptic/Dark Fiction

The Road is a near unrelentingly bleak novel about a father and his young son travelling south in search of something better.

My Review: A cataclysmic event has left the world in ruins, and almost everything and everyone is dead. In the absence of food, the remaining humans are reduced to…(more)

My Opinion: Depressing but good

The Wolf of Wall Street by Jordan Belfort

Genre: Biography

This five hundred plus page tome is teeming with escapades that entail stock manipulation, brushes with the law, prostitutes and more besides.

My Review: In 1989 Jordan Belfort and two of his friends founded a brokerage house on Long Island by the name of Stratton Oakmont. The company was in essence a ‘boiler room’ …(more)

My Opinion: Entertaining for the most part

Torrential Rain, Black Comedy & Comfort Food

Jun 21 2019

The UK has been deluged with torrential rain for the best part of the last two weeks. We needed it I am told, as the ground was very dry. The good news for me is that with all the rain my lawn has finally started growing, the bad news is that it resembles a swamp.

Due to the wet conditions Trigga has been spending much of his time on the sofa. But now with dryer weather forecast, he will be able to while away his days in the garden once more.

As for me, I have been dealing with the monsoon by eating a lot of comfort food including a substantial amount of salted fudge aka ‘Dentist’s Nightmare’.

I have also been watching some of the latest episodes of Black Mirror on Netflix. I am flattered that some readers have compared the show to my darkly humorous book of snippets about the future – Tomorrow’s World.

The unremitting deluge has done wonders for my reading. Next Friday I will be sharing the reviews of the books I have read thus far this year. Perhaps you will discover something that interests you.

I am currently polishing off the third draft of Golgotha, the third instalment in the Necropolis Trilogy. The books feature darkly humorous sociopath and sometime public sector worker Dyson Devereux. This is the ad on BookBub for Part 1. It has proven appealing to potential readers.

Have a good weekend.

A sociopath can only keep up a façade for so long.

12 Hilarious One Star Book Reviews

Jun 14 2019

Few things make me laugh more than hilarious one star books reviews.

Most books worth their salt have garnered at least a few godawful reviews. Often it is a case of the reviewer being opposed to the general consensus. In many instances bad reviews reveal more about the reviewer than the book.

Here is the latest instalment in my ‘One Star Book Review’ series.

1984 by George Orwell – ‘He (Orwell) doesn’t know a thing about the 80s. Not ONCE did he mention Def Leppard or Karma Chameleon.’

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – ‘… my son cud not understand it. I also, cud not understand it.’

Lord of the Flies by William Golding – ‘answer me this- can you read a book where the author describes a twig for five pages???’

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson – ‘DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK YOU WILL DIE FROM BOREDOM!!!’

1984 by George Orwell – ‘Go away book, go away.’

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince – ‘… personally, I DO NOT agree with Harry Potter books.’

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens – ‘Twee, grisly and fawning, the greatest turkey ever told.’

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy – ‘…, if you see Anna for $5 at your neighbor’s garage sale, go ahead and buy it. Hollow it out, and stash a handgun in there … Beat your disobedient child with it. Put it in your fireplace … Just don’t read it!’

Sepultura by Guy Portman –‘I made it to page 17 and was done.’

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley – ‘… for the love of God don’t read that ‘Brave New World’ book by Hoxley. It’s twice as bad as 1984.’

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury – ‘Heyyyy I had to read this book for school and it was the worst thing I ever read.’

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald – ‘Twentieth Century Masterpiece, NO; 2 days of incrediably wasteful reading I will never get back.’

English Summers, Black Comedy & A Reading Bender

Jun 07 2019

I woke up today to the wettest and most miserable June morning in living memory. To compound matters I was suffering from a wretched hangover. Having downed two Nurofen I headed out with my dog for our customary morning walk. No sooner had I exited my garden than I came across this deer with her two fawns.

When I got back I ate ‘The Breakfast of Kings’ otherwise known as a Bakewell Tart. It was the only readily eatable item in the house.

Now, partially recuperated I slumped down in front of my computer and commenced my working day. Meanwhile, Trigga took a morning nap.

My email was the bearer of good news. The last of my beta readers had got back to me. The feedback on Golgotha, the final instalment in The Necropolis Trilogy, is very promising. The black comedy series features sociopath and sometime public sector worker, Dyson Devereux. I will be releasing more information about Golgotha in due course.

While I was waiting for my beta readers to send me their reports, I indulged in a reading frenzy consisting of 7 books. They were good, bad and ugly. These were the good ones. Click on the links to read my reviews. The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami, The Road by Cormac McCarthy & Women by Charles Bukowski.

I’m not sure if any of you are MMA fans. If you are then you might be interested in these short pieces I was commissioned to write in the build-up to the big UFC event in Chicago on Saturday.

Five Things You Might Not Know About Tony Ferguson, Jessica Eye and Tatiana Suarez.

Have a good weekend.

Archive - June 2019

The 10 Books I’ve Read In 2019

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Torrential Rain, Black Comedy & Comfort Food

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12 Hilarious One Star Book Reviews

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English Summers, Black Comedy & A Reading Bender

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Archive - June 2019

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