Rat Stew by George Derringer – Reviewed by Guy Portman
Heavy drinking, fighting and other anti-social behaviours are the norm in fictional northern English town Aberscombe. The chief employer, a factory, has recently closed its doors, leaving the inhabitants disgruntled. To exacerbate matters, an influential member of the community has recently perished and his former beau, an exotic and manipulative prick tease, is tormenting the testosterone-fuelled male population.
This work of Transgressive Fiction is brimming with compelling and humorous descriptions of a dilapidated town and its shabby inhabitants. However, Rat Stew is rather convoluted and confusing, and there is not enough in the way of a plot to justify the text’s considerable length.
