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 2018. Well, there is over a week to go until the halfway point, but anyway … Here are the ten books that I have read in 2018. They are presented in the order in which I read them. Click on the links to read my reviews.
Skaboys by Irvine Welsh
Genre: Transgressive Fiction
Skagboys is set in the 1980s against a backdrop of Thatcherism, the rise of dance of music and HIV.
My Review: Skagboys is the prequel to Trainspotting. Its colourful, mostly young characters hail from the Edinburgh port suburb of Leith. There is the bookish …(more)
My Opinion: Excellent
An Ice-Cream War by William Boyd
Genre: Dark Humour
An Ice-Cream War’s motif is the absurdness of war. The book’s grave content is laced with humour of the dark variety.
My Review: After much tension and speculation, World War I begins. The main campaign is contended on the Western Front, but there is also a less well-known offensive in …(more)
My Opinion: Good
The Carrot Man by Theo A. Gerken
Genre: Humour
This existential comedy is replete with jokes. Some are offensive, few are amusing.
My Review: The Carrot Man is a novelette about a manic Swede who is revolted by his new flatmate; an unhygienic, unindustrious, unsociable specimen whom …(more)
My Opinion: Poor
The Trumpassic Period by David Belisle
Genre: Humour?
This politics-meets-palaeontology work purports to be a satire, of the lampooning variety.
My Review: The Trumpassic Period is a rehash of President Trump’s first year in office, but with dinosaurs substituting for the controversial leader and his cohorts …(more)
My Opinion: Sleep-inducing drivel
Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jr.
Genre: Transgressive Fiction
Last Exit to Brooklyn is a controversial and ground-breaking transgressive work.
My Review: This inter-related collection of six stories are set in 1950s Brooklyn, New York. One revolves around a Benzedrine-scoffing transvestite’s …(more)
My Opinion: Memorable
Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh
Genre: Humour/Satire
Vile Bodies is a satirical novel whose primary purpose is satirising decadent 1920s London society.
My Review: Author Adam plans to marry his fiancé Nina Blount, but he does not have enough money to convince his disinterested, aristocratic beau to tie the knot. Every time Adam …(more)
My Opinion: Curious and somewhat dated
Hotel Scarface by Roben Farzad
Genre: Non Fiction
Named after iconic film Scarface, Hotel Scarface captures the zeitgeist of 1980s Miami.
My Review: This is an account of the rise and fall of Hotel Mutiny; a Coconut Grove, Miami-based hotel and club founded in the 1970s. It became the haunt of rising cocaine …(more)
My Opinion: Okay
The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall
Genre: General Fiction?
This analytical and abstract book’s motif is mental health. Its contents include drawings and computer code.
My Review:Eric Sanderson is suffering from a form of amnesia called fugue, at least according to his psychologist. Eric is aware that his girlfriend Cleo died whilst …(more)
My Opinion: Pretentious and onerous
Not Exactly Shakespeare by Martin Freznell
Genre: Humour
Not Exactly Shakespeare purports to be the shortest book you’ll ever be forced to pretend to have to read.
My Review: There is not much to like or loath about this meagre and mildly comical offering …(more)
My Opinion: Not enough content to form one
Marabou Stork Nightmares by Irvine Welsh
Genre: Transgressive Fiction
An inventive book, boasting parallel stories and different levels of awareness.
My Review: Roy Strang narrates this story from the hospital in which he is lying in a coma. It begins in South Africa, where he and his friend Sandy Jamieson are …(more)
My Opinion: Bleak and quite good
About me and my darkly humorous writing.
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