'Looking Back At Me' by Wilko Johnson and Zoe Howe

Talking of blockheads (see last review here) here we have former Blockhead Wilko Johnson's autobiography (of sorts).

This book is chock full of photos and memorabilia from Wilko's life which takes up over half of the pages of this book making it into a coffee table book rather than a straightforward biography.

Obviously the idea of Wilko sitting down and writing his memoirs seems totally at odds with the man we all picture in our minds. This book is actually a collection of interviews between Zoe and Wilko then carefully edited and arranged into chronological order.

The book is a blast. You can’t help but read it all in Wilko’s distinctive voice which just adds to the fun. Although not a full or ‘proper’ biography, there’s enough in here to let you know his life story and to get inside his head (scary thought, huh?). Lots of his travels to India his love of astronomy and of course Dr. Feelgood. Apparently they might update this book to include the fantastic new album with Roger Daltrey and of course the big C. If so, I’d defiantly go buy this again as it’s amazing!

'Ian Dury: The Definitive Biography' by Will Birch

Ian Dury is one of the most beloved figures in 20^th century popular culture despite the fact he could be a complete twat! Will Birch's biography shows Ian in a well rounded light, showing his highs, lows and everything in between.

“Hello Sausages...” was as far as Ian got in writing his autobiography, thankfully there's a whole lot more in Will Birch's book, but it does maintain the silly, fun and humorous president that Ian set with just two words. The book is very well researched and contains thousands of quotes from the many people who were in Ian's life giving the book a very personal touch despite it being a biography.

Ian didn't start his musical career until his thirties, so there is also plenty of Ian's childhood, the contracting of polio and the hell he went through not only with the disease but at the 'special' school he was put into. Then we move on to where he becomes an artist and a teacher, all the time trying to be a little more working-class and 'one of the people'.

Obviously the main attraction of this book is going to be the stories of 'Kilburn and the Highroads' as well as 'The Blockheads' which it is safe to say take up a huge part of this book. Showing Ian's need for acceptance and his slow spiral into megalomania as the fame he so eagerly awaited came with a raised self-importance and the booze took over any rational thinking and kind words.

This book is great. A really interesting read and a disturbing insight into the life of the punk poet. The latter years as Ian moved into acting falls a little flat as Will hasn't found too many people to interview, plus knowing the reader isn't really that interested in the tiny bit parts he filmed. So the ending does suffer from biography-syndrome which here has the last part of the book end up almost as a list of films with the occasional quote from a star saying “yeah, I kinda remember him”.

Apart from a little quibbling aside that you always get with biographies, this book is well worth your time and money (even if you're not a blockhead fan!)

Blood Drenched Beard by Daniel Galera

The story by Daniel Galera follows a nameless character in his journey to find out what happened to his grandfather. The story starts with a short prelude that left me wondering what exactly it was, but by the time you get to the end you completely understand and I went back and read it again in a completely different light. After the prelude the story starts in earnest with our unnamed lead meeting his father who tells his son that he is going to commit suicide. While they discuss this his father also mentions the strange disappearance/death of his own father while in Garopaba. Apparently the gaucho had quite a temper and would often bring a blade quickly into any argument that he started. One night at a dance the power went off for a short while and when the lights came back on our nameless lead’s grandfather was lying in the middle of the room stabbed to death. His father also asks of his son to have his dog put down, as it’d be too hard on the dog to live without his master.

So the father does commit suicide, but our nameless lead doesn’t have the dog put down. Instead he takes it with him to the small coastal town of Garopaba where he decides to find out about the death of his grandfather. Now this is a small town where everybody knows everyone and secrets stay buried. Now along comes a stranger asking questions and not everyone is happy with that. One thing I haven’t mentioned is that our nameless main character has prosopagnosia (no, I didn’t know what it was either) which means he is unable to remember faces (including his own) which is why the main character remains nameless as he doesn’t even really know himself why should we know him completely too? Of course this causes all sorts of problems as he’s unable to remember who he’d spoken to. The book isn’t completely about the search for his grandfather, as he’s also a triathlete who teaches swimming, he falls in love and bonds with his dad’s dog Beta.

The book is beautifully written, I really enjoyed the prose. I’m not sure how much credit goes to Daniel or the translator Alison Entrekin. A few other reviews I saw for this book berates Alison’s ‘Americanisms’ in the translation, but I couldn’t give a fuck that she used the word ‘preppy’, as the flow of the words was just lovely. Raaaghh! Shame mine isn’t! I don’t know how to describe the prose, and I hate when people say that a book was poetic as poems can be so very different, so unless you’re meaning that it was written in rhyming couplets leave out the ‘the writing was poetic’ clichés.

Ok, so I can’t write, but this guy can. ‘Blood Drenched Beard’ is a great novel. Moving and beautiful, you should definitely pick it up and give it a try.

The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth

Before I go into writing about this book I thought I’d say a little about Unbound first. Unbound is amazing! If you don’t know about them, you really should. Basically authors can pitch their ideas for books directly to us (the readers) so we can see what they are thinking about writing. If you like the sound of it and would like to see it in print you pledge money, obviously the more you pledge the more goodies or rewards you get when/if the donations reach their goal. For example the smallest pledge will get a copy of the book in ebook format all the way up to dinner with the author (or whatever they are offering) when the total is reached the authors then go and write the book. All the pledgeies (well, that’s not a word but you know what I mean) get their name printed in the back of the book, but most importantly you get to point to a book on the shelf of your local bookstore and say “I made that happen!”

I first heard about Unbound (as most people find out about random stuff these days) through a celebrity on twitter! Yup, Robert Llewellyn (of Red Dwarf fame) was talking about his idea for a book ‘Notes From Gardenia’ a future utopia story (not the easiest of genre stories to try and write) and it’s brilliant, but not what I’m writing about now, but I will say that he has had two sequels funded through Unbound as well and they are well worth checking out (when available).
Please do check out Unbound (check their website here) as it’s an amazing idea that deserves even more attention. They put out real quality products; case in point is the stunningly beautiful ‘The Wake’.

As I’ve mentioned it let’s start with the look of this hardback. It’s stunning. Muted and natural colours with embossed lettering and Green man on the cover, the book also has no spine. Much like the gorgeous ‘Polpo’ cookbook from last year the lack of spine allows the book to flop and stay open a thing of perfect design beauty. But looking good will only take you so far, ‘So what’s inside?’ I hear you cry.
Set in the years after the battle of Hastings in 1066 ‘The Wake’ tells the story of a band of guerrilla fighters who take up arms against the French invaders. Well that had me interested. Of course I know the story of Harold (who didn’t learn that at school?) but guerrilla fighters in the aftermath? Not a story I have heard before, also ‘guerrilla warfare’ brings to my mind images of the Spanish civil war, with machine guns, grenades and blowing up rail tracks –how does that work in 1066? Ok, Mr Kingsnorth you’ve got me even more interested. Next I learn that Paul Kingsnorth hasn’t just written this story like you’d expect him too. No. He’s made up his own version of Old English! Yes, you read that right. Paul Kingsnorth has created ‘a shadow tongue’ a readable and understandable version of Old English to give the book a more authentic feel!
This I found to be quite a challenge. Maybe it’s my dyslexia, maybe I’m just stupid! But I had trouble reading this at first. The first page took about fifteen minutes to read! It was slow going at first, and I was around fifty pages in before I found that there was a glossary and a note on the language in the back that I would have loved to have been at the start, but hell, I’d found it now! By about halfway through the book I’d forgotten that I was reading this “readable” Old English and was just reading the story. And what a story it is!
If Bernard Cornwell had written this book (no offence to any Cornwell fans out there) the hero would have found his home destroyed, picked up a sword from the ashes gathered men around him and for all intents and purposes taken on and defeated the French single-handedly! Paul Kingsnorth doesn’t write that story. He wrote a much more realistic story. Buccmaster is a man on the verge of madness, talking of old Gods and with no real social skills at all, he does gather a band of men around him, fractious though they are and take on the French in the most uninspiring way. You wouldn’t call these men heroes, they are rubbish! If you’re thinking they are going to be like Robin Hood you’re in for a much more realistic vision of the past.
This book is not for everyone. The language, the uninspiring lead character and did I mention the language? But for those that venture, and those that don’t give up you will find the best book you have read in a very long time. This novel is unique, real and truly gripping. This is undoubtedly the book of the year!
I’ve just heard that this has been long-listed for the Man Booker Prize. As this is an English language prize I don’t think you can get more English than this! Good luck Paul, I hope you win!

'The Girl in the Road' by Monica Byrne

As with 'The Road to Reckoning' by Robert Lautner that was basically a road trip novel with western bits sprinkled over the top, 'The Girl in the Road' is also a road trip novel but with a sprinkle of science fiction.
Set about a hundred years in the future, a new energy source is being used. The sea. Thousands of upside down pyramid shaped scales (known as 'The Trail) line the sea between India and Africa. Our leading lady, Meena wakes up one morning with a snake bite on her chest she decides to try and walk along the trail to get to Ethiopia to escape whomever is trying to kill her and to find the killer of her parents (who were murdered while she was still in the womb). We also follow a literal road trip of a young girl called Mariama who runs away from home after finding her mother dead, bitten in the chest by a snake. She stumbles upon a couple of friendly travellers and joins them on a cargo convoy to Ethiopia. What the relation between these two women, to me seemed quite obvious, though a few moments made me question myself. I wont mention what it actually is, to keep you guessing too.
Apart from a fancy ipad type device, new sources of energy on a grand scale and the political landscape of India and the African nations (all of which play a very minor role in the story) this could be set at any time period really. So if you're expecting Iain M. Banks, you couldn't be more wrong, I found it was closer to the equally excellent 'The Windup Girl' by Paolo Bacigalupi. Road trip books tend to be about growing up or finding yourself and this is no different. It explores the meaning of love, but in a subtle way -this isn't 'chick lit'! It is a very great début that you should definitely give a try no matter what genre of book you normally read, this beautifully written gem will stay with you for a long time.

'The Ocean at the End of the Lane' by Neil Gaiman

This story is short. I read it in a few hours, but yet it doesn't feel small. The story is as full as it needs to be. You aren't left feeling like there could have been more. It's a perfectly formed novel.
The narrator of the book (I'm sure he has a name, but I can't remember. Maybe it's never mentioned. Either way it doesn't really matter) starts the tale leaving a funeral and killing time before the wake, decides to take a drive and finds himself driving to the house in which he grew up in. But as he drives on past he realises that it isn't where he was driving at all. He was heading to the Hempstock farm at the end of the lane. Once there he sets out for the pond or 'ocean' as the little girl (Lettie) who used to live there called it, and remembers the first time he came to the farm. A lodger at his families house stole his Dad's car and committed suicide in it, setting in motion the strange events that would follow. We follow his narrative as he uncovers these repressed memories, seemingly for the first time. The Hempstocks are the classic three Wyrd witches, the old hag, the beautiful woman and the child used in old British folklore (and a million other people since including Shakespeare and Gaiman himself in previous novels) and they lead him by the hand (quite literally) as the suicide cracks the edge of reality letting in some otherworldly nasties.
I don't want to talk too much about it, as you should just read it for yourself as this is a beautiful book, sad and poignant. One that you will dive into like the ocean, finding the waters refreshing, deep, and dark.

'The Axeman's Jazz' by Ray Celestin

 

New Orleans,1919 (the year before prohibition hit). Jazz and alcohol fuelled parties run continuously throughout the segregated and Mob-ruled city. Then something else turns up to ruin everyone's day: the Axeman.
Based on a true story, this tale provincially follows three characters who are all searching for the serial killer that's killing people with an axe (hence 'axeman' -clever right?!). We have the cop, Detective Lieutenant Michael Talbot who is hated by everybody on the force after he exposed the rampant corruption in the police department, who feels he's been given this unsolvable case so that he can finally be buried. We have Luca D'Andrea, the corrupt cop that Michael put in prison. He's just been released from prison and the only job he can get is back with the mob. So the mob can continue extorting protection money from businesses they need to be seen protecting the community. So Luca is given the job of finding the axeman before the cops do, despite wanting nothing more than to leave this life and move to Italy. Finally we have Ida, a secretary at the Pinkerton's detective agency. A girl who loves Sherlock Holmes and wants to be a detective, but knows she never can because of her gender and ethnicity. Helped along the way from her childhood friend Louis Armstrong she decides to prove her worth by capturing this killer.
When I first started this book I was constantly wondering how much of it is true. Was Michael Talbot really the lead detective? Was he married to a black woman? Was Louis Armstrong involved in tracking down a killer? I started to do a little research, printed out a map with the locations of the Axeman's murders but then I told myself it didn't matter which bits were true or not, the book is classified in fiction, just read it.
So read it I did. It is amazing. The story is dark, foreboding and very tense. As the three main characters collect evidence and clues you're shouting at them to somehow get together and compare notes, as they'd work it out if they pooled their resources. Obviously the Axeman is a famous unsolved murder case, so no convictions will be taking place, but that doesn't mean that under the guise of fiction the story can't have a more fulfilling end. Whether it does or not I wont say, but what I will tell you is the characters that Ray writes about whether inspired by real people or not are made real with his storytelling. Every character, no matter how minor is a fully fleshed out human being which along with the fact the story is a true one makes everything seem so real and threatening. I loved this book, and you should too. Without giving away what happens to some of the characters, I really hope that at least one of them is back in another book when prohibition hits.