Rating: 4/5
Review:
Horribly amusing
I enjoyed this book, the first of Charlie Williams's that I have read. As other reviewers have said, not everyone will agree, but if you share its sense of humour as I did then it is a very amusing read.
The story is set in the grim fictional town of Mangel and narrated in a Midlands-ish dialect by the main protagonist, Royston Blake. Blake is stupid, deluded, bigoted, astonishingly foul-mouthed and very violent. The story is rather bleak, there are some pretty gross scenes and the whole thing sounds horrible, depressing and the sort of thing I would normally hate. However, Williams manages to create real humour from all this, and I found myself chuckling regularly and also smiling appreciatively at the genuine satire. I found the narrative voice extremely convincing in spite of its squalor and absurdity. Do be aware that the f- and c- words are very liberally used; I thought this entirely consistent with Blake's character and the effect was sometimes very funny, but if you're likely to find this offensive (and a good many people will) then don't read this book.
I thought this was well-written, amusing and quite satirically insightful, but it certainly won't be for everyone.
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