A Wee Review - Eight Ball Boogie by Declan Burke - Tag Team Style

Mike Stone: Hiya, mate. I finished Declan Burke’s Eight Ball Boogie yesterday. Give it a day or two and the dust will have settled enough for me to do a write-up. Assuming you want one of course?

Gerard Brennan: Hey, man. Yeah, I could well use a review of Eight Ball Boogie. Thing is, I’ve only just read it myself. And I’m kind of in the mood to review it too. Not sure what to do. I like to get other opinions on CSNI when I can, but... hmmm, what say you?

MS: Well, I daresay you’re better qualified. I was going to prattle on about the banter – that for me was this novel’s signature. The story and characters were very good, but what raised the bar were the rapid one-liners and putdowns.

GB: Don’t know about my qualifications. I’m not much smarter than Burke’s protagonist, Harry Rigby. Wish I had his knack for one-liners though. As you say, they’re a defining feature of the novel. I didn’t do a formal count, but there has to be at least a couple of wisecracks on every page. I think Declan Burke mentioned in a recent blog that Rigby was one of the most autobiographical characters he’d ever written. Probably explains why he comes across as such a complete character. Wise mouth, cocky attitude, low self-esteem. If I ever meet Dec in person, I must give him a hug.

MS: Ah, you beat me to it. I was going to ask you if Dec’s anything like Harry Rigby. The dialogue – spoken and internal – just felt so natural. And there were sentences to die for. I’d give my eye-teeth to have written this one:

The shoes were Italian and suede because women look at your eyes first, shoes second, and I had eyes that made women take a long lingering look at my shoes.

You know when you asked visitors to CSNI to give you a page number and you’d recite a cracking piece of prose from Ken’s American Skin? I reckon you could do that with ­Eight Ball Boogie.

GB: And I reckon you’re right. Except as popular as that git Burke is on the blogosphere, I’d be inundated with comments if I did. I loved the book, but I’ve got a life, you know? It wasn’t just the cool dialogue that got me. The twisty-turny plot kept me guessing right up to the final pages. Okay, so that’s supposed to happen in crime fiction, and should be a given rather than a point of praise, but I think Burke is especially adept at this. It was equally apparent in The Big O and A Gonzo Noir.

MS: You anticipate me again. PI Harry Rigby’s poking into the goings on of crooked auctioneers, bent cops and politicians on the make was bound to be complex -- and for the most part Declan handled it well -- but were you able to keep with it? Because I got a bit lost towards the end. I got the gist of it . . . I think. The problem for me, in part, was that rapid-fire narrative we talked about earlier. When it came to Rigby unpicking the double dealings and backstabbings, I could have done with more elaboration.

GB: Hmmm. Good point. Personally, I didn’t feel short-changed when it came to figuring out who did what. I went away with a clear enough idea of all that went on. I do think that he resolved an awful lot in a very short space of time, which might have made the book a little ending-heavy. Is that what you mean?

MS: Yeah, it became too dense for me, or I’m too dense for the ending, one or the other. I was determined to give it a five star review up until then. As it stands, I’d probably chip a point off for making me feel thick. Any idea if there’s a sequel. I want to see more of Harry Rigby. And how does Eight Ball Boogie stack up against The Big O?

GB: Ah, man. Great question, thanks. As you know, I’m a regular reader of Dec’s blog, Crime Always Pays. Not so long ago he mentioned Eight Ball Boogie and how the publisher (a now defunct imprint of Lilyput Press) passed on the opportunity to buy a second Harry Rigby novel from him. Publishers, eh? What do they know? So I know there is more to come from Harry Rigby, but when we’ll get to enjoy it is anybody’s guess. I’m hoping the recent success that The Big O has enjoyed will bring with it an opportunity for Dec to launch a whole series of Rigby novels, starting with a shiny new hardcover of Eight Ball Boogie, because (and this brings me on to the second part of your question) I think The Big O rocks, but Eight Ball Boogie has a bit of an edge on it.

Right, listen. Which one of us is going to write this review, then?

MS: Well, you could always stick the heading “A Wee Review” above this exchange. I daresay that McKinty fellah will have a dig and call us the Chuckle Brothers, but I can live with that.

To me!

GB: Sounds like a plan, you savvy devil.

To you!

A Wee Review - A Gonzo Noir by Declan Burke

Declan Burke recently threw his hat into the self-publishing ring. His offering? An internet novel by the name of A Gonzo Noir. The first instalment was featured on his excellent blog, Crime Always Pays, on the 29th of May 2008 and the final part made its way onto the dedicated A Gonzo Noir blog on the 21st of July 2008. The novel instalments were posted regularly, and Burke’s aim was to have the finished product floating about the blogosphere within three months. He shaved a month off his timetable, and for that I’m thankful, because I couldn’t get enough of it and was dying to get to the end.

Not long after I read the first, and highly polished instalment, I emailed Declan Burke and asked him why he would give away a novel length manuscript for free. His answer was unarguable. “Why Not?” he said. “Fair enough, then,” said I. But he also put together a post on his blog detailing his reasons, which centre on the “Why not?” premise, but may bring more satisfaction to the more inquisitive among us.

The plot is a very interesting one. Not a straight crime story by a long shot. Burke has mixed biography, crime and speculative fiction to create a genre-sprawling novel that defies classification. The novel opens with a disgruntled character from one of Burke’s ‘trunk manuscripts’ paying a visit to the author to demand he be released from the limbo that is the unpublished story. Burke protests that he is done with the story and has other things on his mind, such as his new family and the impending Harcourt deadline for the sequel to his novel, The Big O. The character, once known as Karlsson, has decided to call himself Billy, revamp his appearance and outlook on life, and has brought new plot suggestions to add a real kick to a dead story. Some highly explosive suggestions!

At the outset, this novel fascinated me because it came across as an experiment in redrafting. As a writer, I have an innate interest in the processes of other writers, and so this idea struck a chord. But a couple of instalments in, it became less about my curiosity in the workings of Burke’s redraft and all about the story he was telling.

Take Billy, the novel’s central character. At times he’s a sleekit wee weasel who makes your lip curl, and at others he’s a likeable and witty bloke you wouldn’t mind having a pint with. He’s the king of twisted rants and deeply cynical thought and I found myself a little freaked out by the amount of times I nodded along with his insane beliefs and suggestions. That might say more about me than Billy, but I think it also says a lot about Burke’s ability to create a three dimensional character and make him wholly appealing and unappealing in equal measures.

The style is very interesting too. First person point of view is shared by Billy and Declan throughout, with the lion’s share going to Billy. At first I worried that this might become confusing, but Burke’s ability allayed this small anxiety. He made all the POV switches very clear and ensured that confusion didn’t interfere with my enjoyment.

My only criticism is in the physical form A Gonzo Noir takes. Usually, I wouldn’t read anything longer than a blog post or short story off the computer screen. I’m a bibliophile and always will be. I refuse to believe the eBook is the wave of the future. Give me hardcopy every time! However, A Gonzo Noir spits in the eye of this criticism, because it’s the first novel length work I’ve ever read online. A pretty good recommendation in itself. Still, if this thing ever makes it as a printed publication, I’ll be first in line to spend my hard earned beer-tokens on it.

So all in all, A Gonzo Noir is a slightly psychedelic trip into the workings of Declan Burke’s rather odd mind. The characters leap off the screen and the ending twists again and again with more enthusiasm than Chubby Checker and the Fat Boys ever mustered. I’d tell you to run out and buy it now, but you don’t even have to do that. It’s blummin’ free! So get on over to the blog hosting A Gonzo Noir before the author catches on and holds it to ransom.

Reading!

Right, this is getting ridiculous. After I finished reading and thoroughly enjoying The Big O by Declan Burke I gazed upon Mount Brennan-Reading-Pile, now seriously competing with the Mourne Mountains as a tourist attraction in my area. I scratched my head and wondered which of the fine books I should read first. I’ve a number of intriguing specimens lined up for the CSNI dissection treatment, but also a stack of other books outside the crime fiction genre that have been neglected since I started this blog. Decisions, decisions.

I picked up Dublin Noir edited by Ken Bruen. Thought I’d read the first story and if it sucked I’d mercilessly toss it over my shoulder. Eoin Colfer got the opening spot, and his hilarious yet brutal tale, Taking On PJ, left me with no doubt that I’d read the whole collection. Of course, I forgot to bring it to work the next day. I had a copy of John Connolly’s Nocturnes in my backpack though. Ach sure, a wee read of that then. Finished the opening novella and now I feel committed to the damn thing.

Two books on the go? Yeah, I can cope with that. Of course, I had a nosey at Ian Sansom’s opening book from The Mobile Library series last night. Read the first two chapters. Very addictive. Now I want to get stuck in to that.

So, as of last night, three books on the go. I’m an intelligent little fellah. I’ll give it a go. Oh, wait! Aren’t I reading Declan Burke’s new internet novel, A Gonzo Noir? Ah come on, people, you’re killing me! Well, at least that’ll be updated once a week... wait a minute! He’s bloody updated it three times since last Thursday! Feck. No worries though. It’s great stuff. I’ll make time. But I’m leaving it at that. Seriously. I’m not even going to read a road sign until I’m done with one of these things.

But guess what? After a rather scary journey to work, a colleague plonked a copy of John Boyne’s The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas on my desk. Told me it was great. Said her daughter was going to read it next, but would have taken a long time to read it, so I should just read it first. I took it without thinking. Said I’d get it back to her in a few days. But, I’ve forbidden myself from even reading the blurb.

Curiosity’s killing me though.

Gah!