#writing: 7 Highly Recommended & Overlooked Books/ Ray Banks,Nick Sweeney, Les Edgerton, Chris McGinley.
Nolan Kennedy teaches English in Istanbul. One day, Kennedy, the son of an unsuccessful American Beat writer, accidentally finds out that Don Darius, his main boozing partner, has been secretly writing a novel – and a bloody good one it is, too. But Don has already upped sticks to Poland so Keenedy decides to track him down. Kennedy’s fool’s errand soon melts into Don Darius’ own romantic quest. Nick Sweeney’s Laikonik Express is a marvelous novel that is full of warmth and charm. Although the young protagonists are a touch pretentious and overly earnest it’s still a pleasure to spend time in their company. The real strength of Laikonik Express, however, is its rich supporting cast of people and places. Highly recommended.
Who makes the best beer in the world? Maybe the Czechs or Belgians. But when it comes to short stories, well, the American’s pretty much rule the roost, they really do. Flannery O’ Connor, Raymond Carver, Dorothy Parker, Charles Bukowski, Richard Ford, Kyle Minor. Loads and loads more. And you can add the late Les Edgerton to that list, of course.
Monday’s Meal by Les Edgerton was first published in 1997 and contains twenty-one tales of dirt realism. Sharp slices of American life. They’re set in New Orleans and Texas. Sometimes in bars or behind bars. They’re about café owners, hairdressers, nightclub musicians, prisoners, ex-cons, drifters and drinkers.
Monday’s Meal opens with ‘Blue Skies’ and closes with ‘Monday’s Meal,’ tales of strained relationships. But the real meat is sandwiched between them. And Monday’s Meal is a particularly meaty collection. Some favourites: ‘The Mockingbird Café’ is the story of a man in a low-rent bar trying to mind his own business; ‘Hard Times’ is bleak and scary and brilliantly written; ‘The Last Fan’ is a tragic look at a shattered marriage; ‘My Idea Of A Nice Thing’ is a touching and sad story of an alcoholic’s crumbling life; ’Telemarketing,’ is the story of a young couple just trying to get by; ‘I Shoulda Seen a Credit Arranger,’ is a fun Runyonesque crime story. And there’s plenty more to enjoy in Monday’s Meal. Edgerton has a strong and sure grasp of the lives of people who are standing on the edge of a precipice
Chris McGinley‘s Coal Black is a brilliantly powerful collection of short stories set in the hills of east Kentucky. This is a world of poverty, deperation, drug addiction, and crime. These are stories of good people and bad people living on the razor’s edge. The stories and the characters in Coal Black overlap, intertwine and interconnect to create a whole that is as just as good as its parts. The tales are social realist with a strain of magic realism and every single story is great. These are artfully crafted stories to savour. Coal Black is simply one of the best short story collections that I’ve read, and I look forward to rereading it. Very highly recommended.
Ray Banks is one of my favourite British writers and I was first introduced to his work via the Call Inness quartet. Never read, em? Well here’s what you’re missing out on.
Saturday’s Child – Cal Inness is fresh out of the slammer when he’s hired by gangster Morris Tiernan to track down a casino dealer who has done a runner with a wad of cash. Innes is a compelling, realistic anti-hero and Saturday’s Child is a cracking blend of social realism and character driven crime fiction.
Donkey Punch – Banks brilliantly follows up Saturday’s Child with an even more hard-hitting tale which drags the increasingly self-destructive Cal Inness across the Atlantic to Los Angeles, where he has to take care of a troubled, up-and -coming boxing star.
No More Heroes – As PI Cal Inness’ personal life spirals further out of control, racial tensions and violence escalate during Manchester’s hottest summer. Banks takes the two gritty crime novels that started this series to a new, intense level. This one goes up to eleven.
Beast Of Burden – Banks goes where most other crime writers fear to even contemplate in this powerful conclusion to his series. Inness is a physical and emotional wreck when he is hired to find Mo Tirenan, who has gone missing. Dirty realism taken to its harrowing, brilliant extreme.
All in all, a fantastic, Brit Grit crime fiction series.
© Paul D. Brazill.
Paul, great post. I'm familiar with all these writers but the one that really stands out for me is Ray Banks. He was terrific, wasn't he? - and absolutely fearless in his writing. Very overlooked indeed. Thanks, Jim