Reviewed by: Ryan Bracha
Genre: General Fiction
Approximate word count: 70,000 – 75,000 words
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Author:
David Ross was
born in Glasgow in 1964. He is married with two children and has lived in
Kilmarnock, Ayrshire for over 30 years. His most prized possession is a signed
Joe Strummer LP. The Last Days of Disco
is his first novel.
Description:
It's early 1982
and young Bobby Cassidy has a dream, to be a part of the premiere mobile disco
in Kilmarnock, Scotland. He and his ragtag gang of Joey, Hamish and Jimmy
embark upon a trip to the very top, the pinnacle of which is to be a residency
at big time gangster 'Doc' Martin's forthcoming nightclub. However, what stands
in their way is 'Fat' Franny Duncan, another local gangster with a monopolized
stranglehold on the party entertainments scene, and his own ragtag gang of
inept performers. Elsewhere his brother Gary has joined the army, just at a
time where the threat of war with Argentina looms, and his family struggles to
keep it together as secrets from the past bubble beneath the surface.
Appraisal:
I have a strange affinity
with Scottish authors, especially Christopher Brookmyre and Irvine Welsh. I
find that they write with an honesty that just seems to shine through, and I
love the challenge of deciphering the way they write the dialect and
colloquialisms, which they achieve like no other nationality of author. My
experience with this debut by David Ross was no different.
The Last Days Of Disco is a curious little beast.
It starts out as an affectionate glimpse at life in a working class Scottish
town where our protagonists have little to worry about except the possibilty of
being a victim of random violence from local hard-men, and flatulent friends,
then turns into an emotional and thought provoking commentary on the effects of
a pointless war, and families yearning for the respect of each other. The
effectiveness of which took me a little by surprise.
The opening scene where
Bobby is literally dreaming of car racing glory but ends in him inadvertently
fondling his brother as they share a bed had me chuckling out loud, and
throughout the whole of the book these little nuggets of comedy gold resurface
time and again. In The Last Days of Disco, David Ross displays a knack
of reminding us of the minor pleasures we took as people growing up in Britain
in the eighties, Subbuteo being the most prominent for this reader, then gleans
a great deal of humour in the context that he remembers it in. The dialogue and
thought processes of the younger characters are both believable, and accurate,
displaying a great insight into the naive and curious minds of teenagers making
their own entertainment in a time long before these days of iPads, mobile
telephones, and wireless broadband connections.
So then, in the midst of
all of this affection, the threat of overseas combat looms large, as Ross
brings in extracts from our Parliament of the time, the larger than life
character of Margaret Thatcher (which seems extremely topical, given her recent
passing) attempting to justify her cabinet's actions. In Gary Cassidy, Bobby's
elder brother, we are given an insight into the hearts, minds and fears of
inexperienced young men thrown into the midst of war, and the lack of
discernible communications. The family starts to show cracks, Bobby's mother is
increasingly absent minded, his father battles demons which go back longer than
he cares to remember, and the youngest of the family, Hettie, struggles to hold
it together as Bobby's coping mechanism is to disappear and try to take his
mind from the events which unfold.
I really enjoyed this book,
and the effective manner in which David Ross controls the humour, emotion, and
tragedy in equal measures. His characters are likeable, the comedy moments are
genuinely funny, and the emotion isn't over the top or exaggerated. This is a
high quality, extremely well drawn, and assured debut from this new author.
Highly recommended.
FYI:
Some adult
language.
Format/Typo Issues:
None.
Rating: ***** Five Stars
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