Reviewed by: Pete Barber
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Approximate word count: 100-105,000
words
Availability
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Author:
“DC Gallin spends her time between London and Southern Spain, land of
the guitar, snow-capped mountains, and eagles circling in the sky. During
winter months the family gathers around log fires, while starry summer nights
are spent cooling off on the rooftop, the plaintive voice of Flamenco drifting
over from the gypsy barrio, accompanied by the sound of howling dogs, braying
donkeys, and the odd pair of mating cats...
Kiss
the Sky is her first novel.”
For more information, visit the author’s website.
Description:
Set in the 90s. Claudia drops out of College and moves to London
determined to become an artist. Her overbearing mother and straight-laced,
older sister don’t approve (of anything Claudia does). Her father, more
laid-back, sighs and occasionally throws some cash her way. Claudia moves into
a tiny artist’s studio. She gets sucked into the Rave scene, smokes dope,
experiments with sex, and drops Ecstasy. The story follows her life for about
eighteen months.
Appraisal:
Firstly, Ms. Gallin is an excellent writer. It’s hard to believe this
is a debut novel. Crisp, tight prose fit the era and deliver Claudia’s life in the
compelling, first-person narrative of a free spirit. The two BFFs Claudia
acquires--‘Q‘, a lesbian photographer based in Holland, and Paloma, a
classically-beautiful French film maker--are fun to be around.
The story reads like a personal diary as much as a tale told about the
main character. Claudia’s gradual slip down life’s slippery slope feels quite
natural, perhaps even inevitable. The recreational drugs and the company she
keeps gradually chip away her standards until she reaches rock bottom--living
in a squalid squat and having unprotected sex with an unstable alcoholic
crack-head.
The party-scene, especially the Raves and the liberating effects of
the drugs she and her friends take, led me to believe the author has some
inside knowledge. The people who pop in and out of Claudia’s life in the
beautifully described settings in London‘s East End feel real, even the
unpleasant ones. The squats, and more particularly, the entitlement mindset of
the people who live there provides a social commentary. But the author never
offers an opinion. Rather, she lays it out there--this is what happened, this
is why, this is how these people felt and acted, loved and fought, and
struggled.
Perhaps commentary is the best word to describe the story: an unbiased
commentary of a slice of this woman’s life and of a time and a loose community
that existed in London in the 90s.
For me, the book was better for letting me draw my own conclusions
about Claudia. I went along for the ride, voyeuristically, and had fun on the
journey.
FYI:
Some graphic sex, many drug references, and bad language (used appropriately).
Format/Typo Issues:
No typos to mention.
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