Reviewed by: Keith Nixon
Genre: Humour
Approximate word count: 45-50,000 words
Availability
Click
on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or
Smashwords store
Author:
Ryan Bracha
started out in film, writing and directing his first feature. He wrote the
follow up whilst living in Paris. More recently the author turned to novels and
novellas. His debut, Strangers Are Just
Friends You Haven’t Killed Yet, was three years in the making. He lives in
Yorkshire with his wife and a cat.
Description:
A
collection of eleven stories of varying length, some previously published but
now deleted and reissued in this single volume.
Appraisal:
Ryan Bracha
is like Marmite (a yeast based foodstuff that provokes widely spread reactions
of the taste buds) you’ll either love or hate his work. This collection of
stories aptly portrays the wide range of Bracha’s subject matter and a writing
style that is best termed ambitious and challenging.
Personally
I place myself in the former Marmite camp (both liking Bracha and the yeast
based foodstuff). I’ve previously reviewed Strangers…
and Tomorrow’s Chip Paper. Both
proved unusual and challenging reads. Bogies,
as you can probably tell from the title, is no different. All of the stories
are provocative, most are funny.
The book
opens with Baron Catastrophe and the King
of the Jackals. It comprises two story arcs that subsequently combine - a
first person character who has a powerful OCD tendency and his sandwich man
neighbor, a hard working member of society who makes a simple spelling mistake
on his sign that sets off the whole episode.
The third
installment is The Bad Day. This is
an interesting diversion from the ‘norm’. The author’s stories typically have a
hard Northern seam running through them, but are balanced with a heavy lacing of
humour. Not this one, it's grim from beginning to end. That being said it is
well written and the multiple plot strands are cleverly built and concluded in
such a short space.
Call Me Doctor F*ck Knuckles is previously unpublished. The main
character is meeting his girlfriend’s parents for the first time. He’s working
class, they’re all wealthy, and with a very strange set of behaviours. The
title is the name the prospective father in law insists he be called throughout
dinner. It’s a funny (as in haha) read accompanied with a quite a bit of
wincing.
Written in
the first person Tha Dunt... tracks a
short episode in Fintan's bored life. He had a terrible upbringing, living
constantly on a porn set (his mother the star) and he's now totally skewed by
his experiences. He has no real friends and spends his time trying to entertain
himself. He's a seriously damaged character. Then someone has an idea, pretend
to be a secret millionaire. The trouble is Fintan hates people, has no regard
for them at all, himself included, and he ends up putting the one person close
to him in an embarrassing situation.
The final
story is the longest of them all, The
Banjo String Snapped… It’s a rude and lewd read, the story of a group of
lads on a stag do in Leeds. Full of swearing, drugs, drinking and dodgy
happenings, this is a blast, thoroughly enjoyable but with a lot more to it
than just recounting a particularly dubious drinking session. Seen from
multiple viewpoints it unfolds in an interesting fashion.
Overall the
writing is free and highly engaging, but if you have any sensitivity at all to
plenty of strong language and adult situations then this is not the book for
you - and vice versa. The author deliberately challenges the reader in style,
language and content. If you like a wild ride with the occasional hairpin
corner then Bracha is an author you should seek out.
I think the
best place to finish this review is with the author’s dedication to his wife
which is right at the start of the book ‘For Rebecca, who just wishes I would
write something normal for once.’
Please
don’t.
FYI:
Plenty of
swearing and adult situations.
Format/Typo Issues:
None.
Rating: ***** 5 Stars
No comments:
Post a Comment