Simon Fay's Blog

Hi everyone,

I've started a Youtube channel where I go in-depth on some of the best books of the 20th Century. If you like my reviews here, you'll probably also like the videos I'll be publishing.

My first one is sci-fi related: The Apocalyptic fiction of JG Ballard. But I'll be covering all sorts of topics in the weeks to come.

Check it out and subscribe so you don't miss out on future releases.

https://youtu.be/CQrrMtwZioY

I'm putting two of my books up for grabs in Goodreads' giveaway section. Enter for your chance to win:



Icon-Violet is a kickass sci-fi mystery that tackles themes of autonomy and artificial intelligence. Put simply, it has some really cool robots in it.

Enter the competition here: https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sh...

Or buy a copy of Icon-Violet now:
https://www.amazon.com/Icon-Violet-Si...



People in Season was a winner of the Irish Writer's Centre Novel Fair. If you like psychopaths, crime, and food for thought, then this is the one for you.

Enter the competition here:
https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sh...

Or buy a copy of People in Season now:
https://www.amazon.com/People-Season-...

My book, People in Season, is free to download over the next five days. Make sure to grab yourself a copy : )

People in Season:

The untouched – psychopathic personality types banned from professions where they could do harm. Agent Mullen is a man tasked with rooting out these dangerous social contaminants. Assigned to the newsroom of Dublin’s most popular media service, he has to be careful when he meets Ava O'Dwyer, a woman who's prepared to begin a game where seduction, deceit and murder are all fair play... Winner of the Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair, People in Season by Simon Fay is a darkly compelling tale that you won't be able to put down.

Download now

Richard Yates by Tao Lin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Hayley Joel Osmond is a twenty-something writer. Dakota Fanning is his teenage girlfriend. They like to shoplift. They joke about suicide. They’re not quite connected to the world around them and the world doesn’t care all that much about them either. The power in their abundantly fucked up relationship is in Dakota Fanning’s hands, but as their romantic future is put in jeopardy, we’re gradually introduced to each of their mental problems... Dakota Fanning develops an eating disorder and Hayley Joel Osmond’s relentless need to micromanage everything Dakota thinks, feels and says, comes to the fore.

At the outset, it’s difficult to sympathise with Hayley.

He’s an older man who shouldn't be dating a kid. The only way to describe his behaviour is as mentally abusive, but he doesn't act the way he does for a masochistic thrill, rather, he has a compulsion to demand perfection from a partner who will never be able to achieve it, no more than she can bring herself to leave him. Ultimately, the dynamic that Tao Lin so deftly illustrates is one akin to a doped up couple unconsciously picking at each other's scabs.

I can relate.

I’ve had friends go through bad periods. I’ve been in a position to give them advice on a daily basis. At first, I'd offer it empathetically. Then, when the advice wasn’t taken, it would become more cursory. There were times when I shouted because I thought that that’s what was needed to make them understand. And when I felt bad for being too hard on them, there was a little voice in my head that said they only had themselves to blame.

I didn’t realise how vindictive that voice was until I got into the thick of Richard Yates.

There is a lot to read about Tao Lin when you decide to Google his name: Many people think that he’s an asshole. It’s commonly believed that this book is based on his own experience of being the bully in a relationship, and that the Gmail chats which feature prominently throughout the story are copied and pasted from actual accounts of the time.

Unfortunately, I don’t find the accusations hard to believe, so I'm of two minds as to whether I should praise the work of a possible abuser.

Nevertheless, I am grateful to have learned something about myself through his limpid portrayal of love gone wrong. As for my recommendation, even though the page count is small, the text is large and the margins are generous, I wouldn’t blame anybody for giving up on the story early on. But as many in the review section will attest, the dark, sadly relatable neurosis of the characters and the bleak honesty with which they're written make for a hypnotic read.



View all my reviews

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


In science fiction, space exploration is usually spearheaded by intellectuals, the military, mega-corporations, and even the average joes of our near future.

With The Sparrow, Mary Russell goes a unique direction by taking inspiration from the explorers of times past – The Catholic Church. It’s a concept with some hefty potential. The early parts of the book lean heavily on it to create a sense of wonder and dread. As a wannabe history buff, I was titillated by the idea of taking a religious organisation as anachronistic as the Catholic Church and launching them to an alien planet on a mission to spread the word of God.

Sadly, I was disappointed to find that the potential was squandered by the end of the book.

Many pages are dedicated to the relationship between spiritualism and celibacy. A little bit of time is spent mulling over the credentials of what makes a saint. There are also some enjoyable sections that draw back the curtain on the inner workings of Church bureaucracy. Overall though, the religious element to the story wouldn’t have lost much by making the missionaries any other form of Christianity.

I didn’t particularly enjoy the banter between the characters. A great amount of the story is spent establishing the landscape of their intimacies and personal history, so I found myself wanting to speed through it just so that I could get to the meat of the piece – That moment, I was sure, when the existential certainty of the Catholics would be warped by the completely alien outlook of another intelligent species.

The book almost tackled the prospect. The alien language that our protagonists learn utilises nouns that define objects as either present or abstract. It seemed to me that there was an entire novel of possibilities in the idea of a Catholic missionary introducing the concept of the Holy Trinity to a species who view the universe in such a way, but the moment was quickly brushed aside and forgotten in favour of describing the inner struggle of man who is close to sainthood.

All told, there are deaths, a genocide and a series of tragic misunderstandings. The terrible events challenge the priests, and the reader, to see through it all and find the love of God. Strange as it sounds, I don’t think we needed to travel to an alien planet to face that trial. It could have been written about anything that’s happening on Earth today, so the science fiction elements of The Sparrow were reduced to a form of nicely designed set dressing.




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Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel García Márquez

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


The relaxed momentum Márquez accomplishes in his books is a constant source of inspiration for me. No matter how many tangents he takes you on, the transitions between lines, paragraphs and chapters are elegant and seamless. Love in the Time of Cholera is an all time favourite of mine for this very reason, so Memories of My Melancholy Whores was always going to have a tough act to follow.

In short, though I'm glad to have read the book, I didn't fall in love again.

Melancholy is a compact showcase for Gabriel's abilities. The story didn't bring me the ecstasy that his previous work did, but maybe that's only because he's already taken me there. Do check it out though. If you're a fan of him, this short novel can act as a nice night cap, and if it's to be your introduction, think of it as an appetiser for what else the man can do.



View all my reviews