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The Sound of My Voice
"One of the greatest pieces of fiction to come out of Britain in the 80’s... Butlin’s book is a stylistic triumph."â Irvine Welsh"One of the greatest pieces of fiction to come out of Britain in the 80’s . . . Butlin’s book is a stylistic triumph."â Irvine WelshMorris Magellan has a house in the suburbs, nice wife and kids. But Morris is also a chronic alcoholic, heading fast towards self-destruction. Morris is not hoping to meet Ms. Right and acquire the two kids that will straighten everything out. He already has all this and it hasn’t kept him off the bottle. Ron Butlin’s tale of one man’s inner turmoil is haunting, harrowing, yet strangely uplifting; a masterpiece from a neglected Scottish writer.
122 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1987
14 people are currently reading
1490 people want to read
About the author
Ron Butlin
51 books22 followersWith a reputation as an international prize-winning novelist, Ron Butlin has also been Edinburgh's Poet-Laureate.
Before becoming a writer he was a lyricist with a pop band, a footman attending embassy receptions and weekend house parties, a barnacle-scraper on the Thames and a male model.
He has published almost twenty books including novels, short stories, and poetry as well a novel and an illustrated book of verse for children.
His work has been widely translated and twice been awarded a Best Foreign Novel prize. His most recent novel, Ghost Moon, was nominated for the highly prestigious international IMPAC Award 2016. Ron has 3 new books coming out in 2017. See his Goodreads blog for details.
Before becoming a writer he was a lyricist with a pop band, a footman attending embassy receptions and weekend house parties, a barnacle-scraper on the Thames and a male model.
He has published almost twenty books including novels, short stories, and poetry as well a novel and an illustrated book of verse for children.
His work has been widely translated and twice been awarded a Best Foreign Novel prize. His most recent novel, Ghost Moon, was nominated for the highly prestigious international IMPAC Award 2016. Ron has 3 new books coming out in 2017. See his Goodreads blog for details.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 75 reviews
September 28, 2018
The Sound of My Voice is a modern decline and fall tale.
The main character sees himself as an actor on the stage of life… He has a good job, he has a good wife and two little children… But he has one big problem, he is drinking…
He understands that he is going downhill but he imagines that there is an easy way out. He hides behind dreams and wishful thinking but his life keeps deteriorating…
If a man starts destroying his own life then only the iron willpower can stop him… And there are so few who possess the iron willpower.
When you discovered a leading lady with whom the script seemed to make sense, you called this love. And when you said you loved her you looked into her eyes with such hope – hope that she would not stumble over her reply nor embarrass you with a silence. For nothing can erase the silence or even slightest hesitation that one day answers the words, ‘I love you.’ Sensing there was awkwardness to come, a lesser actor would have ignored everything and insisted on speaking lines already grown more and more ridiculous. You, the greater actor, raised yourself above deception: your declarations of love would sound convincing right until the last moment. What a flawless performance you have learnt to give over the years.
The main character sees himself as an actor on the stage of life… He has a good job, he has a good wife and two little children… But he has one big problem, he is drinking…
Mud-streets, mud-skies, and – inside you – the mud rising. You drink to keep it down, to stop from choking. You drink to gain another breath – and so you struggled through the afternoon. Recently it has been getting hard for you to struggle through the morning as well. Sometimes you wake already choking in mud. But not always, not yet.
He understands that he is going downhill but he imagines that there is an easy way out. He hides behind dreams and wishful thinking but his life keeps deteriorating…
If a man starts destroying his own life then only the iron willpower can stop him… And there are so few who possess the iron willpower.
August 29, 2021
One of the most remarkable books I've ever read. Around 120 pages, and told completely in second-person narrative, I've never been so fully captivated by a book. The story concerns a man named Morris Magellan, a businessman with a wife and two kids. The story essentially concerns you as well, as the story narrates Morris' alcoholism as if its happening to you.
"By now, however, you have exhausted that. There seems to be no energy left - if you had discovered alcohol earlier it might have saved a few broken hearts. For you, alcohol is not the problem - it’s the solution: dissolving all the separate parts into one. A universal solvent. An ocean." (pg 23)
Each sentence seems perfect. Perhaps tediously crafted, but all of them come together beautifully for a true journey with Morris. I read this book slowly, often reading a sentence or paragraph out loud. I know I'm going to read this book many times, and I recommend it to anyone curious about a book written in second person, and anybody who considers themselves a writer - I have a new favourite.
"By now, however, you have exhausted that. There seems to be no energy left - if you had discovered alcohol earlier it might have saved a few broken hearts. For you, alcohol is not the problem - it’s the solution: dissolving all the separate parts into one. A universal solvent. An ocean." (pg 23)
Each sentence seems perfect. Perhaps tediously crafted, but all of them come together beautifully for a true journey with Morris. I read this book slowly, often reading a sentence or paragraph out loud. I know I'm going to read this book many times, and I recommend it to anyone curious about a book written in second person, and anybody who considers themselves a writer - I have a new favourite.
October 22, 2018
Hailed as a forgotten masterpiece of Scottish literature, Butlin's novella well deserves all the accolades. It is an unflinching saga of a chronic alcoholic, bleak, but with flashes of humor. Morris Magellan may not be a hero, but his all too human story is memorable and deserves a wider readership.
January 25, 2022
A compelling and remarkable novel. The use here of second person - a narrative voice I typically find a misguided literary trick, both precious and distancing - is brilliant, we readers are Morris Magellan, as a child with his cold and withholding father, as a 34 year old executive at a biscuit company. How unexpected that a sensitive, rather poetic boy with his fears that his house would disappear when he was away from it, his shock at learning that what looks small from far away is real-sized up close, would become something so prosaic as a company executive, with his suits and ties. His job entails the packaging of biscuits, and biscuits seem to conjure up the notion of happy families - which his wasn't growing up, and which he seems to have created, married to the so-far incredibly patient Mary, with two small children. He is an alcoholic, going from drink to drink, while he prepares breakfast for his family, alone in his office with his adored classical music, drinking at home, thus far apparently highly functioning, convinced he's on top of his life, his professional achievements unhampered, called "brilliant" by his boss for ideas he can't recall making in a meeting, certain that his relationships with his colleagues and his secretary are excellent, capable of smoothing out issues with Mary when once again he can't remember the previous night, largely unbowed when his young daughter finds him sleeping on the grass with an empty brandy bottle in his hands. He does not perceive himself as the doomed man that he is. He sees alcohol not as a problem but the solution by which all the disparate parts perhaps of him, perhaps of him in the world, become one. A fascinating journey to take.
August 3, 2017
A poet turned novelist Butlin outlines a man’s gradual descent into alcoholism, both funny (at times) and disturbing. Absorbing: you fall deeply into the alcoholic's mind and start to perceive things in the way he does, startling and original and true. (despite using the dreaded second person).
2006 notebook:
'..steadying the ground, your feet apart like standing on the centre of a see saw. Not moving forward, but balancing the room exactly as it was. When Mary sat up, you took a step backwards to compensate, and at the same time held your hand out towards her to give reassurance.
"'Salright, Mary," you told her, "Easy does it."
'Never had you sensed so fully the nature of balance - and the balance of nature, you said aloud - that holds everything together. An inattentive gesture or remark could have brought down the whole building, or, at the very least, cracked the walls from side to side.'
2006 notebook:
'..steadying the ground, your feet apart like standing on the centre of a see saw. Not moving forward, but balancing the room exactly as it was. When Mary sat up, you took a step backwards to compensate, and at the same time held your hand out towards her to give reassurance.
"'Salright, Mary," you told her, "Easy does it."
'Never had you sensed so fully the nature of balance - and the balance of nature, you said aloud - that holds everything together. An inattentive gesture or remark could have brought down the whole building, or, at the very least, cracked the walls from side to side.'
April 2, 2018
“There are two histories to your life: one that belongs to other people – this history has many variations – and another that is yours alone. Both of them are true: their contradictions must be maintained and resolved inside you every moment of your life. In effect, you carry the burden of two lives at least, and not only are you running out of energy to do this, but you realise you have lost sight of any purpose to this weary exercise.”
The Sound of My Voice, by Ron Butlin, tells the story of Morris Magellan, a well paid executive at a biscuit company, husband, father and chronic alcoholic. Narrated in the second person it takes the reader through a day to day life that is gradually spiraling out of control. Gaps are appearing in Morris’s memory. He suffers occasional hallucinations. Alcohol is not regarded as the problem, it is his solution.
Morris sits inside his comfortable office feeling that he is pushing through a rising tide of mud – around him and inside, trapping and choking. He drinks to keep the mud down thereby allowing him to breath. His colleagues may question his well being but his tasks and output continue to achieve what is needed. His wife, Mary, is aware of the drinking but is trying to be supportive despite appalling behaviour at home. Morris recognises that he once loved, and thought this could be enough. He now regards Mary as replaceable.
There are small successes to be enjoyed – a hand held by his daughter as they walk, a meal cooked for the family, a meeting at which Morris shines – but any euphoria does not last. Always the mud rises and the contents of a bottle will put things to rights. The missteps increase in frequency. When Morris acts out of turn he drinks to forget.
“Every day, every moment almost, you must begin the struggle over again – the struggle to be yourself. You keep trying, like an actor learning his lines, in the belief that eventually, if you work hard enough, you will play the part of ‘Morris Magellan’ convincingly. In time you hope to convince even yourself.”
The tension underlying the narrative leads the reader to a terrifying denouement. Morris is travelling towards self-destruction. The question is, who he will take along.
This novel was first published in 1987 when the model of success in Thatcher’s Britain included the trappings of Morris’s life. The book was well reviewed on release yet quickly disappeared. Perhaps readers were not ready for its somewhat stark depiction. A few years later Irvine Welsh came across a copy and described it as ‘one of the greatest pieces of fiction to come out of Britain in the 80s’. Endorsed by many respected writers, widely translated and award winning, it was included in the List‘s 100 Best Scottish Books of All Time. I readily join those early reviewers who credited it with the highest verbal accolades. In this its fifth regeneration I hope it finds the wider readership it deserves.
My copy of this book was provided gratis by the publisher, Polygon.
The Sound of My Voice, by Ron Butlin, tells the story of Morris Magellan, a well paid executive at a biscuit company, husband, father and chronic alcoholic. Narrated in the second person it takes the reader through a day to day life that is gradually spiraling out of control. Gaps are appearing in Morris’s memory. He suffers occasional hallucinations. Alcohol is not regarded as the problem, it is his solution.
Morris sits inside his comfortable office feeling that he is pushing through a rising tide of mud – around him and inside, trapping and choking. He drinks to keep the mud down thereby allowing him to breath. His colleagues may question his well being but his tasks and output continue to achieve what is needed. His wife, Mary, is aware of the drinking but is trying to be supportive despite appalling behaviour at home. Morris recognises that he once loved, and thought this could be enough. He now regards Mary as replaceable.
There are small successes to be enjoyed – a hand held by his daughter as they walk, a meal cooked for the family, a meeting at which Morris shines – but any euphoria does not last. Always the mud rises and the contents of a bottle will put things to rights. The missteps increase in frequency. When Morris acts out of turn he drinks to forget.
“Every day, every moment almost, you must begin the struggle over again – the struggle to be yourself. You keep trying, like an actor learning his lines, in the belief that eventually, if you work hard enough, you will play the part of ‘Morris Magellan’ convincingly. In time you hope to convince even yourself.”
The tension underlying the narrative leads the reader to a terrifying denouement. Morris is travelling towards self-destruction. The question is, who he will take along.
This novel was first published in 1987 when the model of success in Thatcher’s Britain included the trappings of Morris’s life. The book was well reviewed on release yet quickly disappeared. Perhaps readers were not ready for its somewhat stark depiction. A few years later Irvine Welsh came across a copy and described it as ‘one of the greatest pieces of fiction to come out of Britain in the 80s’. Endorsed by many respected writers, widely translated and award winning, it was included in the List‘s 100 Best Scottish Books of All Time. I readily join those early reviewers who credited it with the highest verbal accolades. In this its fifth regeneration I hope it finds the wider readership it deserves.
My copy of this book was provided gratis by the publisher, Polygon.
older-tbr
March 25, 2018To be reprinted by Polygon Books in April.
November 28, 2025
The Sound of My Voice by Ron Butlin
9.4 out of 10
There are so many ways to look at this special novel, but two main angles might be important in The time of the Covid 19 virus and those would be positive or negative, in that if the reader takes the bleak view, he or she might find this remarkable work rather gloomy and adding to the depression already caused by the generalized house arrest under which much of the world finds itself at this hour – though this reader sat in the garden a while ago, with his macaws, gentle Puccini and restless Balzac and people were cycling out there, intent on coming to my birds and thus had to be stopped…hey, listen, you are supposed to be in quarantine…by the way, as it may be clear already and thus make this redundant, there may be a need for an alert here, no spoilers, for not much happens in this narrative that cannot be exposed, it is much more psychological, some say even political, than your regular ‘action piece’, but an alert in the sense that given the Time of Cholera, this note will probably digress…massively
The other perspective might help one find solace in a book that is included on The Guardian’s 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list https://www.theguardian.com/books/200... in the Family and Self section, for the hero or antihero – the latter may be more like it on some levels – is so covered and surrounded by Mud – which is an obsessive word, it explains surely much of his plight, the quasi permanent intoxication, the painful effort to escape the problems around him, the terrible addiction that might ruin everything, marriage, career, family and his life altogether – as to make his ‘adventures’ quite painful to learn about on one hand, but on the other, we might stop and say…
Well, we are all suffering now that we are isolated in our homes – or even worse, trapped with spouses that want us to disappear, get the goddamn plague and die already, like mine does on a regular basis – and we contemplate the loss of income – that was yet another calamity discussed to some extent yesterday and contiguous plans to sell the flat, which used to be rented but there is just this potential client now, who seems to be keen on getting inside and then speculate on the new emergency provisions and say…’look, the law says there is no need to pay the rent for the foreseeable future – but the main character on The sound of my Voice may have it much worse than we do, because he lives already in an alternative universe, he is so intoxicated as to lose track of what he does…he is ‘dead already.
In one scene he is in the bedroom with his wife, trying to get close to her, even engage in coitus, but since he is permanently inebriated he has this other world that is close, he needs most often to try and see what is real and what happens in the Alcoholic Universe and he cannot get an erection for some time, then he does, but it is so insecure – indeed, at this moment the snow storm joke comes to mind as a possible parallel ‘how do you know a man is like a snow storm…you never know when he is coming, how many inches you will get and how long it will last – as to have an eventual sign of sexual interest diminish as soon as his wife is praising him, being most of the time saintly, seraphic with an individual who keeps letting her and the children down – he calls his daughter, Elise, and his son, Tom, the accusations…
At one point, maybe the nadir of this wreck – ‘two thirds destroyed’ – the father is vomiting in front of the children, prompting their mother, Mary, to rush and take them away, in an effort to spare them the ordeal, something which evidently their other parent is neglectful enough to miss on, when he keeps pouring the Courvoisier and generally spirits into his body that takes incredible amounts of alcohol – one of the colleagues at the ‘Biscuit Box’ – the company he works for produces and then delivers biscuits – has lunch with him on this occasion, when he was worried about the effect of the orange wrapping, which is much less efficient for sales, would have and while the interlocutor has one beer, Morris Magellan, who is 34 and the main character of the narrative has much more and the colleague remarks on this ‘you do manage to take a lot, it is remarkable’ words to this effect.
For some time, the antihero seems to get by – at least according to his description, though at times it is hard to believe, take the word of someone whose head is always clouded, plus, one of the brilliant aspects of this splendid book is that for most of the time, the story is told with ‘you’ at the center, as in you went to work, you looked out and saw men loading the truck… - and even if he takes incredible amounts of cognac and other hard staff, he is doing a perfect job, though that would change gradually, for instance in relationship with his secretary Katherine, a nice woman, kind, with a sense of humor and kind approach, which makes the almost permanently confused boss figure that she would be interested in an affair and he slips his hand under her skirt at another low point in this awful degradation…
Apart from his destructive, tragic addiction, there would be elements in the past, in the childhood of the ‘hero’ that would explain parts of his war on himself and others around him, such as the rather vile father – in another scene, Morris is twelve and singing a pop song and his father comes in and addresses the boy with a vicious, malign tone asking a rhetorical, furious question …’what could you possibly know about love?!’…later on, he learns that his father has died, when he is at a party, with a young girl called Sarah and he takes her home, and quite soon has an erection and is very close to having sex with the woman who turns him down.
The disintegrating main character drinks at all hours and has fits of rage, breaking bottles, when more serene, he still has a bottle nearby, as at the moment when Elise comes in the garden and he has to hide away the drink and somehow to control his – constant really – dizziness…he takes the girl out to get the newspapers, but he is losing control and balance and since he has the child’s hand in his, he hurts her, just as he grips for equilibrium, unaware of what is going on, making the girl shout ‘you are hurting me’ and this reader wonder, as they try to cross the street, if catastrophe would not hit now, as a car would smash in and maybe kill the poor child…
He comes close to committing a serious accident himself, later on, for he drinks and drives constantly and at that time, though he has tried to abstain – due to the Sound of My Voice, there is another person now talking in his head, the voice of reason and austerity and it is I and My voice that are used for some time, as opposed to the ‘you’ which is for the rest of the novel – the nauseating effects of that planetary amount of spirits is there and he shakes, trembles, does not see the lines of the road straight and in effort to ‘escape’ this predicament, he pushes on the accelerator and is apparently very close to a crash…
Will he kill them? Well, that would be a real spoiler alert
9.4 out of 10
There are so many ways to look at this special novel, but two main angles might be important in The time of the Covid 19 virus and those would be positive or negative, in that if the reader takes the bleak view, he or she might find this remarkable work rather gloomy and adding to the depression already caused by the generalized house arrest under which much of the world finds itself at this hour – though this reader sat in the garden a while ago, with his macaws, gentle Puccini and restless Balzac and people were cycling out there, intent on coming to my birds and thus had to be stopped…hey, listen, you are supposed to be in quarantine…by the way, as it may be clear already and thus make this redundant, there may be a need for an alert here, no spoilers, for not much happens in this narrative that cannot be exposed, it is much more psychological, some say even political, than your regular ‘action piece’, but an alert in the sense that given the Time of Cholera, this note will probably digress…massively
The other perspective might help one find solace in a book that is included on The Guardian’s 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list https://www.theguardian.com/books/200... in the Family and Self section, for the hero or antihero – the latter may be more like it on some levels – is so covered and surrounded by Mud – which is an obsessive word, it explains surely much of his plight, the quasi permanent intoxication, the painful effort to escape the problems around him, the terrible addiction that might ruin everything, marriage, career, family and his life altogether – as to make his ‘adventures’ quite painful to learn about on one hand, but on the other, we might stop and say…
Well, we are all suffering now that we are isolated in our homes – or even worse, trapped with spouses that want us to disappear, get the goddamn plague and die already, like mine does on a regular basis – and we contemplate the loss of income – that was yet another calamity discussed to some extent yesterday and contiguous plans to sell the flat, which used to be rented but there is just this potential client now, who seems to be keen on getting inside and then speculate on the new emergency provisions and say…’look, the law says there is no need to pay the rent for the foreseeable future – but the main character on The sound of my Voice may have it much worse than we do, because he lives already in an alternative universe, he is so intoxicated as to lose track of what he does…he is ‘dead already.
In one scene he is in the bedroom with his wife, trying to get close to her, even engage in coitus, but since he is permanently inebriated he has this other world that is close, he needs most often to try and see what is real and what happens in the Alcoholic Universe and he cannot get an erection for some time, then he does, but it is so insecure – indeed, at this moment the snow storm joke comes to mind as a possible parallel ‘how do you know a man is like a snow storm…you never know when he is coming, how many inches you will get and how long it will last – as to have an eventual sign of sexual interest diminish as soon as his wife is praising him, being most of the time saintly, seraphic with an individual who keeps letting her and the children down – he calls his daughter, Elise, and his son, Tom, the accusations…
At one point, maybe the nadir of this wreck – ‘two thirds destroyed’ – the father is vomiting in front of the children, prompting their mother, Mary, to rush and take them away, in an effort to spare them the ordeal, something which evidently their other parent is neglectful enough to miss on, when he keeps pouring the Courvoisier and generally spirits into his body that takes incredible amounts of alcohol – one of the colleagues at the ‘Biscuit Box’ – the company he works for produces and then delivers biscuits – has lunch with him on this occasion, when he was worried about the effect of the orange wrapping, which is much less efficient for sales, would have and while the interlocutor has one beer, Morris Magellan, who is 34 and the main character of the narrative has much more and the colleague remarks on this ‘you do manage to take a lot, it is remarkable’ words to this effect.
For some time, the antihero seems to get by – at least according to his description, though at times it is hard to believe, take the word of someone whose head is always clouded, plus, one of the brilliant aspects of this splendid book is that for most of the time, the story is told with ‘you’ at the center, as in you went to work, you looked out and saw men loading the truck… - and even if he takes incredible amounts of cognac and other hard staff, he is doing a perfect job, though that would change gradually, for instance in relationship with his secretary Katherine, a nice woman, kind, with a sense of humor and kind approach, which makes the almost permanently confused boss figure that she would be interested in an affair and he slips his hand under her skirt at another low point in this awful degradation…
Apart from his destructive, tragic addiction, there would be elements in the past, in the childhood of the ‘hero’ that would explain parts of his war on himself and others around him, such as the rather vile father – in another scene, Morris is twelve and singing a pop song and his father comes in and addresses the boy with a vicious, malign tone asking a rhetorical, furious question …’what could you possibly know about love?!’…later on, he learns that his father has died, when he is at a party, with a young girl called Sarah and he takes her home, and quite soon has an erection and is very close to having sex with the woman who turns him down.
The disintegrating main character drinks at all hours and has fits of rage, breaking bottles, when more serene, he still has a bottle nearby, as at the moment when Elise comes in the garden and he has to hide away the drink and somehow to control his – constant really – dizziness…he takes the girl out to get the newspapers, but he is losing control and balance and since he has the child’s hand in his, he hurts her, just as he grips for equilibrium, unaware of what is going on, making the girl shout ‘you are hurting me’ and this reader wonder, as they try to cross the street, if catastrophe would not hit now, as a car would smash in and maybe kill the poor child…
He comes close to committing a serious accident himself, later on, for he drinks and drives constantly and at that time, though he has tried to abstain – due to the Sound of My Voice, there is another person now talking in his head, the voice of reason and austerity and it is I and My voice that are used for some time, as opposed to the ‘you’ which is for the rest of the novel – the nauseating effects of that planetary amount of spirits is there and he shakes, trembles, does not see the lines of the road straight and in effort to ‘escape’ this predicament, he pushes on the accelerator and is apparently very close to a crash…
Will he kill them? Well, that would be a real spoiler alert
November 29, 2019
It took me a while to get into the style of this book. But then I read it in nearly one sitting. It is the narrative of a man addicted to alcohol, who has to deak with his demons, but also with a huge amount of self-delusion. It is written in the second person, because the main protagonist is always talking to himself. This combined with what he is talking about, gives you a very good impression, how the mind of an alcoholic might work and such a life might look like. Of course I can only assume that it could be this way, because I can only look at it from an outside perspective. But I also can tell, that I have lost a friend to alcohol once and some of the scenes described in this book, seemed quite familiar to me.
#NovellasInNovember2019
#NovellasInNovember2019
May 30, 2021
Quote
"When one drink is too much, the rest are never enough. Never."
"When one drink is too much, the rest are never enough. Never."
October 2, 2018
Very good book written matter of factly in the second person "you" form.
We are a fly on the wall observing the alcoholic protagonist in his day-to-day life fueled by alcohol: watching how he begins his mornings (always happy and hopeful), how he reaches for alcohol, his hallucinations, his memory lapses, his workplace, his thoughts....
A sense of foreboding and anxiety filled me with every turn of the page which I imagine one would experience when living with an alcoholic.
We are a fly on the wall observing the alcoholic protagonist in his day-to-day life fueled by alcohol: watching how he begins his mornings (always happy and hopeful), how he reaches for alcohol, his hallucinations, his memory lapses, his workplace, his thoughts....
A sense of foreboding and anxiety filled me with every turn of the page which I imagine one would experience when living with an alcoholic.
February 9, 2017
Butlin is extraordinary as always.
For anyone who hasn't already read this I highly recommend it and if you have already read this book I recommend a reread.
Haunting and dark yet entirely relatable even for those who haven't struggled with addiction or known someone who's struggled with addiction.
Just reading how Morris gets through his days is enough to make you never want to have a drink ever again. Butlin pulls back the curtain so the reader can peer inside the mind of a fully functioning alcoholic, and while the scene behind the curtain is not pretty at all we find ourselves unable to look away.
This book is very readable but may not be an *easy* read for everyone. I recommend taking your time to savor every little morsel.
My copy remains full of highlighted passages.
"No time. Work. Work. Biscuits."
For anyone who hasn't already read this I highly recommend it and if you have already read this book I recommend a reread.
Haunting and dark yet entirely relatable even for those who haven't struggled with addiction or known someone who's struggled with addiction.
Just reading how Morris gets through his days is enough to make you never want to have a drink ever again. Butlin pulls back the curtain so the reader can peer inside the mind of a fully functioning alcoholic, and while the scene behind the curtain is not pretty at all we find ourselves unable to look away.
This book is very readable but may not be an *easy* read for everyone. I recommend taking your time to savor every little morsel.
My copy remains full of highlighted passages.
"No time. Work. Work. Biscuits."
September 9, 2010
Brilliant, if you can handle 118 pages in the 2nd person about a slowly degenerating Scottish alcoholic. Take the 1st paragraph of the 3rd chapter as a good measure of what to expect:
"You are thirty-four years old and already two-thirds destroyed. When your friends and business colleagues meet you they shake your hand and say, "Hello, Morris." You reply, "Hello," usually smiling. At home your wife and children -- your accusations, as you call them -- love you and need you. You know this all, and know that it is not enough."
"You are thirty-four years old and already two-thirds destroyed. When your friends and business colleagues meet you they shake your hand and say, "Hello, Morris." You reply, "Hello," usually smiling. At home your wife and children -- your accusations, as you call them -- love you and need you. You know this all, and know that it is not enough."
July 21, 2018
Recommended by Irvin Welsh as a lost Scottish must read, The Sound of My Voice is a sometimes scary and always worrying snapshot of the world of a functioning alcoholic. He keeps it together most of the time but the blackouts and drink driving and constant feeding of the monkey on his back show how all consuming addiction is. I loved the use of colour and grey to describe his different states and the constant bank of excuses he used. Poor man and poor family - definitely worth a read.
January 7, 2013
"Cuando una sola copa es demasiado, las demás nunca son suficiente. Nunca."
"No tiene futuro ni tiene pasado tampoco, es un borracho» había dicho aquel hombre. Ni futuro, ni pasado; sólo quedaba el presente, pensaste. Pero hay dos tipos de presente, ¿verdad? Con una copa y sin ella. No es difícil la elección. Para ti"
"No tiene futuro ni tiene pasado tampoco, es un borracho» había dicho aquel hombre. Ni futuro, ni pasado; sólo quedaba el presente, pensaste. Pero hay dos tipos de presente, ¿verdad? Con una copa y sin ella. No es difícil la elección. Para ti"
July 8, 2019
'You have reached a moment quiet enough to hear the sound of my voice: so now, as you stare out into the darkness, accept the comfort it can give you - and the love. The love.'
Utterly compelling, deeply moving, often hard to read, this is an extraordinary book which deserves to be read by everyone. Written entirely in the second-person, this is the story of Morris Magellan, a 34 year-old executive in a firm selling biscuits, married with two small children. He is, also, a barely functioning alcoholic, and as his descent into the very worst moments of darkness spirals out of control, the remarkable achievement of this novel truly comes into its own. The ever-insistent 'you' of the book - Morris's own voice watching himself from outside his body, as it were - also means that we as readers watch the events through this perspective too. Convinced that he is managing his relationship with alcohol, we can see the true extent of the damage that it is doing to both his career and his family.
Us Scots have a troublesome relationship with the demon drink and this, together with perhaps an equally powerful book in AL Kennedy's 'Paradise', are brilliant but uncomfortable books that explore this. With a foreword from Irvine Welsh, and an interesting afterword from the author himself explaining the troubled publication history of this novel, this book has been justifiably hailed as a classic. Let us, please, not lose this again to the void. This is a remarkable, troubling, deeply lyrical book that explores some dark places and offers, well, I'll leave that for you to decide. An absolute must-read.
Utterly compelling, deeply moving, often hard to read, this is an extraordinary book which deserves to be read by everyone. Written entirely in the second-person, this is the story of Morris Magellan, a 34 year-old executive in a firm selling biscuits, married with two small children. He is, also, a barely functioning alcoholic, and as his descent into the very worst moments of darkness spirals out of control, the remarkable achievement of this novel truly comes into its own. The ever-insistent 'you' of the book - Morris's own voice watching himself from outside his body, as it were - also means that we as readers watch the events through this perspective too. Convinced that he is managing his relationship with alcohol, we can see the true extent of the damage that it is doing to both his career and his family.
Us Scots have a troublesome relationship with the demon drink and this, together with perhaps an equally powerful book in AL Kennedy's 'Paradise', are brilliant but uncomfortable books that explore this. With a foreword from Irvine Welsh, and an interesting afterword from the author himself explaining the troubled publication history of this novel, this book has been justifiably hailed as a classic. Let us, please, not lose this again to the void. This is a remarkable, troubling, deeply lyrical book that explores some dark places and offers, well, I'll leave that for you to decide. An absolute must-read.
March 24, 2024
Coneixem la vida, narrada en segona persona, d'un directiu d'una empresa, alcohòlic, la dona i els fills. El personatge d'ell, molt ben desenvolupat; la dona, una mica menys; els fills no arriben ni a personatges secundaris. Una novel·la punyent.
La traducció de Dolors Udina, del 2012, és millor que la que havia fet de De què parlem quan parlem d'amor, de Raymon Carver, quinze anys abans. Però no vol dir que la de El so de la meva veu siga una traducció bona. Només vol dir que és millor que el desastre que na Udina havia fet en l'atra traducció. Encara hi ha un excés de possessius, castellanismes sintàctics, anglicismes sintàctics, passives innecessàries, no usa el pretèrit perfet simple ni una sola vegada... Els pleonasmes han millorat molt: ara només n'hi ha nou (vas sortir a fora, torna a pujar a dalt, vas baixar a baix, entra dintre...). En fi, millor que quinze anys abans. Ara la traducció, en comptes de ser espantosa, només és mediocre. Potser algun dia na Udina arribarà a traduir bé. No en perdem l'esperança.
La traducció de Dolors Udina, del 2012, és millor que la que havia fet de De què parlem quan parlem d'amor, de Raymon Carver, quinze anys abans. Però no vol dir que la de El so de la meva veu siga una traducció bona. Només vol dir que és millor que el desastre que na Udina havia fet en l'atra traducció. Encara hi ha un excés de possessius, castellanismes sintàctics, anglicismes sintàctics, passives innecessàries, no usa el pretèrit perfet simple ni una sola vegada... Els pleonasmes han millorat molt: ara només n'hi ha nou (vas sortir a fora, torna a pujar a dalt, vas baixar a baix, entra dintre...). En fi, millor que quinze anys abans. Ara la traducció, en comptes de ser espantosa, només és mediocre. Potser algun dia na Udina arribarà a traduir bé. No en perdem l'esperança.
December 29, 2022
There is little that is likeable in Morris, the central character in The Sound of My Voice, an overpaid pretentious, arrogant, smarmy executive of a biscuit company. Told in the second-person, the reader is compelled to empathise with his viewpoint, unpleasant as he is, constantly excusing his behaviour. He is also an alcoholic, out of control and hurting everyone around him, yet somehow Butlin manages to tease apart the disdain for the person and his values, from that of the alcoholic. Using the second-person is a masterstroke as you hurtle blindly into stupor after stupor. Details omitted from the text from previous meetings and encounters leave the reader as befuddled as Morris is, but the drinking and confusion steadily builds. I doubt I’ve read a better fictional account of the pain and bleakness of alcoholism. Without spoiling it for the new reader, the subtle shift in narrative towards the end of the book offers a glimmer of recovery, but nothing can be taken for granted.
April 8, 2025
A stunning book. All told in the second person, which I thought was going to become a bit of a drag, but it flows along so well - as we learn about Morris Magellan, a very high functioning alcoholic, who ends up going off the rails more than he intended after witnessing the death of a fellow commuter under a train at the station, leading to his over casual drinking during the working day to become something more sinister. We experience Morris's breakdown through the lens of being told it is happening to us, that second person narrative somehow linking together so well the events in Morris's life, as he becomes reliant on alcohol to get through the day, eventually drinking in the morning before he commutes in, threatening his marriage and his family life.
At the very end, Morris seems to reach a turning point, and there is a glimmer of hope as the narrative comes to an end. This is so well told, it is criminal it is not more known about.
At the very end, Morris seems to reach a turning point, and there is a glimmer of hope as the narrative comes to an end. This is so well told, it is criminal it is not more known about.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 10, 2023
The use of second person point of view and very delicate structuring from moment to moment works wonders in putting you in the often unpleasant headspace of someone debilitated by alcoholism, crashing through a life replete with misinterpretations of situations and missed social cues. It’s certainly not a fun place to be spending time, but it’s an extraordinary feat to create this sympathy and reconcile that against some horrendous actions. it’s the work of a skilled author who manages to make this bordering-on-slight snapshot of a life both compelling and rich in detail — or, rather, as is often the case with this protagonist, lacking in detail — through fragmented half-memories of events told with an inner sense of lucidity.
January 10, 2024
Still gathering my thoughts but I thought this book was very clever. It explored alcohol abuse, alienation, identity and the current capitalist society in a unique way. This is told in the second person and follows Morris who struggles with alcoholism while he has the 'perfect' life - successful corporate job, loving wife, beautiful house and two kids. Morris really struggles with his sense of identity and Butlin challenges the reader to question their own identity as we are all ultimately cogs in the same big machine yet, some of us benefit more than others.
I concluded that Morris's true struggle is with extreme empathy which he can't cope with in today's climate - turning to alcohol to dampen this feeling.
I concluded that Morris's true struggle is with extreme empathy which he can't cope with in today's climate - turning to alcohol to dampen this feeling.
August 11, 2020
I hadn't heard of this before and saw it in a 'Classics' section on my library app. The praise from Irvine Welsh stirred my interest so I thought I would give it a try. It is not a happy book and the writing really captures Morris' frantic attempts to keep out of the 'mud' in his thoughts with frequent doses of Courvoisier. I would be interested to read a different book from his wife Mary's perspective because it is really hard to see why she remains so patient as the 'functioning' part of his functioning alcoholism always seemed to fall away at home.
All in all, I'll consider it a success for a 'random' choice.
All in all, I'll consider it a success for a 'random' choice.
July 23, 2022
I'm not sure what book other reviews were reading, but it wasn't the same one I was reading. Even though this novel is short, it drags. This is why poets shouldn't write novels: the author was more concerned with describing the sensation of being drunk/alcoholic that he lost the plot.
The protagonist wasn't likable, in part because there was some acknowledgement that he's doing something wrong, yet he doesn't change, plus everything was a performance for him.
The author admits in the afterword that he had no plan for this & pieced it together from what he wrote over several years, and that shows.
The protagonist wasn't likable, in part because there was some acknowledgement that he's doing something wrong, yet he doesn't change, plus everything was a performance for him.
The author admits in the afterword that he had no plan for this & pieced it together from what he wrote over several years, and that shows.
July 3, 2024
This novella is a must read. The use of the second person is a dream. It works as a means of projection onto the reader and therefore raises even more questions of morality within yourself. It can also be viewed as a means of self harm: the protagonists denial of self. Is it also a symptom of a personality disorder in the protagonist, as his emotional instability has separated his conscious as a result of alcoholism or childhood trauma? Is it simply the narrator speaking to himself from a better place in the future? Is it Mary?
Although not the most exiting narrative, The Sound of My Voice’s expert use of language is unquestionable and means this novella is impossible to put down.
Although not the most exiting narrative, The Sound of My Voice’s expert use of language is unquestionable and means this novella is impossible to put down.
November 19, 2024
This began as a hard read but developed into a very eye-opening one. The second person narration really does something to me, and the reveal that it is indeed another person walking Morris through his own life gave me chills, which hasn’t happened while reading in a long time.
I came into it close-minded - the scene with the first year girl at the party made me think that this was just going to be some sort of incel-esque book, but that’s on me for seeing something disturbing and immediately ‘not liking’ it.
That’s the point in literature, no?
Deserves to be up there with Kafka and Camus’ explorations of the psyche, imo.
I came into it close-minded - the scene with the first year girl at the party made me think that this was just going to be some sort of incel-esque book, but that’s on me for seeing something disturbing and immediately ‘not liking’ it.
That’s the point in literature, no?
Deserves to be up there with Kafka and Camus’ explorations of the psyche, imo.
December 16, 2022
This book is haunting and like an outsider looking in we journey with Morris day to day and peek at his normal.
Morris is slowly loosing himself day by day and the prose the author uses is both beautiful and shattering because each sentence you know brings you closer to the destruction.
This book was in a subscription box and I admittedly would never have picked it up however it’s an amazing read that is only 144 pages
I would highly recommend this to anyone particularly people who know someone with a drinking problem.
Morris is slowly loosing himself day by day and the prose the author uses is both beautiful and shattering because each sentence you know brings you closer to the destruction.
This book was in a subscription box and I admittedly would never have picked it up however it’s an amazing read that is only 144 pages
I would highly recommend this to anyone particularly people who know someone with a drinking problem.
January 22, 2024
This was a very powerful read. I had already read the follow up novel “so many lives and all of them are yours” which i absolutely loved and couldn’t put down until Id finished it so was looking forward to this one. It is written in the second person and i had never experienced that so it took a bit of getting used to but within a chapter or two i had warmed to the style. The insightful depiction of the main characters descent from functional alcoholism to complete disintegration is exquisitely executed yet brutally honest
November 19, 2018
Poignant
There are many reasons why some people drink to excess, but there is always a reason.
It was a bit close to home for me so it was a hard read. In my mind a functioning alcoholic does not live like to the full because in the back of his mind he is always thinking about the next drink to enjoy the moment.
A short but concise novel that hit a nerve.
There are many reasons why some people drink to excess, but there is always a reason.
It was a bit close to home for me so it was a hard read. In my mind a functioning alcoholic does not live like to the full because in the back of his mind he is always thinking about the next drink to enjoy the moment.
A short but concise novel that hit a nerve.
December 21, 2025
Superb wormhole into the mind of an alcoholic, told in claustrophobic second-person style. Deeply affecting/thought-provoking, as MC Morris carefully performs all the outward actions of a "normal" person: husband, father, working-man, but with a hovering elephant-in-the-room demon destroying all long-term hope/peace of mind, so that I would most properly list this under Horror genre.
August 25, 2017
Reading this book was spellbinding. Written in the second person, you become the protagonist's inner voice. Using metaphors, Butlin takes you inside the mind of an alcoholic as he struggles to get through each day. If you can get a copy of this book do so - you will not be disappointed.
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