Liadhen

by Ben Winch

Jason is an outsider in his brother’s world of girls and violence. He escapes to Liadhen to reinvent his life - but is he discovering himself or running away?

154 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

1990s state-sponsored young novelist who spent the next two decades washing dishes, bookselling and writing a journal. In 2014 I published Vanishing Points, but I don’t talk about that. Otherwise, aside from a handful of essays and my work at Medium, my only recent publications have been on Goodreads, though I’m always at work on something. I also write and record rock and electronica. My latest release is Bone Idol.

Reviews

[Eddie Watkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

The only reason I read this was that my friend Ben Winch wrote it when he was a kid. I read it as a favor to him. I did not expect to like it but I did. Having read it I now understand better Ben’s current pulpy, noirish project, Vanishing Points. Not that Liadhen is pulp noir, but it has an assured and unadorned and elemental quality that is the lifeblood of pulp and noir. And like pulp and noir it has the appearance of realism, while actually being a concentration of realism that embraces unlikely coincidences and a confluence of events normally only available in dreams. There is a dreamlike quality to the narrative as it progresses; the dreamlike quality further emphasized by the attention to mundane facts and events. Dreamlike often implies the weird or outlandish, but for me dreamlike is best exemplified by a heightened awareness of the mundane, imparting a throbbing, though elusive, significance to each tiny event. This effect is not achieved by any obvious effort on Winch’s part, but rather appears effortless and inherent, already known not learned. There is nothing here of the workshop novel or an MFA. It is natural and authentic, and content to slowly spin out a somewhat brooding tale of anxious escape and a search for more, for another life that is yet completely unknown. Though there is a (possible) murder, a suicide, drug dealing, a near rape, and a mime with a gun the novel still gives the impression of not much happening, due I suppose to its very palpable setting in a nowhere godforsaken burg. That these hotter topics are not focused on is a testament to young Winch’s natural storytelling talents, and his precocious wisdom to know that though sex and drugs and guns can make for some great excitement, there is still the matter of the individual, deep down in his/her incomplete self, to find some kind of completion or atonement that transcends all the surface excitements/distractions. This is a book about a young man who doesn’t even yet quite realize that he sees through it all, though he knows he needs more from life, and his push for that more carries this quiet, though rather haunting, novel.

[Stephen P(who no longer can participate due to illness) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liadhen, Ben Winch's first novel, at the age of 21, was runner-up in the Angus and Robertson Bookworld first novel award. I read it in one sitting. I don't believe I've ever done that before. There was no way of putting it down. In its 154 pages I became so involved with the characters that I had to find out what was going to happen to them.

I loved the noir writing. It was interesting to see the Winchian style at its earliest stage and its further development in his recent, excellent novel, Vanishing Points. In each book it is easy to become caught up in the enjoyment of the genre writing and story. What Ben Winch does is within and alongside the genre narrative are deep philosophical and literary issues begging to be discovered. Profound moments within the ease and suspense of these structures.

As with most first novels this book has some rough moments. There is a rawness. I find it part of the joy of reading an author's first work. Winch's style intrigues me because it feels as though I'm getting a free ride. Easy to read it as an engrossing suspenseful story and by the end I'm filled with thoughtful considerations I wasn't expecting from a genre narrative.

I am going to round off my 3.89/5 of this first novel of many years ago to 4.0/5 and look forward to Ben's next novel.

[Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Though this book did something different, in that it focuses on a young person's relationship with 'adults' instead of peers, and though it was an easy read, it wasn't very interesting or compelling. I finished the novel wondering what the point of it all was.