Bone Idol

Lost Angeles #2

by David Louden

The sophomore follow-up to LOST ANGELES is the semi-biographical tale of author David Louden's alter-ego Doug Morgan as he struggles to connect with his father Jack, his mother Ruth and the working class ideology of "a real job".

From his early adventure filled days in Poleglass through to the alcohol induced haze of his early twenties Doug's life (much like the city) is one at conflict with itself. BONE IDOL is filled with humour, sex, guilt and the shameful dream of a boy wanting to create more than a family of haunted heirs.

Genres: Drama

164 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 28, 2013

About the author

Belfast native David Louden is the author of the roman á clef novels LOST ANGELES & BONE IDOL [bohn ahyd-l]. His major influences have been cited as Charles Bukowski, John Fante, William S. Burroughs and Brendan Behan. He is currently working on a noir project for television, scheduled 2015.

Reviews

[Dpants · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's like Frank McCourt and Roddy Doyle had a baby and it was Louden's Bone Idol. Set on the North Belfast strip called 'The Bone' during the Troubles it's a semi autobiographical look at a childhood during the huge period of conflict. It is a tribute to the author that it manages to be so funny but also shows how normalised the conflict became and how resilient and downright hilarious Doug Morgan is. It's a cheeky irreverent account of a young life which just happens to be during the troubles. Of course there are moments of sadness, upset and trauma but those who read lost Angeles and wanted to find out more about Doug, this is definitely for them. I'm still laughing about the sheer cheek of him! Truthful, funny, irreverent, and sad definitely worth a read.

[Briar's Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bone Idol (bohn ahyd-l), despite confusing me by the titles, was a really nice read! And by really nice, I mean it kept me hooked, interesting and on my edge about what was going to happen next to the main character.

I enjoyed reading about the main character as he grew up, but I sometimes felt a little confused as to what age stage he was at. I did my best to guess at what age he was at while I was reading it, but I sometimes found it a struggle to understand if he was still a preteen or a teenager yet.

I found the novel was just perfectly long enough to not get me bored and wishing for it to end. I was almost begging for more when I got to the last chapter. I would definitely want to continue reading this series if another book came out and followed the lead character or his family again.

One word of advice was that I would have liked a more clear plot. I wasn't exactly sure what was going on for a complete plot, other than following the character as he grew up. Yes, I understand it was somewhat an autobiography but I would have loved a clear plot to the stories.

I did enjoy this book and I would recommend it to many readers who want a different read, that is a fictional themed novel but has a more real life setting while you follow the character.

Four out of five stars, due to the lack of a continuing plot and the age confusion I experienced while trying to figure out how old the lead character, Doug, was throughout the novel.

Amazing book nonetheless!

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.