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Gunk
The final Galley Beggar Single of 2013 and a very special one. Gerry Feehily takes us into the glamorous exciting world of fashion and models - and demonstrates conclusively that they are neither glamorous or exciting. But they are deliciously disturbing. And funny. And nasty. And as for the gunk...
This one goes deep.
This one goes deep.
14 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 19, 2013
2 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 4, 2021
Gunk is a short story set in the strange and cruel world of modelling during the 80s. Most of the characters are delightfully horrible and despite its brevity you really get a feel for the sheer uncaring vacuousness of it all.
May 10, 2014
I gave this book/short story 4.25/5 stars at InsatiableBooksluts.com. A digital review copy was provided by the publisher.
"Gunk was pretty fabulous short fiction (super-short fiction, even), I have to tell you. I read it on my phone, and that was a first for me, but it seemed fitting with the subject matter–fashion models, “the industry,” agents, and what-have-you. It’s clearly a quick read, but it develops very well in 14 pages; Feehily did a brilliant job of including exactly what you need to know alongside exactly what he wanted you to know. I don’t know how short fiction authors are able to make characters come so alive in such short spans. It’s a magic that I do not possess.
The story centers around a rather unusual happening at a modeling agency–an unusual client-who-is-not-a-client. Gunk begins in medias res, as it would nearly have to: the unusual client has won a contest to pose with Boy George in a magazine. Despite the fact that this kid “just looked like no-one, looked like who the fuck . . . like someone whose name you might have to ask ten times because otherwise you’d get it wrong”, the narrator’s boss decided to sign him to the agency. You know that moment–when your boss has just created a massive pain in the ass for you on nothing but the barest whim, and you’re left to sort it.
Only, everything goes a bit weird. Only, it’s not your routine pain-in-the-ass to deal with. What should have been a simple “see-ya-later, kiddo” doesn’t go at all as planned and the narrator seems on the verge of a nervous breakdown when it comes to a head.
The book flirts with magical realism just a touch; to give much detail would be to give it away, but there are moments where you’re not at all certain if the narrator’s realistic view of events is the truth, or if Jude, the wannabe-model, is the truth. Moments in which they are opposed and you’re not sure who is lying to themselves, but you know one of them must be.
It’s not a cliche of the 80s, either, and that’s nice. There is mention of Boy George and a few references to cocaine, but it’s not steeped in nostalgia-trivia.
Being short, it’s a fairly inexpensive addition to your collection, and an addition that I recommend (digital is the way to go if you don’t neeed that cover art, imo). I’m definitely going to take a hard look at Feehily’s novel, Fever, in which “the town’s one gothic punk, communist and poet laureate (self elected), wants to ‘find out about love’.”
Oh, come on. Like I can resist that."
"Gunk was pretty fabulous short fiction (super-short fiction, even), I have to tell you. I read it on my phone, and that was a first for me, but it seemed fitting with the subject matter–fashion models, “the industry,” agents, and what-have-you. It’s clearly a quick read, but it develops very well in 14 pages; Feehily did a brilliant job of including exactly what you need to know alongside exactly what he wanted you to know. I don’t know how short fiction authors are able to make characters come so alive in such short spans. It’s a magic that I do not possess.
The story centers around a rather unusual happening at a modeling agency–an unusual client-who-is-not-a-client. Gunk begins in medias res, as it would nearly have to: the unusual client has won a contest to pose with Boy George in a magazine. Despite the fact that this kid “just looked like no-one, looked like who the fuck . . . like someone whose name you might have to ask ten times because otherwise you’d get it wrong”, the narrator’s boss decided to sign him to the agency. You know that moment–when your boss has just created a massive pain in the ass for you on nothing but the barest whim, and you’re left to sort it.
Only, everything goes a bit weird. Only, it’s not your routine pain-in-the-ass to deal with. What should have been a simple “see-ya-later, kiddo” doesn’t go at all as planned and the narrator seems on the verge of a nervous breakdown when it comes to a head.
The book flirts with magical realism just a touch; to give much detail would be to give it away, but there are moments where you’re not at all certain if the narrator’s realistic view of events is the truth, or if Jude, the wannabe-model, is the truth. Moments in which they are opposed and you’re not sure who is lying to themselves, but you know one of them must be.
It’s not a cliche of the 80s, either, and that’s nice. There is mention of Boy George and a few references to cocaine, but it’s not steeped in nostalgia-trivia.
Being short, it’s a fairly inexpensive addition to your collection, and an addition that I recommend (digital is the way to go if you don’t neeed that cover art, imo). I’m definitely going to take a hard look at Feehily’s novel, Fever, in which “the town’s one gothic punk, communist and poet laureate (self elected), wants to ‘find out about love’.”
Oh, come on. Like I can resist that."
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews