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Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite
A flight bound for Los Angeles crashes somewhere in the USA, killing everyone on board. Everyone, that is, except one man.
As the plane goes down, James Kite inexplicably finds himself transported to a beach in the north of Scotland. Grilled by American agents intent on establishing some connection between him and the downed plane, Kite finds himself incarcerated in a building where the notions of time and space are lost; yet, as the interrogation becomes ever stranger, he begins to realise that their interest in him goes far beyond, and much further back than the plane crash.
A surreal story that rips along with the page-turning pace of the very best thrillers, Lindsay's twelfth novel sees his writing take off in an extraordinary new direction, as Kite is thrown into a bizarre, Kafkaesque narrative. From Dubai to Glasgow, from Warsaw to Seattle, Kite inhabits a world haunted by the mysterious Jigsaw Man, a world of coffee and the Beatles, of love and obsession, and a world where only certain people can see the red door…
As the plane goes down, James Kite inexplicably finds himself transported to a beach in the north of Scotland. Grilled by American agents intent on establishing some connection between him and the downed plane, Kite finds himself incarcerated in a building where the notions of time and space are lost; yet, as the interrogation becomes ever stranger, he begins to realise that their interest in him goes far beyond, and much further back than the plane crash.
A surreal story that rips along with the page-turning pace of the very best thrillers, Lindsay's twelfth novel sees his writing take off in an extraordinary new direction, as Kite is thrown into a bizarre, Kafkaesque narrative. From Dubai to Glasgow, from Warsaw to Seattle, Kite inhabits a world haunted by the mysterious Jigsaw Man, a world of coffee and the Beatles, of love and obsession, and a world where only certain people can see the red door…
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First published June 1, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 8, 2015
I've become a big Douglas Lindsay fan thanks to his Barney Thompson and Hutton humorous crime novels. This one's entirely different: a strange time-travel thriller with a lot of Beatles references and discussion of coffee. The writing carries it along, but ultimately I wish I hadn't bothered. Just not my cup of tea, really.
May 27, 2024
Shaggy dog
That was the longest shaggy dog story i have been enticed into sitting still for. I hope Lindsay gets back to detective noire in Scotland.
That was the longest shaggy dog story i have been enticed into sitting still for. I hope Lindsay gets back to detective noire in Scotland.
February 17, 2015
Before Douglas Lindsay’s Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite! descends into nightmare, the narrative hints at a story about the ho-hum life: the humorous musings of a middle-aged man resigned to a tired marriage, an uninspired job, and a sense that the only bright spot on his horizon is his intelligent daughter, Baggins. But the ennui is transformed by a surprise phone call from James Kite’s literary agent. A Hollywood mogul wants to produce his screenplay, The Jigsaw Man, which had languished for years on slush piles around the world.
That should resonate with anyone who’s sent their manuscripts off to editors, only to have the pages disappear without a trace. For Kite, however, the revival of his script—“exactly the type of straight-to-TV, martial arts bunfight that would be turned into a Steven Segal movie and shown in the late hours on Channel 5”, as he describes it—is received with disbelief and doubt rather than hope or joy. It can’t be real. As his wife Brin says: “It’s from Hollywood. Of course it’s fake.”
And so much of what follows can’t be real, either. Kite vanishes from a plane bound for Hollywood. The narrative next has him trapped in a dull grey cell inside a secretive American institution. He has no recollection or understanding of how he got there, let alone where there is. All he knows is that two humorless American agents, Crosskill and No-Name, want to know how he got off the plane, and the whereabouts of the Jigsaw Man. Queue Kite’s confusion—do they want the man or the script inspired by the man?—in the face of these humorless, stone-faced manifestations of bureaucracy.
Kite’s predicament forces us to ask: what might it be like to find oneself dressed in an orange jumpsuit, shackled to the floor behind a chain-link fence in Guantanamo Bay? Kite knows about as much of his circumstances as many of the Afghanis swept off the battlefield after 9/11knew the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden or his plans for future attacks. Kite’s circumstances universalize their plight: Kite doesn’t know what happened to the plane; the reader knows Kite doesn’t know; and we can’t help but feel the helplessness of men trapped in a situation over which they have no control and no hope of escape. If this could happen to ho-hum Kite, Starbucks manager by day, failed writer by night, it could happen to any of us.
Lindsay is smarter than to make this a book about 9/11 and the ignorant cruelty of governments in fervent pursuit of “truth” in the name of “security”. Like “war”, this pursuit’s been with us since before the Inquisition, and I can’t help but recall Slaughterhouse-Five: “Do you know what I say to people when I hear they’re writing anti-war books?… I say, ‘Why don’t you write an anti-glacier book instead?’”
Lindsay’s surreal world isn’t the kind of thing I normally enjoy in fiction. Reality can be strange enough without speculating on the implausible: a psychic leap off a crashing plane; a second self residing in time six months behind the original self, whose life continues apace. But Lindsay manages to make his speculations work, even this: human manifestations of the greatest works of art (and pop culture!) resulting in, for example, four versions of the man who may or may not be the fifth Beatle. Yes, in the hands of most writers this set-up would be a recipe for really bad television about zombies. But Lindsay takes this concept and applies it, as I suggest at the outset, to the most ordinary, workaday life of one ordinary, workaday daddy stuck in the present while feeling guilty over unfinished business with Jones, a lover from deep in his past.
The book works because Kite and Jones, No-Name and Crosskill—even the elusive Jigsaw Man—are imbued with the necessary humanity. Prepare to fall in love again with the Beatles, and to learn which one was the coolest. Prepare for great irony: Paul is dead? Sure, you’re thinking, I know. I saw him die at the Olympic opening ceremony. However, the man who made us all suffer through “hey Jude” that warm London night in July, was not the man who exploded onto the music scene with the Beatles in the early 1960s. Prepare, most of all, for a nightmare that’s all the more frightening because it’s real.
More reviews at www.benonbooks.wordpress.com
That should resonate with anyone who’s sent their manuscripts off to editors, only to have the pages disappear without a trace. For Kite, however, the revival of his script—“exactly the type of straight-to-TV, martial arts bunfight that would be turned into a Steven Segal movie and shown in the late hours on Channel 5”, as he describes it—is received with disbelief and doubt rather than hope or joy. It can’t be real. As his wife Brin says: “It’s from Hollywood. Of course it’s fake.”
And so much of what follows can’t be real, either. Kite vanishes from a plane bound for Hollywood. The narrative next has him trapped in a dull grey cell inside a secretive American institution. He has no recollection or understanding of how he got there, let alone where there is. All he knows is that two humorless American agents, Crosskill and No-Name, want to know how he got off the plane, and the whereabouts of the Jigsaw Man. Queue Kite’s confusion—do they want the man or the script inspired by the man?—in the face of these humorless, stone-faced manifestations of bureaucracy.
Kite’s predicament forces us to ask: what might it be like to find oneself dressed in an orange jumpsuit, shackled to the floor behind a chain-link fence in Guantanamo Bay? Kite knows about as much of his circumstances as many of the Afghanis swept off the battlefield after 9/11knew the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden or his plans for future attacks. Kite’s circumstances universalize their plight: Kite doesn’t know what happened to the plane; the reader knows Kite doesn’t know; and we can’t help but feel the helplessness of men trapped in a situation over which they have no control and no hope of escape. If this could happen to ho-hum Kite, Starbucks manager by day, failed writer by night, it could happen to any of us.
Lindsay is smarter than to make this a book about 9/11 and the ignorant cruelty of governments in fervent pursuit of “truth” in the name of “security”. Like “war”, this pursuit’s been with us since before the Inquisition, and I can’t help but recall Slaughterhouse-Five: “Do you know what I say to people when I hear they’re writing anti-war books?… I say, ‘Why don’t you write an anti-glacier book instead?’”
Lindsay’s surreal world isn’t the kind of thing I normally enjoy in fiction. Reality can be strange enough without speculating on the implausible: a psychic leap off a crashing plane; a second self residing in time six months behind the original self, whose life continues apace. But Lindsay manages to make his speculations work, even this: human manifestations of the greatest works of art (and pop culture!) resulting in, for example, four versions of the man who may or may not be the fifth Beatle. Yes, in the hands of most writers this set-up would be a recipe for really bad television about zombies. But Lindsay takes this concept and applies it, as I suggest at the outset, to the most ordinary, workaday life of one ordinary, workaday daddy stuck in the present while feeling guilty over unfinished business with Jones, a lover from deep in his past.
The book works because Kite and Jones, No-Name and Crosskill—even the elusive Jigsaw Man—are imbued with the necessary humanity. Prepare to fall in love again with the Beatles, and to learn which one was the coolest. Prepare for great irony: Paul is dead? Sure, you’re thinking, I know. I saw him die at the Olympic opening ceremony. However, the man who made us all suffer through “hey Jude” that warm London night in July, was not the man who exploded onto the music scene with the Beatles in the early 1960s. Prepare, most of all, for a nightmare that’s all the more frightening because it’s real.
More reviews at www.benonbooks.wordpress.com
June 25, 2014
Douglas Lindsay is well known for his humorous accidental barber shop serial killer series featuring the likable Barney Thomson. In his latest novel Lindsay delves deep into the surreal while also providing a little something for Beatles fans.
The main character, James Kite, manager of a local Starbucks coffee shop gets a shock when he is called out of the blue by someone from the US wanting to ship his movie script The Jigsaw Man around with hopes of attracting top Hollywood talent to star in the filming. Initially based on a real life jigsaw man (a coffee shop patron/owner at an old haunt, The Stand Alone, who sat and pieced together jigsaw puzzles day in day out - Kite does admit the script leaves a lot to be desired) the script long thought dead and buried all of a sudden has some life in it.
When Kite's plane crashes leaving no survivors he awakes to a couple of hard and disturbing realities; one in an integration room being questioned by two hardened agents, the other in his 'happy place' a holiday getaway frequented by his family when on vacation.
At this juncture I was really enjoying the book then it became all about the Beatles and conspiracy theories about the fifth member, the likeness of Kite's name and that of his previous inner circle of friends and their connection to the artwork that spawned the creative process for a Beatles song, along with the elusive and multi being Jigsaw man (that aspect was actually a real positive - I really liked where Lindsay took this character). Not to say the book lost me at this point but it didn't interest me as much as the earlier set-up. Perhaps had I been a bigger fan of the Beatles I might've taken to it more, but my expectations were not quite met based upon the utterly captivating opening.
First reviewed on my blog: http://justaguythatlikes2read.blogspo...
The main character, James Kite, manager of a local Starbucks coffee shop gets a shock when he is called out of the blue by someone from the US wanting to ship his movie script The Jigsaw Man around with hopes of attracting top Hollywood talent to star in the filming. Initially based on a real life jigsaw man (a coffee shop patron/owner at an old haunt, The Stand Alone, who sat and pieced together jigsaw puzzles day in day out - Kite does admit the script leaves a lot to be desired) the script long thought dead and buried all of a sudden has some life in it.
When Kite's plane crashes leaving no survivors he awakes to a couple of hard and disturbing realities; one in an integration room being questioned by two hardened agents, the other in his 'happy place' a holiday getaway frequented by his family when on vacation.
At this juncture I was really enjoying the book then it became all about the Beatles and conspiracy theories about the fifth member, the likeness of Kite's name and that of his previous inner circle of friends and their connection to the artwork that spawned the creative process for a Beatles song, along with the elusive and multi being Jigsaw man (that aspect was actually a real positive - I really liked where Lindsay took this character). Not to say the book lost me at this point but it didn't interest me as much as the earlier set-up. Perhaps had I been a bigger fan of the Beatles I might've taken to it more, but my expectations were not quite met based upon the utterly captivating opening.
First reviewed on my blog: http://justaguythatlikes2read.blogspo...
November 5, 2014
Thoroughly enjoyed this bizarre, quirky little story, of a man being sent on a mission involving parallel universes, and duplicate people. The Beatles references made it all the more enjoyable and intriguing.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews