Green Glowing Skull

by Gavin Corbett

After fleeing his dying parents and the drudgery of work in Dublin for the Manhattan of his imagination – a place of romance and opulence, dark old concert halls and mellow front parlours quieted by the hiss of the phonograph cylinder – Rickard Velily hopes to be reborn as an Irish tenor, and to one day be reunited with the love of his life.

At the very peculiar Cha Bum Kun Club, a masonic-style refuge for immigrants who can’t quite cut it in New York City, he meets Denny Kennedy-Logan and Clive Sullis, and a plan is enacted: to revive the art songs and ballads of another time for a hip young city in thrall to technology and money.

But that is without reckoning on meddlesome sprites, the phantoms of the past – and more malign forces who plot to subjugate the human race.

Gavin Corbett's new novel Green Glowing Skull is a half-crazed brain-shunt of a trip around the dream world, the spirit world, the cyber world and a woozily recognisable real world. A darkly comic tale of mythologies, machines and the metaphysical swirl, it’s a decent third effort from Corbett that, with a fair wind and a bit of mercy shown towards it, and all other things being equal, will pick up some good reviews and find some kindly readers. Sure, all you can do is hope.

Genres: Irish Literature, Fantasy, Fiction

384 pages, Hardcover

First published May 5, 2015

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

First things first, I think John Self's review for Irish Times captures my own reaction to Green Glowing Skull pretty closely, and certainly more articulately and thoroughly than I'll be able to do here. So maybe read that instead?

One of my favorite things in a novel is have no idea where the story is headed, or what the story is, or how things connect, but to make that work there needs to be a sense of momentum and energy to pull me along. That's just what this book has: it's full of threads that connect vaguely if at all, from Irish tenors to an Apple-like tech giant, to fairies. By the end they all feel related somehow, and the novel feels whole and very satisfying, and yet... I couldn't for the life of me tell you quite why. That is definitely not a complaint. It's funny—very much so at times—but also moody and atmospheric in a way that reminds me of John Crowley's Little, Big, and not just because both novels feature a New York City that is similar to the one we know but overlaid (or underlaid) with another New York that is built from the dreams and fantasies of people who go there, leave there, or get caught in between. In this case, with Green Glowing Skull, those are the dreams of Irish-expats and projecting their fantasies onto New York and back onto Ireland at the same time, ending up in a kind of strange, funny, deeply engaging world that is both and neither at once.

[Richard Thompson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book didn't really work for me. I was hoping for more. I liked the contrast between the magical world of a mythical Ireland that never really existed and the modern world of technology and hard facts, a contrast that the end of the book suggests may not really exist after all. The characters were good, the themes were good, the writing wavered between good and very good, so what was there not to like? I just didn't buy the way that Corbett wove the surrealistic elements onto the story. The shifts into the the surrealistic scenes felt jarring to me and the scenes themselves were disorganized messes. I like weirdness in a book more than most people, but the weirdness has to be cut from the same cloth as the rest of the story, so that it can fit together seamlessly and transport the reader into the weird world with his suspension of disbelief intact. The surreal scenes worked on one level as metaphors for the characters mental states, but I felt that they didn't hold up consistently as metaphor and too often slipped into unmotivated weirdness for its own sake.

[Tim Rothfuss · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some interesting imagery and ideas (and even some humor), but it just felt "weird for weird's sake" filled with interesting and sympathetic characters that just seemed to be there to be abused by the events that transpire. It also seems that the book doesn't really end as much as peter out, like the author got bored and wanted to just wrap things up. I'd almost say that you might like this if you like, say, Mark Helprin (who I'm not a real fan of either, so take that for what it's worth), but I don't want to build up anyone's expectations. Just kind of disappointing.

[Kay Padgham · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn't finish. First couple of chapters were amusing but then it didn't really go anywhere.

[Shawn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Saw this recommended by a couple authors in year end best of lists. (Obviously, they were friends who owed him favours.) Had read his last book and enjoyed the interesting use of language. Ordered a copy from the UK & it arrived in time for this weekend. There is a sort of style of sleight humourous novel aimed at male readers that gets published in the UK of which this is definitely a type. It makes for a nice light weekend read but unfortunately doesn't have much substance. This book has some humourous moments and one line that made me laugh out loud, but it is a bit of a mess. The plot is all over the place and does not hold together cohesively. Once upon a time publishers provided authors with editors, something this book desperately needed. I actually wondered as I read whether anyone at the publisher read the whole manuscript?

[Janell · Rating 3 out of 5]

very well-written and exhibits a lot of literary talent on the author's part. very clearly informed by plenty of Irish literature, and has a subtle, drier sense of humour to it. be prepared to, at times, just go with the flow and enjoy the writing (I wouldn't engage if you prefer a traditional narrative structure).

I felt like I had done a mental exercise when I finished it; that said, I enjoy it the more that I think on it. definitely all discussing the complexities of emigration, the idealisation of golden Ireland, and the shallow concept of the American dream.

it does have a very masculine voice and revolves around two men and a trans man, for those who are curious.