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Under Control
Gary and his girlfriend Charlie are struggling to keep their lives on track in an imperfect world. When the money runs out or the drugs don’t work, love is not always enough. Nigel appears like a guardian angel, offering the chance to improve their fortunes, but as best intentions meet compulsive desires a dark love triangle emerges, one which will transform the fates of these three very different people for good. Under Control is an irresistibly dark modern drama, a stunningly ambitious and impressive follow-up to McNay’s award-winning debut, Fresh.
321 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 1, 2008
16 people want to read
About the author
Mark McNay
3 books5 followersMark McNay was born in 1965 and brought up in a mining village in central Scotland. After a failed electrical engineering course and fifteen years doing odd jobs Mark joined the UEA creative writing course in 1999. He graduated in 2003 with distinction.
In 2007 he won the Arts Foundation prize for New Fiction for Fresh, and recently won the 2007 Saltire First Book Award.
In 2007 he won the Arts Foundation prize for New Fiction for Fresh, and recently won the 2007 Saltire First Book Award.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
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February 21, 2018I didn't no couldn't finish it. There was nothing enjoyable about the beginning at all
May 23, 2013
A realistic, sometimes graphic read, but I felt it ended too soon. I was left wanting more resolution.
February 10, 2023
Es uno de esos libros que dejé de leer mil veces , pero al final siempre retomé la lectura para darle un cierre a la historia. Tiene partes medio bizarras y me pareció aburrido por partes. Lo acabo de terminar y siento que quedó en la nada, no cierra la historia 🫥
August 10, 2025
This book may not be very interesting to some. But from the view of an addict it’s very realistic and hits close to home. Some parts can be a little graphic.I really enjoyed this book.
August 9, 2012
"Under Control" took a while to get in to. At first it seems like a disjointed series of mini-stories about people who all have very plain, forgettable names and are living plain, forgettable lives. I considered giving up.
Then, although they are never given much description at all (Charlie: nice bum and pretty, Nigel: big nose and receding chin, Gary: Big.) you begin to care about the main characters. Nigel seems mild-mannered and caring, always trying to help. Charlie is a victim to her violent history, a prostitute from necessity to buy drugs for her and her maniac boyfriend Gary who has a mental illness. A mysterious character called Galileo is introduced too, and although I realised the symbolism and understood the point of having him, I didn't really enjoy those parts and skimmed over them due to them not really adding much to the story. They seemed to be a way to add slight meaning to one of the characters but mainly to add more to McNay's word count.
The story works well because of it's believability, the conversations about the weather and the constant offers of cups of tea. The characters are fleshed out and you really aren't sure whether to hate them or love them and your feelings fluctuate for the flawed characters. All your preconceptions about them are turned on their head in surprising and entertaining ways. The writing style is choppy, plain, not flowery or poetic and for this story it works.
However the ending is very anti-climatic. In my head I pictured a different ending. The final quarter of the book builds up and builds up, to the point where you just know something bad or dramatic is going to happen... and then nothing. If the ending had been better I would have really enjoyed this haunting and thought-provoking book. As it stands, I was left disappointed and I probably won't read it again to go with them through their personal journeys of trying to gain control over the other characters just for a wet and cop-out ending. I hope he didn't sacrifice a better ending just for the possibility of a sequel.
Then, although they are never given much description at all (Charlie: nice bum and pretty, Nigel: big nose and receding chin, Gary: Big.) you begin to care about the main characters. Nigel seems mild-mannered and caring, always trying to help. Charlie is a victim to her violent history, a prostitute from necessity to buy drugs for her and her maniac boyfriend Gary who has a mental illness. A mysterious character called Galileo is introduced too, and although I realised the symbolism and understood the point of having him, I didn't really enjoy those parts and skimmed over them due to them not really adding much to the story. They seemed to be a way to add slight meaning to one of the characters but mainly to add more to McNay's word count.
The story works well because of it's believability, the conversations about the weather and the constant offers of cups of tea. The characters are fleshed out and you really aren't sure whether to hate them or love them and your feelings fluctuate for the flawed characters. All your preconceptions about them are turned on their head in surprising and entertaining ways. The writing style is choppy, plain, not flowery or poetic and for this story it works.
However the ending is very anti-climatic. In my head I pictured a different ending. The final quarter of the book builds up and builds up, to the point where you just know something bad or dramatic is going to happen... and then nothing. If the ending had been better I would have really enjoyed this haunting and thought-provoking book. As it stands, I was left disappointed and I probably won't read it again to go with them through their personal journeys of trying to gain control over the other characters just for a wet and cop-out ending. I hope he didn't sacrifice a better ending just for the possibility of a sequel.
February 18, 2012
Gary is a mental case and Charlie , a prostitute . They are both heroin addicts . Gary has a strange case of paranoia that makes him hear a voice he calls Galileo . It is the voice of violence and hate . There is one cuss word that I dislike more than anything and that is the word 'cunt' . He uses it a lot but so does Charlie.
Charlie fuels her heroin addiction by prostitution . She loves Gary but I got the impression that Charlie wasn't exempt from Gary killing her when he was influenced by Galileo , his sickness.
However, the story ended on a positive note . She went into a detox clinic and Gary was locked up in a mental hospital and she came to visit him . It had an err of doom to it though since people tend to repeat their errors and the protagonist , Nigel, even quoted Einstein saying "the definition of insanity was repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results".
In this case I think we can assume they would both go back to being junkies again .
Nigel was a social worker who was into helping drug addicts stay clean and off the streets but he lost his job . I suspect he was partly responsible for Chris' accidental death . Gary warned Nigel NOT to turn on the lights because it was hooked up to his stupid Human Psyche invention .
Charlie fuels her heroin addiction by prostitution . She loves Gary but I got the impression that Charlie wasn't exempt from Gary killing her when he was influenced by Galileo , his sickness.
However, the story ended on a positive note . She went into a detox clinic and Gary was locked up in a mental hospital and she came to visit him . It had an err of doom to it though since people tend to repeat their errors and the protagonist , Nigel, even quoted Einstein saying "the definition of insanity was repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results".
In this case I think we can assume they would both go back to being junkies again .
Nigel was a social worker who was into helping drug addicts stay clean and off the streets but he lost his job . I suspect he was partly responsible for Chris' accidental death . Gary warned Nigel NOT to turn on the lights because it was hooked up to his stupid Human Psyche invention .
May 15, 2020
This novel explores how three characters try to exert and gain control over one another and their environments.
Gary is a recently released psychiatric patient. Neil is Gary's social worker. Charlie is Gary's girlfriend. Neil is attracted to Charlie. Neil takes that attraction further.
Gary has persuaded who he needs to that his idea of reality is aligned with the quotidian. It really isn't. Neil persuades almost everyone that he is a hapless, harried social worker. He is and isn't, enjoying the control his job gives him over the lives of others. Charlie seems like a girl who needs rescuing, but is more-self aware than she lets on.
It all gets pretty gross, pretty fast. As Gary reveals his sadistic sexual side, we are up close and personal with Charlie's sex work and Neil is disappointing in a banal 'my wife doesn't understand me', which is worse because Neil is actually quite smart, knows he is acting out a tired trope but does it anyway.
There are the tertiary characters who are used up and cast out. I'm thinking of poor Itchy Chris here.
Well-structured and written but an uncomfortable read.
Gary is a recently released psychiatric patient. Neil is Gary's social worker. Charlie is Gary's girlfriend. Neil is attracted to Charlie. Neil takes that attraction further.
Gary has persuaded who he needs to that his idea of reality is aligned with the quotidian. It really isn't. Neil persuades almost everyone that he is a hapless, harried social worker. He is and isn't, enjoying the control his job gives him over the lives of others. Charlie seems like a girl who needs rescuing, but is more-self aware than she lets on.
It all gets pretty gross, pretty fast. As Gary reveals his sadistic sexual side, we are up close and personal with Charlie's sex work and Neil is disappointing in a banal 'my wife doesn't understand me', which is worse because Neil is actually quite smart, knows he is acting out a tired trope but does it anyway.
There are the tertiary characters who are used up and cast out. I'm thinking of poor Itchy Chris here.
Well-structured and written but an uncomfortable read.
July 16, 2008
An interesting follow-up to last year's Fresh. This may have a wider appeal because the author's moved the action away from Glasgow. Personally I would rather he had stuck to the same lingo because I was familiar with it and he did it well but then I'm from Glasgow.
The story concerns a small group of addicts and their support worker. It's set in Norfolk but it really could be set anywhere in the UK.
It's not however a straightforward telling of who did what and to whom. The main protagonist gets to narrate his own parts of the story whereas everyone else has to settle for third person. That took me a wee while to get used to but it works. And then there's this French Legionnaire who seems to have nothing to do with anything. He's what kept me reading because I just had to know how McNay was going to weave him into the story which he does and cleverly too.
You can read a full review on my website.
The story concerns a small group of addicts and their support worker. It's set in Norfolk but it really could be set anywhere in the UK.
It's not however a straightforward telling of who did what and to whom. The main protagonist gets to narrate his own parts of the story whereas everyone else has to settle for third person. That took me a wee while to get used to but it works. And then there's this French Legionnaire who seems to have nothing to do with anything. He's what kept me reading because I just had to know how McNay was going to weave him into the story which he does and cleverly too.
You can read a full review on my website.
July 7, 2010
It took me a while to get into this book, just over a hundred pages in a finally got into the book and started to enjoy it more. It's a good book as long as you are looking for something different to read. The story really was not what I expected it to be, but I enjoyed it anyway.
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April 4, 2008US: Khristina Wenzinger
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews