The Making of Mickey Bell

by Kellan MacInnes

September 2014. Two pivotal weeks in the life of Mickey HIV, on the dole, living in the high flats in Drumkirk. Mickey's got a secret – he's been climbing Scotland's highest mountains – the Munros. When Mickey's psychotic-ex Jonnie grasses him to the benefit fraud hotline, Mickey runs away. Accompanied by Tyke a wee collie dug and pursued by an investigator from the Department for Social Security, Mickey sets out to climb his last Munro. With the background a celebration of the beauty of the Scottish highlands, Mickey's personal journey from a life on benefits to a brighter future mirrors Scotland's journey towards independence.

417 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 15, 2016

Reviews

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did read a great deal of this book at the time it came out. The problem was at the time I was out of work, dealing with all aspects of the UK social system that provides support to short or long term unemployed. I was also volunteering at a UK HIV charity and I was not comfortable with the authors presentation of those living with HIV/AIDS. But maybe I was just having a bad week. As a result I have it back on my TBR list. Three stars is my default rating when I won't confidently praise a book but am not willing to condemn it.

[Shaun Lake · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely excellent book - everybody should read it - brings hope from dispair - loved it and Mickey is a likeable character

[Kendra]

"Mickey stubs out his roll-up and lies on his back watching the clouds drift across the sky over Slioch. On the iPod the faint rough voice of Rufus Wainwright singing Across the Universe."

Mickey Bell is an HIV-positive, 35-year-old, single, gay man living on benefits in Drumkirk–a fictional suburb of Glasgow–with his wee collie dug, Tyke. With nothing else to do and no one to care, they set out on the adventure of a lifetime: to climb all 282 Munros. Only there’s one small problem—the DSS is hot on their trail trying to prove that Mickey is no longer deserving of his disability living allowance.

While Mickey is sick, he’s not quite as sick as his overzealous but well-meaning benefits worker made out on his form. Since Mickey accidentally let slip to his psychotic ex-boyfriend Jonny that he’s been climbing the Munros, Jonny’s vengefully grassed on him. When the head office of the DSS gets wind of it, they decide to make an example of Mickey. But collecting evidence of Mickey’s supposed benefit fraud requires sending one of their top officers on a mission to the Highlands, to personally tail Mickey as he climbs the Munros—a challenge with hilarious consequences.

Largely successful in the telling, Mickey’s journey from out of work Glaswegian to accomplished Munroist is reminiscent of the American Beat stories about life on the road, were that road trip to instead take place across the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. If I have a criticism of the work it is that, at times, the storyline feels slightly disjointed. But then, the daring experimentalism of the narrative counters this and gives the book its unique flavour. MacInnes navigates the steep terrain of both the Munros and of modern day perceptions of what Scotland is and what it should be.

[Anne Goodwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’d be doing the author a disservice to say it’s the best novel I’ve ever read about mountains, disability benefits and living with HIV; if I’ve read another fictionalisation of such an apparently unlikely combination, it’s long forgotten. But The Making of Mickey Bell is much more than that: a lively, quirky homage to the rugged Scottish countryside, a heartwarming and sometimes humorous celebration of the human spirit against a backdrop of recent British politics.
Full review
Amid the splendid scenery of the Monros http://annegoodwin.weebly.com/1/post/...