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Theft
What I did to them was terrible, but you have to understand the context. This was London, 2016 . . .
Bohemia is history. Paul has awoken to the fact that he will always be better known for reviewing haircuts than for his literary journalism. He is about to be kicked out of his cheap flat in east London and his sister has gone missing after an argument about what to do with the house where they grew up. Now that their mother is dead this is the last link they have to the declining town on the north-west coast where they grew up.
Enter Emily Nardini, a cult author, who – after granting Paul a rare interview – receives him into her surprisingly grand home. Paul is immediately intrigued: by Emily and her fictions, by her vexingly famous and successful partner Andrew (too old for her by half), and later by Andrew’s daughter Sophie, a journalist whose sexed-up vision of the revolution has gone viral. Increasingly obsessed, relationships under strain, Paul travels up and down, north and south, torn between the town he thought he had escaped and the city that threatens to chew him up.
With heart, bite and humour, Luke Brown leads the reader beyond easy partisanship and into much trickier terrain. Straddling the fissures within a man and his country, riven by envy, wealth, ownership, entitlement, and loss, Theft is an exhilarating howl of a novel.
320 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 4, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews
June 24, 2021
A story set solidly in 21st century London, a book from a privileged world view and existence, but a book that deeply resonated with me as an urban dweller. Hipster and Lads' pop culture magazine literary writer, who also does a monthly feature on great (women) hairdos, 33 year-old Paul Wright, flat shares in an unofficial residence (without its own entrance or postcode!) located above a shop; originally from a fishing town in Lancashire; he's recently lost his mother; he dabbles in booze, drugs and women, and considers himself a 'good guy'? But, is he?
Paul Wright is sitting in therapy recounting London 2016, trying to rationalise the part he played in the lives of the people he spent time with in that year. This book is entirely Wright recounting 2016, and the therapy sessions, in the first person. What makes it such a good read for me, is that as Paul is the storyteller, I am only subject to what Paul shares - an unreliable narrator to the nth level! It makes an absorbing read, it is also at times darkly comedic with quite a few larger than life characters, but then again, that's what we're told by Paul.
So... in a few words.. a biased narrator, some dark deeds, many half truths, Brexit, publishing, the 21st century war of the sexes, growing up (or not), the nature of how we see our own reality and possibly first and foremost, how far would we go to get what we want? A book about people's similarities, as much as about the gulfs between them. Another thing I really like about this book, is that a hard-copy book is the perfect media for it, I don't think it would work in film, or a as a play. :) 8 out of 12.
Yep, read it in under 2 days as well :)
Paul Wright is sitting in therapy recounting London 2016, trying to rationalise the part he played in the lives of the people he spent time with in that year. This book is entirely Wright recounting 2016, and the therapy sessions, in the first person. What makes it such a good read for me, is that as Paul is the storyteller, I am only subject to what Paul shares - an unreliable narrator to the nth level! It makes an absorbing read, it is also at times darkly comedic with quite a few larger than life characters, but then again, that's what we're told by Paul.
So... in a few words.. a biased narrator, some dark deeds, many half truths, Brexit, publishing, the 21st century war of the sexes, growing up (or not), the nature of how we see our own reality and possibly first and foremost, how far would we go to get what we want? A book about people's similarities, as much as about the gulfs between them. Another thing I really like about this book, is that a hard-copy book is the perfect media for it, I don't think it would work in film, or a as a play. :) 8 out of 12.
Yep, read it in under 2 days as well :)
April 29, 2022
Thank you Netgalley and Saga Egmont Audio of the audiobook ARC.
This book covered a wide range of topics. Although I felt like some fell short. It did bring a lot of truths to the table, and you could feel yourself trying to connect. I kept trying to figure out what type of book it actually is with the broadness of everything.
The storyline was good and the Narrator was excellent.
This book covered a wide range of topics. Although I felt like some fell short. It did bring a lot of truths to the table, and you could feel yourself trying to connect. I kept trying to figure out what type of book it actually is with the broadness of everything.
The storyline was good and the Narrator was excellent.
December 21, 2019
I liked this far more towards the end, but it is largely insufferable.
I think that's partly because I'm not the target audience, although I suspect everyone promoting this thinks the target audience is absolutely everybody. It's the kind of book that will get touted as a wonderful general literary novel, speaking subtle and clever universal truths that apply to all of us in this mess we call life. In actuality, its a book about and for white, straight, men, who are old enough to fear they are becoming irrelevant but younger than the men they know are irrelevant and see themselves becoming; the perfect London liberal that thinks everyone else is terribly silly by not being a centrist and jaded and frivolously serious as they are; men who are having their quarter-life crisis, worried they have wasted their youth, knowing they are no longer cool, feeling left behind and lost despite being just as good as everyone else, and with a great inferiority complex about their superiority complex.
Which is all well and good, and it isn't a badly done example of this, but it's quite niche; and when you try to use a book like that to work in some terribly clever moral points that subtly contrast with the bombastic uncertain dickishness of your pessimistically moral protagonist, you need those points to either be beautifully shown, masterfully brilliant or somewhat original, all of which is sorely lacking here. I also think the protagonist's drawn out crisis of "am I a massive wanker or a scared little boy" is so overdone that unless its pretty well written its just not interesting, at least not for me.
There were a couple of lines that I really loved - unfortunately these were very London specific, as the couple of times the author really nailed that were by far the highlights of the book. Talking about the dangerous friendliness of Londoners was somewhat original, or at least against stereotypes (while the rest of the book read like a roster of half-baked stereotypes forced into a story) and elegantly phrased.
The genius exploration of the British divide touted on the proof cover never materialised, and didn't even seem attempted, and I suspect that was a publicist trying to cash in on Brexit and doing a passable novel about an almost interesting man a massive disservice in the process. Even the actual mentions of Brexit in the book seemed a bit half-heartedly thrown in. Luckily I've had it up to my back teeth with fucking Brexit and sanctimonious pricks trying to tell us about all the nice little divides that caused it, so that actually suited me just fine.
Overall, not for me. I reckon there's a handful of nice loud people who will probably love it and think all the recycled talking points that were already done to death 3 years ago when this was set are terribly clever and wonderful. I look forward to avoiding the reviews, which I suspect will be equally insufferable, or will universally trash it while completely missing the actual reasons it's a dull read. ... maybe I should find some better literary critics to follow.
I think that's partly because I'm not the target audience, although I suspect everyone promoting this thinks the target audience is absolutely everybody. It's the kind of book that will get touted as a wonderful general literary novel, speaking subtle and clever universal truths that apply to all of us in this mess we call life. In actuality, its a book about and for white, straight, men, who are old enough to fear they are becoming irrelevant but younger than the men they know are irrelevant and see themselves becoming; the perfect London liberal that thinks everyone else is terribly silly by not being a centrist and jaded and frivolously serious as they are; men who are having their quarter-life crisis, worried they have wasted their youth, knowing they are no longer cool, feeling left behind and lost despite being just as good as everyone else, and with a great inferiority complex about their superiority complex.
Which is all well and good, and it isn't a badly done example of this, but it's quite niche; and when you try to use a book like that to work in some terribly clever moral points that subtly contrast with the bombastic uncertain dickishness of your pessimistically moral protagonist, you need those points to either be beautifully shown, masterfully brilliant or somewhat original, all of which is sorely lacking here. I also think the protagonist's drawn out crisis of "am I a massive wanker or a scared little boy" is so overdone that unless its pretty well written its just not interesting, at least not for me.
There were a couple of lines that I really loved - unfortunately these were very London specific, as the couple of times the author really nailed that were by far the highlights of the book. Talking about the dangerous friendliness of Londoners was somewhat original, or at least against stereotypes (while the rest of the book read like a roster of half-baked stereotypes forced into a story) and elegantly phrased.
The genius exploration of the British divide touted on the proof cover never materialised, and didn't even seem attempted, and I suspect that was a publicist trying to cash in on Brexit and doing a passable novel about an almost interesting man a massive disservice in the process. Even the actual mentions of Brexit in the book seemed a bit half-heartedly thrown in. Luckily I've had it up to my back teeth with fucking Brexit and sanctimonious pricks trying to tell us about all the nice little divides that caused it, so that actually suited me just fine.
Overall, not for me. I reckon there's a handful of nice loud people who will probably love it and think all the recycled talking points that were already done to death 3 years ago when this was set are terribly clever and wonderful. I look forward to avoiding the reviews, which I suspect will be equally insufferable, or will universally trash it while completely missing the actual reasons it's a dull read. ... maybe I should find some better literary critics to follow.
December 17, 2019
”What I did to them was terrible, but you have to understand the context. This was London 2016.”
These are the opening sentences of this book, so you know from the off that you are going to hear a story that leads up to someone doing something “terrible”. You can also be forgiven for thinking that the “London 2016” comment indicates a political novel of some kind. (I very much doubt anyone has forgotten this, but there was a certain referendum in the UK in 2016, so you can’t really mention that date without everyone’s mind turning to that referendum and its subsequent fallout).
So, it comes as a bit of a surprise to reach the end of the book and discover that all you have learned about Brexit is that London voted to remain and the North voted to leave which means there is a divide between the two. That much was obvious 3 years ago and a lot has happened since then which makes the few political comments in the book feel rather dated.
And the “terrible thing” is indeed very unfriendly and probably damaging, but a long way from life threatening, so it ends up feeling a bit of an anti-climax.
That said, it’s not a bad book. But it isn’t one I could get at all excited about as I read it. Our protagonist is Paul who is dealing with the death of his mother and the sale of her house with the assistance of his sister with whom he has a tricky relationship. Then he meets author Emily and her much older, and richer, boyfriend, Andrew. Gradually other characters join the supporting cast and get to know one another. For a while, I thought I was back reading Jonathan Coe’s “Middle England” again as a group of friends and acquaintances live out their lives and relationships surrounded by Brexit. But the political environment here is far less developed and feels almost tacked on most of the time it comes up. The focus is definitely on Paul and his journey - what will happen as he gets to know Emily, or as he meets Andrew’s daughter Sophie? What will drive him to do this “terrible thing” and to whom will he do it?
The trouble is that the answers to these questions are all fairly obvious (although, clearly, I am not going to say anything specific).
Maybe if I lived in London I would find myself identifying more with the characters and their environment. I’ll watch to see what any Londoners who read this have to say. Maybe if I were the age of my children I would identify more with the main protagonist? But if you are reading a book thinking you need to be a thirty-something man living in London, preferably three years ago, in order to get it, then it probably isn’t the book for you.
Three stars on the basis that I never felt like giving up on it but also never felt any excitement about picking it up to read some more.
These are the opening sentences of this book, so you know from the off that you are going to hear a story that leads up to someone doing something “terrible”. You can also be forgiven for thinking that the “London 2016” comment indicates a political novel of some kind. (I very much doubt anyone has forgotten this, but there was a certain referendum in the UK in 2016, so you can’t really mention that date without everyone’s mind turning to that referendum and its subsequent fallout).
So, it comes as a bit of a surprise to reach the end of the book and discover that all you have learned about Brexit is that London voted to remain and the North voted to leave which means there is a divide between the two. That much was obvious 3 years ago and a lot has happened since then which makes the few political comments in the book feel rather dated.
And the “terrible thing” is indeed very unfriendly and probably damaging, but a long way from life threatening, so it ends up feeling a bit of an anti-climax.
That said, it’s not a bad book. But it isn’t one I could get at all excited about as I read it. Our protagonist is Paul who is dealing with the death of his mother and the sale of her house with the assistance of his sister with whom he has a tricky relationship. Then he meets author Emily and her much older, and richer, boyfriend, Andrew. Gradually other characters join the supporting cast and get to know one another. For a while, I thought I was back reading Jonathan Coe’s “Middle England” again as a group of friends and acquaintances live out their lives and relationships surrounded by Brexit. But the political environment here is far less developed and feels almost tacked on most of the time it comes up. The focus is definitely on Paul and his journey - what will happen as he gets to know Emily, or as he meets Andrew’s daughter Sophie? What will drive him to do this “terrible thing” and to whom will he do it?
The trouble is that the answers to these questions are all fairly obvious (although, clearly, I am not going to say anything specific).
Maybe if I lived in London I would find myself identifying more with the characters and their environment. I’ll watch to see what any Londoners who read this have to say. Maybe if I were the age of my children I would identify more with the main protagonist? But if you are reading a book thinking you need to be a thirty-something man living in London, preferably three years ago, in order to get it, then it probably isn’t the book for you.
Three stars on the basis that I never felt like giving up on it but also never felt any excitement about picking it up to read some more.
March 5, 2020
This is a novel about how we navigate the outer reaches of sexual politics and loss. It moves from paragraph to paragraph between old-fashioned charm and cynicism. It's full of dialogue and once you park the suspicion that its calamitously human characters are wittier than they should be, you can settle into one of the most purely enjoyable novels you are likely to read...
March 18, 2020
Luke is a mate (in my writers' group until he moved to London), and this his second novel. It's excellent, an examination of the different tribes in London and beyond, the younger precariat (in the literary milieu), jealous of their more established elders who have their own flats and steady work and commissions, and this is contrasted with the lives of the people from the northern fishing town on the exposed north west coast where the protagonist, Paul, comes from. The year is 2016 and everything is dominated by Brexit, and Paul finds himself arguing on behalf of the Brexiteers at times, left behind and despised by those around him, the so called 'metropolitan elite'. He comes to no conclusions. Against this background Paul has to navigate his confused love life and job (he works in a bookshop and for a magazine, White Jesus, as a book and haircut reviewer: however the book reviews are less important and about to be replaced by legal highs reviews), and his mother's recent death and the fraught relationship he has with his sister. Full of spectacular set pieces, this is a punchy, witty and sad tale that is great fun to read and will leave you pondering both on Paul's fate and where this current messy, divided country is headed.
June 26, 2022
ARC audiobook provided in exchange for an honest review.
Wow! I really enjoyed this book and the narrator, Luke Francis, was brilliant! The story took me by surprise at many times, which I absolutely love not knowing where things are leading. The drama between Paul and his missing sister spirals right into Emily, Andrew, and his daughter Sophie falling right into each others lives. I really loved the dynamic between all the characters and even went back to listen for some of my favorite quotes! No spoilers, but the one about the knife is epic! I will definitely be purchasing a copy for myself to annotate all me favorite lines!
Wow! I really enjoyed this book and the narrator, Luke Francis, was brilliant! The story took me by surprise at many times, which I absolutely love not knowing where things are leading. The drama between Paul and his missing sister spirals right into Emily, Andrew, and his daughter Sophie falling right into each others lives. I really loved the dynamic between all the characters and even went back to listen for some of my favorite quotes! No spoilers, but the one about the knife is epic! I will definitely be purchasing a copy for myself to annotate all me favorite lines!
May 29, 2022
Reading the blurb, this sounded like a book that I would be engaged with and enjoy. In actuality it was incredibly annoying. Overwritten. So full of similes and metaphors that the story was lost in the clever linguistic gymnastics.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for giving me access, but this one did not do it for me.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for giving me access, but this one did not do it for me.
November 20, 2020
This novel is unlike anything I have read before. I can best compare it to Joe Dunthorne's The Adulterants, or NW by Zadie Smith, crossed with the gently ebbing plot of maybe some early 20th century writer I can't decide on. F. Scott Fitzgerald? No. Someone else...
Our narrator, Paul, is living a rendition of the Literature graduate dream: he works as a bookseller, writes for an independent magazine and lives in a shared flat that doesn't pay council tax. All of his relationships are in a state of flux (his sister comes and goes, he has an old uni friend living on his sofa), he might be kicked out of his flat...in simple terms, Paul is a bit of a mess. The chaos of the protagonist's personal life reflects the chaos of our setting: Britain, 2016.
This book shows the eternal battle between an acceptance of how things are, and a burning desire for CHANGE. We feel it throughout the UK (even now!) and we feel it inside Paul's life. The tension is all emotional; the build up of events is slow and yet it isn't. He parties and bumps into people; he makes odd choices that pull the narrative along without you realising what he's up to until it's too late.
The novel is written tightly within Paul's (very entertaining) perspective. We become unable to deny his avoidance mechanisms, and we learn so much through what isn't said - his feelings for Emily, his displaced sense of belonging, how he feels about ageing. We get to know Paul through the little things he won't admit to us, which although it took me a moment to get the hang of, I really appreciated. Everyone is very cleverly characterised.
Which brings me to my favourite thing about this book: the characters. Some of them feel like caricatures based on people I've heard of, read, or seen posting on Twitter. Each one is authentic and current: the sex-journalist, her historian father, even down to the background characters and their bizarre views on Brexit. I haven't read something that so accurately pinpoints the current UK climate so accurately.
I felt that the narrative could be a little too subtle in places, and I wasn't always sure of the arc. Multiple threats to routine and emotional stability seemed to zoom in and out of focus - although I suppose that shows the denial of truth at the heart of this novel all too well. The overarching threats weren't always the most pressing ones, meaning my main question was: will he do something? When will Paul actually take matters into his own hands? What will it take to finally crack him - this chapter? Or the next? Or the next?
Overall, a compelling and colourful reflection on division and truth - both within individuals and a country. A very thought-provoking book. I'd love to read something similar that also reflected on women and femininity as part of the turmoil.
Our narrator, Paul, is living a rendition of the Literature graduate dream: he works as a bookseller, writes for an independent magazine and lives in a shared flat that doesn't pay council tax. All of his relationships are in a state of flux (his sister comes and goes, he has an old uni friend living on his sofa), he might be kicked out of his flat...in simple terms, Paul is a bit of a mess. The chaos of the protagonist's personal life reflects the chaos of our setting: Britain, 2016.
This book shows the eternal battle between an acceptance of how things are, and a burning desire for CHANGE. We feel it throughout the UK (even now!) and we feel it inside Paul's life. The tension is all emotional; the build up of events is slow and yet it isn't. He parties and bumps into people; he makes odd choices that pull the narrative along without you realising what he's up to until it's too late.
The novel is written tightly within Paul's (very entertaining) perspective. We become unable to deny his avoidance mechanisms, and we learn so much through what isn't said - his feelings for Emily, his displaced sense of belonging, how he feels about ageing. We get to know Paul through the little things he won't admit to us, which although it took me a moment to get the hang of, I really appreciated. Everyone is very cleverly characterised.
Which brings me to my favourite thing about this book: the characters. Some of them feel like caricatures based on people I've heard of, read, or seen posting on Twitter. Each one is authentic and current: the sex-journalist, her historian father, even down to the background characters and their bizarre views on Brexit. I haven't read something that so accurately pinpoints the current UK climate so accurately.
I felt that the narrative could be a little too subtle in places, and I wasn't always sure of the arc. Multiple threats to routine and emotional stability seemed to zoom in and out of focus - although I suppose that shows the denial of truth at the heart of this novel all too well. The overarching threats weren't always the most pressing ones, meaning my main question was: will he do something? When will Paul actually take matters into his own hands? What will it take to finally crack him - this chapter? Or the next? Or the next?
Overall, a compelling and colourful reflection on division and truth - both within individuals and a country. A very thought-provoking book. I'd love to read something similar that also reflected on women and femininity as part of the turmoil.
April 19, 2020
When I was reading Luke Brown’s second novel, Theft, I was a bit puzzled. Is it a political novel? is it a book about relationships? Probably it’s both but I think a brief plot summary will put things in perspective.
The main protagonist Paul is a bookseller in London, who also works for a hipster magazine White Jesus (think of newly revived art mag The Face). He’s in his 30’s and drifts in life. A sort of more savvy Nick Hornby character. Occasionally he meets his sister.
When the novel begins, the siblings are ruminating over the death of their mother. In the meantime they have to sell her house. With that looming in Paul’s mind there’s also the Brexit referendum. We all know how that turned out and it seems that Paul can’t get over it. Especially since the North ,where he’s from, voted leave while London voted remain.
Then a chain of events happen to Paul which change his life. First of all he meets author, Emily, who he fancies. Then her older boyfriend Andrew. At the same time he has to move out of his shared flat. On top of that he meets Andrew’s feminist, reactionary daughter, Sophie, and THEY hit it off. Add to friends and lovers who drift in and out of Paul’s life and his sister’s upcoming pregnancy and you have got a mess.
Theft is mostly about the complexity of relationships. It’s also about social classes and, in a way it’s a coming of age story as Paul does realise he has to grow up – to a certain extent. I guess as Britain is going into a new phase, Paul has to realise he has to as well.
The obvious star of the novel is Paul. He’s selfish and tends to be impulsive, which is the cause of his troubles. At the same time he is funny, has some charm and will go out of his way to help the people who he cares about. He’s not a good person but entirely a bad one either.
Stylistically Theft is a bit deadpan but it’s addictive reading. I had to know if Paul manages to grow up and realise that he’s making a lot of messes. It’s also funny and I did crack a smile, especially Paul’s particular brand of sarcasm.
I liked Theft, it’s a novel stuffed with themes, memorable characters and touches on a lot of topical issues. It’s written in a slightly unconventional manner but once you get into it, the book ensnares you into it’s world quickly.
The main protagonist Paul is a bookseller in London, who also works for a hipster magazine White Jesus (think of newly revived art mag The Face). He’s in his 30’s and drifts in life. A sort of more savvy Nick Hornby character. Occasionally he meets his sister.
When the novel begins, the siblings are ruminating over the death of their mother. In the meantime they have to sell her house. With that looming in Paul’s mind there’s also the Brexit referendum. We all know how that turned out and it seems that Paul can’t get over it. Especially since the North ,where he’s from, voted leave while London voted remain.
Then a chain of events happen to Paul which change his life. First of all he meets author, Emily, who he fancies. Then her older boyfriend Andrew. At the same time he has to move out of his shared flat. On top of that he meets Andrew’s feminist, reactionary daughter, Sophie, and THEY hit it off. Add to friends and lovers who drift in and out of Paul’s life and his sister’s upcoming pregnancy and you have got a mess.
Theft is mostly about the complexity of relationships. It’s also about social classes and, in a way it’s a coming of age story as Paul does realise he has to grow up – to a certain extent. I guess as Britain is going into a new phase, Paul has to realise he has to as well.
The obvious star of the novel is Paul. He’s selfish and tends to be impulsive, which is the cause of his troubles. At the same time he is funny, has some charm and will go out of his way to help the people who he cares about. He’s not a good person but entirely a bad one either.
Stylistically Theft is a bit deadpan but it’s addictive reading. I had to know if Paul manages to grow up and realise that he’s making a lot of messes. It’s also funny and I did crack a smile, especially Paul’s particular brand of sarcasm.
I liked Theft, it’s a novel stuffed with themes, memorable characters and touches on a lot of topical issues. It’s written in a slightly unconventional manner but once you get into it, the book ensnares you into it’s world quickly.
September 23, 2020
Generally, if I fail to recognize any names from the blurbs on the back cover of a book I picked up based on its positive reviews, I figure it's not likely to be aimed at my demographic. In this case, that's probably true, but regardless of the intended audience, Theft is delightful, literary, insightful and humane.
In the opening paragraph, you learn that the setting is London in 2016. Paul, the narrator, relates that "My friends and I had lived our adult lives in flats with living rooms made into bedrooms, kitchens into pop-up cocktail bars and gallery spaces; we worked in pubs and shops and schools and clung on to our other lives as artists and musicians and professional skateboarders. For too long I'd suspected that I would have been more successful if I'd spent less time talking to my friends."
I'd guess that you can judge from the above excerpt whether or not you'll enjoy it. I five-star liked it.
In the opening paragraph, you learn that the setting is London in 2016. Paul, the narrator, relates that "My friends and I had lived our adult lives in flats with living rooms made into bedrooms, kitchens into pop-up cocktail bars and gallery spaces; we worked in pubs and shops and schools and clung on to our other lives as artists and musicians and professional skateboarders. For too long I'd suspected that I would have been more successful if I'd spent less time talking to my friends."
I'd guess that you can judge from the above excerpt whether or not you'll enjoy it. I five-star liked it.
February 9, 2020
A novel of our times. The narrator is witty without showing off his wit (like a lot of those narrators written by MFA program grads). I thought he was detached from the world for a bit, just an observer watching others go mad with happiness, grief, or life. Then, at moments, the author pulls back the curtain, and I realized how hurt the narrator was as well. As I’m still reeling from one particular gut punch or another, the narrator has moved on. It’s as if he says, “yeah, I hurt like this all the time. Don’t you?”
May 14, 2023
3.5 stars
i liked this book, it was fine as far as contemporary fiction goes. there wasn’t anything particularly stand out about it. parts of it were funny, i enjoyed the state of the nation commentary woven in but it wasn’t anything particularly amazing.
i liked this book, it was fine as far as contemporary fiction goes. there wasn’t anything particularly stand out about it. parts of it were funny, i enjoyed the state of the nation commentary woven in but it wasn’t anything particularly amazing.
April 9, 2020
Full of sophisticated London carryings-on, hence not very me, but entertaining
October 2, 2020
So, I had to finish reading this book so that I could see what happened to such an unlikeable bunch of people. Let's just say they all deserved each other.
June 23, 2020
Does the works need another novel about a cynical, driftless, self-interested straight white man, clinging on to his youth while simultaneously feeling superior to the truly young? If it does, this is a good one. Plus Brexit.
May 10, 2020
My biggest complaint about this book was how it obviously wanted to talk about big issues (generational gaps, masculinity in the modern age,classism, regional divides, Brexit, relationships) but then really only skimmed their surface. The novel’s protagonist Paul is a mid-thirties Londoner who works at a bookshop and writes a haircut review column. He lives in a cheap, partially hidden flat in London, chasing good times (sex, drugs, parties) and deluding himself that he’s making it.
With the death of his mother, Paul tries to hide his pain and anger beneath his amiable exterior. He begins to realize how little his life matters to anyone, worst of all himself.
His life takes on a slow moving crash course when he lands a interview with a semi-famous, somewhat reclusive novelist. His envy and jealousy of her life and her fiancé’s seeps out around the ends of his narrative even as he tries to retain his aw shuck’s persona, which allows him to creep into their life, first as a friend-ish of Andrew the fiancé and later as a casual boyfriend to Andrew’s daughter, Sophie, herself a rising journalist who leverages her privilege to write politically and gendered-charged polemics.
Paul is the eager one, looking in on these lives who is hungry to be one of the pack and only gradually realizing he’ll never be more than a hanger-on-er, forever outside the looking glass.
The novel takes a darker turn, as the anger Paul feels manifests in more concrete ways as he secretly works to blow up those perfect lives he so envies.
Ultimately while I thought the writing was quick and polished, I never felt truly engaged with Paul or his dilemma which amounted to being bright and personable enough to get out of his dead/end Northern town where he grew up, but lacking ambition and any hustle to actually achieve more than an average, life on the fringe existence in London.
Does the fault lie with Paul for the disadvantages of his upbringing? For his lack of ambition and willingness to work hard(er)? Or is ‘society’ to blame, for allowing those with privilege (money, family connections, luck) to keep their stranglehold on the good life that is propped up by those less advantaged? Is Paul entitled to his anger, his envy and his revenge?
I’d say it’s understandable but indefensible.
With the death of his mother, Paul tries to hide his pain and anger beneath his amiable exterior. He begins to realize how little his life matters to anyone, worst of all himself.
His life takes on a slow moving crash course when he lands a interview with a semi-famous, somewhat reclusive novelist. His envy and jealousy of her life and her fiancé’s seeps out around the ends of his narrative even as he tries to retain his aw shuck’s persona, which allows him to creep into their life, first as a friend-ish of Andrew the fiancé and later as a casual boyfriend to Andrew’s daughter, Sophie, herself a rising journalist who leverages her privilege to write politically and gendered-charged polemics.
Paul is the eager one, looking in on these lives who is hungry to be one of the pack and only gradually realizing he’ll never be more than a hanger-on-er, forever outside the looking glass.
The novel takes a darker turn, as the anger Paul feels manifests in more concrete ways as he secretly works to blow up those perfect lives he so envies.
Ultimately while I thought the writing was quick and polished, I never felt truly engaged with Paul or his dilemma which amounted to being bright and personable enough to get out of his dead/end Northern town where he grew up, but lacking ambition and any hustle to actually achieve more than an average, life on the fringe existence in London.
Does the fault lie with Paul for the disadvantages of his upbringing? For his lack of ambition and willingness to work hard(er)? Or is ‘society’ to blame, for allowing those with privilege (money, family connections, luck) to keep their stranglehold on the good life that is propped up by those less advantaged? Is Paul entitled to his anger, his envy and his revenge?
I’d say it’s understandable but indefensible.
June 10, 2022
I was given the audiobook through Net Galley and thought it sounded interesting. I am afraid I couldn't get beyond 20% through. Not sure I'm the target audience to be fair. I found the narrative voice irritating and I just couldn't empathise. I think I'm a generation or two too old.
January 13, 2020
3.5
Longer review to follow (hopefully!), but in general I enjoyed "Theft."
Contemporary British Lit by male authors have often not clicked for me -- authors like Ian McEwan and Julian Barnes have left me unimpressed, trying so hard to be clever that a lot of humanity is lost. "Theft" has that humanity, messy and selfish though it may sometimes be.
Longer review to follow (hopefully!), but in general I enjoyed "Theft."
Contemporary British Lit by male authors have often not clicked for me -- authors like Ian McEwan and Julian Barnes have left me unimpressed, trying so hard to be clever that a lot of humanity is lost. "Theft" has that humanity, messy and selfish though it may sometimes be.
July 26, 2022
I've really been trying not to add to my TBR pile this year, but this novel sounded like just the book for me after a year of psychological thrillers. I honed in on the promise of a setting on the north-west coast, a reclusive author and black comedy. All three of these were indeed features of the novel, but they were maybe not the most important parts.
This novel certainly captures the zeitgeist - perfect for anyone who is finding themselves outshined by media-savvy twenty-somethings, and bogged down by the politics and social niceties of everyday life. It's a fresh, quirky and cynical take on a tortured romance with plenty of internal doubt chucked in for good measure.
I felt that the characterisation in this novel was really a game of two halves. Paul was delivered to the reader as a padded-out, believable character - the type of person that I felt I knew well. Hapless, lacking direction and stuck in a role where he was very much undervalued and unappreciated, I felt like I really wanted to give Paul a kick up the bum and tell him to get his life sorted out. I completely understood his motivations and felt for his sense of just not quite fitting in.
Emily, however, was a bit more of a slippery fish, and it took me a while to get to grips with where she fitted in and what she was going to bring to the novel. I got quite confused with the relationships between Emily, Andrew and Sophie; whilst I'm aware that this was intentional, I found it a bit too disorientating and prevented me from enjoying the narrative as much I wanted to.
Maybe it was me, maybe it was the delivery, but I didn't find this novel to have as much humour as billed. It was certainly sold to be as a black comedy, but I found the pace of the novel perhaps too slow and it's narrative too convoluted to really find it humorous in any sense. I wasn't expecting it to be laugh-out-loud funny, but I think that I felt for Paul too much to find humour in his situation. There's a deadpan tone, and there's irony and sarcasm, but I'm not sure that these added up to comedy, black or otherwise.
There's a lot of merit in the author's use of Paul as an unreliable narrator. He doesn't even know whether he can trust his own interpretation at times. The narration is deadpan and blunt, and I enjoyed the way that Paul inserts himself into people's lives whether they want it or not; he appears to be aware of social expectations, lacks any really wrongful motivation and yet does it anyway.
Overall, this was a good read, but was rather more literary than I was expecting from the blurb. Luke Brown is clearly a talented author and I think that the novel's billing was more an issue here than any authorial aspect.
It's perhaps a case of my expectations being set up for one thing and then being delivered another, I think. If I'd read the book without it being labelled as humorous, I would possibly have enjoyed it much more as literary fiction.
Luke Francis was a great choice of narrator for the audio version of this novel. He voice was personable and laid back, and had just the deadpan delivery required to bring Paul's narrative to life. He really helped me to connect with the character.
Thank you to NetGalley, Luke Brown and Saga Egmont Audio for this ARC in return for my honest review.
This novel certainly captures the zeitgeist - perfect for anyone who is finding themselves outshined by media-savvy twenty-somethings, and bogged down by the politics and social niceties of everyday life. It's a fresh, quirky and cynical take on a tortured romance with plenty of internal doubt chucked in for good measure.
I felt that the characterisation in this novel was really a game of two halves. Paul was delivered to the reader as a padded-out, believable character - the type of person that I felt I knew well. Hapless, lacking direction and stuck in a role where he was very much undervalued and unappreciated, I felt like I really wanted to give Paul a kick up the bum and tell him to get his life sorted out. I completely understood his motivations and felt for his sense of just not quite fitting in.
Emily, however, was a bit more of a slippery fish, and it took me a while to get to grips with where she fitted in and what she was going to bring to the novel. I got quite confused with the relationships between Emily, Andrew and Sophie; whilst I'm aware that this was intentional, I found it a bit too disorientating and prevented me from enjoying the narrative as much I wanted to.
Maybe it was me, maybe it was the delivery, but I didn't find this novel to have as much humour as billed. It was certainly sold to be as a black comedy, but I found the pace of the novel perhaps too slow and it's narrative too convoluted to really find it humorous in any sense. I wasn't expecting it to be laugh-out-loud funny, but I think that I felt for Paul too much to find humour in his situation. There's a deadpan tone, and there's irony and sarcasm, but I'm not sure that these added up to comedy, black or otherwise.
There's a lot of merit in the author's use of Paul as an unreliable narrator. He doesn't even know whether he can trust his own interpretation at times. The narration is deadpan and blunt, and I enjoyed the way that Paul inserts himself into people's lives whether they want it or not; he appears to be aware of social expectations, lacks any really wrongful motivation and yet does it anyway.
Overall, this was a good read, but was rather more literary than I was expecting from the blurb. Luke Brown is clearly a talented author and I think that the novel's billing was more an issue here than any authorial aspect.
It's perhaps a case of my expectations being set up for one thing and then being delivered another, I think. If I'd read the book without it being labelled as humorous, I would possibly have enjoyed it much more as literary fiction.
Luke Francis was a great choice of narrator for the audio version of this novel. He voice was personable and laid back, and had just the deadpan delivery required to bring Paul's narrative to life. He really helped me to connect with the character.
Thank you to NetGalley, Luke Brown and Saga Egmont Audio for this ARC in return for my honest review.
May 20, 2022
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to listen to this audio book in return for an honest review.
Synopsis
What I did to them was terrible, but you have to understand the context. This was London, 2016 . . .
Bohemia is history. Paul has awoken to the fact that he will always be better known for reviewing haircuts than for his literary journalism. He is about to be kicked out of his cheap flat in east London and his sister has gone missing after an argument about what to do with the house where they grew up. Now that their mother is dead this is the last link they have to the declining town on the north-west coast where they grew up.
Enter Emily Nardini, a cult author, who – after granting Paul a rare interview – receives him into her surprisingly grand home. Paul is immediately intrigued: by Emily and her fictions, by her vexingly famous and successful partner Andrew (too old for her by half), and later by Andrew’s daughter Sophie, a journalist whose sexed-up vision of the revolution has gone viral. Increasingly obsessed, relationships under strain, Paul travels up and down, north and south, torn between the town he thought he had escaped and the city that threatens to chew him up.
With heart, bite and humour, Luke Brown leads the reader beyond easy partisanship and into much trickier terrain. Straddling the fissures within a man and his country, riven by envy, wealth, ownership, entitlement, and loss, Theft is an exhilarating howl of a novel.
This was another novel that I’d say didn’t quite hit the mark for me. It’s not badly written, far from it, it’s written extremely well. The storyline lost me fairly regularly, but perhaps I’m not the target demographic. Strongly based around relationships but with a hard political narrative running alongside. For me. The last few chapters captured my attention the most. Which is a little bit of a shame that it wasn’t the same for the entirety. Again, probably just me. The narration was great!
Synopsis
What I did to them was terrible, but you have to understand the context. This was London, 2016 . . .
Bohemia is history. Paul has awoken to the fact that he will always be better known for reviewing haircuts than for his literary journalism. He is about to be kicked out of his cheap flat in east London and his sister has gone missing after an argument about what to do with the house where they grew up. Now that their mother is dead this is the last link they have to the declining town on the north-west coast where they grew up.
Enter Emily Nardini, a cult author, who – after granting Paul a rare interview – receives him into her surprisingly grand home. Paul is immediately intrigued: by Emily and her fictions, by her vexingly famous and successful partner Andrew (too old for her by half), and later by Andrew’s daughter Sophie, a journalist whose sexed-up vision of the revolution has gone viral. Increasingly obsessed, relationships under strain, Paul travels up and down, north and south, torn between the town he thought he had escaped and the city that threatens to chew him up.
With heart, bite and humour, Luke Brown leads the reader beyond easy partisanship and into much trickier terrain. Straddling the fissures within a man and his country, riven by envy, wealth, ownership, entitlement, and loss, Theft is an exhilarating howl of a novel.
This was another novel that I’d say didn’t quite hit the mark for me. It’s not badly written, far from it, it’s written extremely well. The storyline lost me fairly regularly, but perhaps I’m not the target demographic. Strongly based around relationships but with a hard political narrative running alongside. For me. The last few chapters captured my attention the most. Which is a little bit of a shame that it wasn’t the same for the entirety. Again, probably just me. The narration was great!
July 1, 2022
***3.5 Stars On My Instagram Account***
"Will Brexit happen because of the arrogance of men?"
"Because we won...because there are more of us then THEM." Says the man celebrating Brexit.
"What if being angry is the only thing that is keeping me going?"
The thought provoking sarcastic, and at times hilarious, Theft, by new to me author Luke Brown, is at first a bit of a wandering of thoughts but by the second half it's a story of having to grow up and face the reality of the disillusionment of unrequited love and the love of country.
In 2016 at Paul's therapy sessions we discover his unhappiness with his job at White Jesus magazine where he posts humorous and sometimes mean articles about haircuts he sees on the streets. Not his dream journalism career.
He interviews reclusive author, Emily, older than him, and falls in love but she's dating much older, wealthier, and often a cheater Andrew. To stay near her and, maybe to annoy Andrew, he starts dating Sophie, Andrew's free spirit daughter.
While this soap opera drama plays out Paul is also dealing with helping his sister sell their family home after their mother's death. He is realizing that there really won't be a place to call home anymore. He is worried about Brexit passing because then the country he grew up in won't be the same home anymore either. It's enough to make even an entitled man feel loss.
Narrator Luke Francis is hysterically sarcastic with complaints about life, finances, politics, gentrification and love. I think listening helped to better understand the author didn't mean for the readers to empathize but maybe understand that to some when things went wrong they "rather be punished than forgotten." I couldn't relate to a lot of this story but I felt the disillusionment of country.
I received a free copy of this audiobook from Saga Egmont Audio via #netgalley for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.
"Will Brexit happen because of the arrogance of men?"
"Because we won...because there are more of us then THEM." Says the man celebrating Brexit.
"What if being angry is the only thing that is keeping me going?"
The thought provoking sarcastic, and at times hilarious, Theft, by new to me author Luke Brown, is at first a bit of a wandering of thoughts but by the second half it's a story of having to grow up and face the reality of the disillusionment of unrequited love and the love of country.
In 2016 at Paul's therapy sessions we discover his unhappiness with his job at White Jesus magazine where he posts humorous and sometimes mean articles about haircuts he sees on the streets. Not his dream journalism career.
He interviews reclusive author, Emily, older than him, and falls in love but she's dating much older, wealthier, and often a cheater Andrew. To stay near her and, maybe to annoy Andrew, he starts dating Sophie, Andrew's free spirit daughter.
While this soap opera drama plays out Paul is also dealing with helping his sister sell their family home after their mother's death. He is realizing that there really won't be a place to call home anymore. He is worried about Brexit passing because then the country he grew up in won't be the same home anymore either. It's enough to make even an entitled man feel loss.
Narrator Luke Francis is hysterically sarcastic with complaints about life, finances, politics, gentrification and love. I think listening helped to better understand the author didn't mean for the readers to empathize but maybe understand that to some when things went wrong they "rather be punished than forgotten." I couldn't relate to a lot of this story but I felt the disillusionment of country.
I received a free copy of this audiobook from Saga Egmont Audio via #netgalley for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.
July 5, 2022
Theft AUDIO by Luke Brown is an entertaining look into the life of a 33 year-old man-about-town in 2016 London. By day he works in a bookshop. By night he, Paul, is a columnist for a pop culture magazine, “White Jesus,’ where his claim to fame is a page devoted to amazing haircuts and another, a literary page, which as it turns out, no one reads. He lives in a non-descript flat known as “The Chateau” which has a revolving door, two bedrooms and a living room that is sometimes a third bedroom that he has had since college. There does not seem to be much of a plot but it is rather a stream of consciousness focusing on his life and those around him. It is entertaining as one listens to it but doesn’t leave much of a lasting impression.
His mother and best friend have both just died and he is in mourning and in disbelief. His sister is newly pregnant by a stranger. He has no relationship but takes things as they come. Then he meeds Emily Nardini, a young author, with whom he immediately falls in love only to discover that she she lives with, and ultimately, marries an older college professor/conservative historian, Andrew. He is jealous but knows better than to cause trouble, mostly. Instead he becomes involved with Andrew’s young, and decidedly not conservative, daughter. It is good fun as Paul navigates his life and relationships. There is really not much point to the whole thing, but I am probably not his target audience. I was fun, though, in the moment
Luke Francis was the perfect choice as narrator for this book. He is Paul. He has a charming accent and the perfect attitude. He seems to take things as they come, just like Paul. Kudos.
I was invited to listen to a free e-ARC audio of Theft by Saga Egmont, through Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are mine. #netgalley #sagaegmont #lukebrown #theft #lukefrancis
His mother and best friend have both just died and he is in mourning and in disbelief. His sister is newly pregnant by a stranger. He has no relationship but takes things as they come. Then he meeds Emily Nardini, a young author, with whom he immediately falls in love only to discover that she she lives with, and ultimately, marries an older college professor/conservative historian, Andrew. He is jealous but knows better than to cause trouble, mostly. Instead he becomes involved with Andrew’s young, and decidedly not conservative, daughter. It is good fun as Paul navigates his life and relationships. There is really not much point to the whole thing, but I am probably not his target audience. I was fun, though, in the moment
Luke Francis was the perfect choice as narrator for this book. He is Paul. He has a charming accent and the perfect attitude. He seems to take things as they come, just like Paul. Kudos.
I was invited to listen to a free e-ARC audio of Theft by Saga Egmont, through Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are mine. #netgalley #sagaegmont #lukebrown #theft #lukefrancis
April 28, 2020
London, 2016. Paul’s childhood best friend and mother have just died. His partner has left him. His friend is crashing at his place after an argument with his wife. His flatmate experiences heartbreak. He moves on from his long-held jobs and his long-resided in home. Paul’s sister looks forward to new people entering her life. He meets an engaged woman and dreams of starting a relationship with her, while at the same time seeing her partner’s daughter. The United Kingdom has voted to leave the European Union.
This is a Brexit novel par excellence. Deeply personal at all turns, Britain’s new political reality is ever present in the background, directly and indirectly. Luke Brown explores the psychology of modern relationships, as his protagonist and friends experience the end of lifelong relationships and the birth of new ones, relationships which, like that of the UK and the EU, largely consist of people who dislike as much as they like each other. Every relationship, every new beginning in the novel is fraught with doubts and uncertainties. It is at the same time a personal and a communal story, a story of beginnings and endings. Is it a political novel? A romance? A coming-of-age story? An apology - or an apologia? That will, I think, be up to each individual reader, just as much as Brexit is what every individual makes of it.
This is a Brexit novel par excellence. Deeply personal at all turns, Britain’s new political reality is ever present in the background, directly and indirectly. Luke Brown explores the psychology of modern relationships, as his protagonist and friends experience the end of lifelong relationships and the birth of new ones, relationships which, like that of the UK and the EU, largely consist of people who dislike as much as they like each other. Every relationship, every new beginning in the novel is fraught with doubts and uncertainties. It is at the same time a personal and a communal story, a story of beginnings and endings. Is it a political novel? A romance? A coming-of-age story? An apology - or an apologia? That will, I think, be up to each individual reader, just as much as Brexit is what every individual makes of it.
March 14, 2020
Gary Shteyngart really liked this book, or so the cover states. I cannot agree with him. Whatever value it has hides and remains a mystery. On the surface it’s about a shallow “intellectual” named Paul who wanders a bit into contemporary London literary –and of course--- and political scene. Yes, Brexit is the worst thing to happen to British writing since Jane Austen. (One part of the novel involves a pilgrimage the main character and a proposed adulteress make to Haworth. And yes, I know the difference.) One is reminded in some ways of Donleavy and Jonathan Coe, in the same way that Wonder Bread has memories of very fine French bread. Included are some more clichés such as class structure and white male privilege. And there is an undercurrent of London “property” and its values in 2020. One keeps reading to find a theme, a reason. (I must note that a Guardian review spurred me to read this novel. I did not find the same things the reviewer did.) This reader floundered in the snarky logorrhea of Brown, and finally when I turned the page and then find VOILA! page after page of thanks for monetary contributions to publish instead of more flacid prose. I breathe a sign of relief and think, “Well now that's done: and I'm glad it's over.”
March 23, 2024
Set in London, 2016 - and an indeterminate time shortly afterwards. Hard to believe it's been that long since Brexit, but the book is firmly set in the lead up to the contentious referendum. It's a long time since I read Jonathan Coe's early books but for some reason this reminded me of them.
Paul, a recently orphaned man in his 30s, has lived in a not-quite-flat above a shop in London for years. Ever since he left the Northern seaside town that was his childhood home.
Like many young Londoners, or indeed young people anywhere, Paul has several chips on his shoulder. Most of the people in this book do. There are a lot of people to hate: particularly those who have houses of their own and stable (boring?) lives.
The story loosely centres around Paul's interaction with Andrew and Emily and Andrew's daughter, Sophie. Much is made of the different realities for different social classes and different generations and of the particular challenges faced by women. In the main the points were well made, but sometimes felt a little jarring.
There was a gap in narrative at the end which I found frustrating: What happened after Paul's dreadful action?
The protagonist, Paul, was not an especially likeable character.
Paul, a recently orphaned man in his 30s, has lived in a not-quite-flat above a shop in London for years. Ever since he left the Northern seaside town that was his childhood home.
Like many young Londoners, or indeed young people anywhere, Paul has several chips on his shoulder. Most of the people in this book do. There are a lot of people to hate: particularly those who have houses of their own and stable (boring?) lives.
The story loosely centres around Paul's interaction with Andrew and Emily and Andrew's daughter, Sophie. Much is made of the different realities for different social classes and different generations and of the particular challenges faced by women. In the main the points were well made, but sometimes felt a little jarring.
There was a gap in narrative at the end which I found frustrating: What happened after Paul's dreadful action?
The protagonist, Paul, was not an especially likeable character.
September 13, 2020
Does this book belong on the upcoming 2020 Goldsmiths list? NO NO NO!
I am reading through the Goodreads list of books that are eligible for this annual prize which seeks to reward books that are experimental and innovative in subject or technique and can not imagine how this London based, somewhat comical novel got on the list of possibilities!
It is not really a bad book but in no way “broke the mould” or demonstrated what new things could be done in fiction. The writing was okay and I particularly liked his scenic descriptions of buildings...I was ready to move into the seaside cottage that Paul and his sister inherited. Probably I particularly didn’t “ get“ it with being an older American since it involved Brexit politics and 30-somethings trying to figure out what they wanted in life!
So I will continue on reading as much of the 34 book list as possible and hopefully the next one will be more Goldsmith-ish! On a scale of 1-10 that I am using to judge each book’s chance of making the list I can only give a 2.(Rounded up from 1.5)
I am reading through the Goodreads list of books that are eligible for this annual prize which seeks to reward books that are experimental and innovative in subject or technique and can not imagine how this London based, somewhat comical novel got on the list of possibilities!
It is not really a bad book but in no way “broke the mould” or demonstrated what new things could be done in fiction. The writing was okay and I particularly liked his scenic descriptions of buildings...I was ready to move into the seaside cottage that Paul and his sister inherited. Probably I particularly didn’t “ get“ it with being an older American since it involved Brexit politics and 30-somethings trying to figure out what they wanted in life!
So I will continue on reading as much of the 34 book list as possible and hopefully the next one will be more Goldsmith-ish! On a scale of 1-10 that I am using to judge each book’s chance of making the list I can only give a 2.(Rounded up from 1.5)
May 18, 2022
Set in the era of the Brexit referendum, Paul wedges himself into the lives of the affluent people he meets. As the protagonist of this novel, he isn't exactly likeable. As a northerner, he feels he has to soften his edges to fit in with London life. Then he meets Emily, a Glaswegian who has also tamed her accent and changed herself to 'fit in'. Emily is married to Andrew, an older man, they live in a more upmarket part of the city. Paul befriends Andrew and tries to seduce both his wife and his daughter. This is less dramatic and more full of black humour and witty observations, sharply narrated in the audio book. There never seems to be an aim or goal to Pauls antics, and that makes the novel both disturbing and compelling in equal measure. The narrative is destructive and dark and very well crafted, this is a book you'll think about long after you finish reading it.
Thank you to NetGalley for the advance audio book.
Thank you to NetGalley for the advance audio book.
June 20, 2022
As a millennial living in London this tale was hugely relatable, if cringeworthy to realise how very cliché we all are. It was quite funny with some good tongue in cheek jokes and familiar conversations at ‘secret speakeasies’ in back rooms.
It is serious and lighthearted in equal measure.
The magazine he works for is totally identifiable as Vice or similar and made me laugh at how accurate it is, even his ‘haircuts column’ reminds me of Vice’s mean, yet funny dos & don’ts from years back, the culture of the magazine is spot on!
I found the whole thing very entertaining and on point, the narrator was great too. 4/5
It is serious and lighthearted in equal measure.
The magazine he works for is totally identifiable as Vice or similar and made me laugh at how accurate it is, even his ‘haircuts column’ reminds me of Vice’s mean, yet funny dos & don’ts from years back, the culture of the magazine is spot on!
I found the whole thing very entertaining and on point, the narrator was great too. 4/5
May 1, 2022
I always enjoy when unusual characters provide poignant insights into modern mores.
Soundbite
🎧 Luke Francis delivers a good performance. A laid back listen.
Big thanks to NetGalley and Saga Egmont Audio for providing me with an ALC in return for an honest review.
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