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Μπράβος
Σε μια πόλη γεμάτη απατεώνες και κακοποιούς, ο μπράβος Μποξ και ο συνεργάτης του δέρνουν και μαχαιρώνουν κατά παραγγελία. Κάποιο βράδυ, σ’ ένα τραπέζι πόκερ, συναντούν έναν συγγραφέα «της κακιάς ώρας» και έναν μυστηριώδη ντετέκτιβ οι οποίοι τους εμπλέκουν σε μια ιστορία αποτρόπαιης βίας, που αφήνει πίσω της αμέτρητα πτώματα.
Ο Ρ. Τσάντλερ, ο Α. Καμί, ο Φ. Ντικ και η Π. Χάισμιθ ενώνονται σε ένα εξαιρετικά φρέσκο μυθιστόρημα (The Guardian). Το απρόβλεπτο και εντυπωσιακό ντεμπούτο του Σκωτσέζου Άλαν Τρότερ (New Statesman), που έκανε ιδιαίτερη αίσθηση όταν εκδόθηκε στη Μεγάλη Βρετανία (2019).
Ο Ρ. Τσάντλερ, ο Α. Καμί, ο Φ. Ντικ και η Π. Χάισμιθ ενώνονται σε ένα εξαιρετικά φρέσκο μυθιστόρημα (The Guardian). Το απρόβλεπτο και εντυπωσιακό ντεμπούτο του Σκωτσέζου Άλαν Τρότερ (New Statesman), που έκανε ιδιαίτερη αίσθηση όταν εκδόθηκε στη Μεγάλη Βρετανία (2019).
320 pages, Paperback
First published February 5, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 54 reviews
August 20, 2021
Sin city ρυθμός και ατμόσφαιρα, πιντσονικος σουρεαλισμός και μακριά από ηθικά διλήμματα
September 3, 2021
Κεντρικός ήρωας του μυθιστορήματος ο μπράβος Μποξ. Ένας άνθρωπος του περιθωρίου, που ζει πουλώντας το μόνο πράγμα που έχει σε αφθονία: τη βία, τον εκφοβισμό, την κακοποίηση. Εντελώς τυχαία μια μέρα η ζωή φέρνει κυριολεκτικά στα πόδια του τον _______, έναν άνθρωπο αδίστακτο, αιμοδιψή, ανελέητο. Οι δύο τους γίνονται ένα δίδυμο που σκορπά τρόμο, πόνο, θάνατο.
Τριγυρνούν στους σκοτεινούς δρόμους της πόλης αναζητώντας τα θύματα τους, προσπαθώντας να ανελιχθούν στον κόσμο της νύχτας. Σε αυτό το σκηνικό βίας γνωρίζουν έναν ντετέκτιβ και έναν συγγραφέα. Η επιρροή τους στη ζωή τους καταλυτική. Ο Μποξ έχοντας υποκύψει και αποδεχθεί τον ηγετικό χαρακτήρα του _______, ακολουθεί τις εντολές του, ζει υπό την καθοδήγηση του. Ζώντας σε αυτό το θλιβερά ζοφερό κόσμο ο Μποξ δεν παύει να αναρωτιέται για το νόημα της ζωής. Η επαφή του με το έργο του συγγραφέα τον οδηγεί σε μονοπάτια μεταφυσικά, σε άλλη διάσταση, σε ένα ταξίδι στον χωροχρόνο.
Ταξίδια που θυμίζουν εικόνες από το σύμπαν του Λάβκραφτ και τα ταξίδια του Dr. Who, γραφή επηρεασμένη από τον μετρ της sci-fi Philip Dick.
Ανάμεσα στην αφήγηση του Μποξ παρεμβάλλονται με τον τίτλο "Ιντερλούδιο" οι διάλογοι ενός άλλου διδύμου. Ο Έκτωρ και ο Τσαρλς, επιβάτες ενός τρένου, είναι βγαλμένοι από τον κόσμο του Μπέκετ. Συζητούν, αναλύουν, προσπαθούν να προσδιορίζουν και να κατανοήσουν το θάνατο, τον αντίκτυπο που έχει η στιγμή του θανάτου. Οι συζητήσεις τους είναι ένας προβληματισμός για το κακό και την ευχαρίστηση που κάποιος αντλεί από αυτό.
Ένα μυθιστόρημα με πολλές εγκιβωτισμένες ιστορίες στην κεντρική, ένα συνονθύλευμα νουάρ, επιστημονικής φαντασίας, αυτοκριτικής, χιούμορ, σχέσεων φιλίας, συνύπαρξης και έρωτα, μια προσπάθεια κατανόησης της βίαιης συμπεριφοράς και της μακράς προϊστορίας της στην κοινωνία.
Τριγυρνούν στους σκοτεινούς δρόμους της πόλης αναζητώντας τα θύματα τους, προσπαθώντας να ανελιχθούν στον κόσμο της νύχτας. Σε αυτό το σκηνικό βίας γνωρίζουν έναν ντετέκτιβ και έναν συγγραφέα. Η επιρροή τους στη ζωή τους καταλυτική. Ο Μποξ έχοντας υποκύψει και αποδεχθεί τον ηγετικό χαρακτήρα του _______, ακολουθεί τις εντολές του, ζει υπό την καθοδήγηση του. Ζώντας σε αυτό το θλιβερά ζοφερό κόσμο ο Μποξ δεν παύει να αναρωτιέται για το νόημα της ζωής. Η επαφή του με το έργο του συγγραφέα τον οδηγεί σε μονοπάτια μεταφυσικά, σε άλλη διάσταση, σε ένα ταξίδι στον χωροχρόνο.
Ταξίδια που θυμίζουν εικόνες από το σύμπαν του Λάβκραφτ και τα ταξίδια του Dr. Who, γραφή επηρεασμένη από τον μετρ της sci-fi Philip Dick.
Ανάμεσα στην αφήγηση του Μποξ παρεμβάλλονται με τον τίτλο "Ιντερλούδιο" οι διάλογοι ενός άλλου διδύμου. Ο Έκτωρ και ο Τσαρλς, επιβάτες ενός τρένου, είναι βγαλμένοι από τον κόσμο του Μπέκετ. Συζητούν, αναλύουν, προσπαθούν να προσδιορίζουν και να κατανοήσουν το θάνατο, τον αντίκτυπο που έχει η στιγμή του θανάτου. Οι συζητήσεις τους είναι ένας προβληματισμός για το κακό και την ευχαρίστηση που κάποιος αντλεί από αυτό.
Ένα μυθιστόρημα με πολλές εγκιβωτισμένες ιστορίες στην κεντρική, ένα συνονθύλευμα νουάρ, επιστημονικής φαντασίας, αυτοκριτικής, χιούμορ, σχέσεων φιλίας, συνύπαρξης και έρωτα, μια προσπάθεια κατανόησης της βίαιης συμπεριφοράς και της μακράς προϊστορίας της στην κοινωνία.
August 14, 2019
Μετανουάρ, γραμμένο επιδέξια και με πολλά κέφια (Μπέκετ & Χάμμετ αντάμα). Βία και χιούμορ. Το μεταφράζω, ωραίο ζοριλίκι.
January 9, 2019
Muscle by Alan Trotter is a fresh piece of noir fiction. Our main characters are the two crooks Box and _____. They are on the hunt for odd jobs that most of us, hopefully, would not be willing to fulfill. It felt reminiscent of both A Clockwork Orange and The Time Machine. I guess that can seem like a strange combination, but Alan Trotter made it work.
When Box and _____. encounter a private detective and this strange writer, events quickly start to unravel. Oh, and there is a girl of course! It reads like a feverish dream, and I found myself confused at whether it was me or the characters having these delirious ideas. But that was absolutely (and freakishly) brilliant! The novel is dark at times, but I found myself more than once snickering at its sense of humour.
It is the literary quality of Muscle that I held in high esteem. Trotter won the inaugural Sceptre Prize for a novel in progress for Muscle. Now, I did not even know there was a prize to be won for your work in progress, but apparently, there is. And I do not think that the final product let us down either. Muscle is filled with beautiful prose and clever remarks. Now, it is not the most easy-to-read novel, but neither is it too hard, and it certainly is not long-winded.
My rating for Muscle is 4 out of 5 stars. If you are looking for a unique literary novel and you do not mind things taking a strange and dark turn, be sure to check this out. I received a review copy of this book from Faber & Faber in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are entirely my own. My review is susceptible to changes in the final copy of this work.
When Box and _____. encounter a private detective and this strange writer, events quickly start to unravel. Oh, and there is a girl of course! It reads like a feverish dream, and I found myself confused at whether it was me or the characters having these delirious ideas. But that was absolutely (and freakishly) brilliant! The novel is dark at times, but I found myself more than once snickering at its sense of humour.
It is the literary quality of Muscle that I held in high esteem. Trotter won the inaugural Sceptre Prize for a novel in progress for Muscle. Now, I did not even know there was a prize to be won for your work in progress, but apparently, there is. And I do not think that the final product let us down either. Muscle is filled with beautiful prose and clever remarks. Now, it is not the most easy-to-read novel, but neither is it too hard, and it certainly is not long-winded.
My rating for Muscle is 4 out of 5 stars. If you are looking for a unique literary novel and you do not mind things taking a strange and dark turn, be sure to check this out. I received a review copy of this book from Faber & Faber in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are entirely my own. My review is susceptible to changes in the final copy of this work.
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July 25, 2021Το δεύτερο βιβλίο που δυσκολεύομαι να βαθμολογήσω μετά τα Φλογοβόλα της Κούσνερ (εντωμεταξύ, όλως τυχαίως και τα δύο αυτά βιβλία τα έχει μεταφράσει ο κύριος Μπαμπασάκης :P, που όμως έχει κάνει εξαιρετική μεταφραστική δουλειά και στον Μπράβο). Ο Μπράβος είναι ίσως το πιο περίεργο βιβλίο που έχω διαβάσει εδώ και πάρα πολύ καιρό, ένα κείμενο χωρίς ξεκάθαρη ταυτότητα, αφού συνδυάζει πολλά πράγματα μαζί, και που παρόλα αυτά δύο ήταν μονάχα οι στιγμές που με έκανε θυμάμαι να δυσανασχετώ και να θέλω να το πετάξω από την βεράντα. Την περισσότερη ώρα ομολογώ πως το διάβαζα με περιέργεια και ένα κάποιο ενδιαφέρον χωρίς να θέλω να το αποχωριστώ και ειδικά τα διηγήματα επιστημονικής φαντασίας που έχει γράψει ο χαρακτήρας του συγγραφέα στο βιβλίο και κάθεται και τα διαβάζει ο Μποξ, ο πρωταγωνιστής, μου άρεσαν κι εμένα πολύ. Ιδιαίτερο ανάγνωσμα λοιπόν, με άφησε με ανάμεικτα συναισθήματα στο τέλος, αλλά που θέλω κάποια στιγμή μέσα στο καλοκαίρι ή και αργότερα να ξαναδιαβάσω.
July 13, 2021
Το περίμενα αρκετούς μήνες το βιβλίο αυτό, δηλαδή από τότε που έμαθα ότι θα μεταφραζόταν στα ελληνικά, και μόλις έσκασε μύτη το αγόρασα και δεν άργησα να το πιάσω στα χέρια μου. Με βάση την περίληψη της ιστορίας και τις κριτικές που διάβασα αριστερά και δεξιά, περίμενα ότι αν μη τι άλλο θα ήταν ένα ιδιαίτερο μυθιστόρημα, ένα νουάρ μυστηρίου με παραξενιές, και τώρα που το διάβασα μπορώ να πω ότι ακριβώς αυτό είναι: Ένα παράξενο και παράδοξο νουάρ μυθιστόρημα με ιδιαίτερο τρόπο γραφής, περίεργο χιούμορ και μια ακόμα πιο περίεργη ατμόσφαιρα, που μου δημιούργησε ποικίλα συναισθήματα. Να, ας πούμε, είναι ένα βιβλίο που θα έβαζα στην ίδια κατηγορία με το "Γη χωρίς τέλος" του Μάρτιν ΜακΊνες (εκδ. Κριτική) και το "Έσχατες μέρες" του Μπράιαν Έβενσον (εκδ. Καστανιώτη), αν και φυσικά έχουν πολλές διαφορές στη θεματολογία και τον τρόπο γραφής. Απλά τόσο αυτό όσο και τα άλλα δυο βιβλία που ανέφερα μου άφησαν την ίδια... κουλή αίσθηση στο τέλος, την αίσθηση ότι διάβασα κάτι παράξενο, κάτι πέρα από τα συνηθισμένα. Δεν μπορώ να το εξηγήσω καλύτερα. Σίγουρα το βιβλίο δεν είναι για όλα τα γούστα, δεν είναι ένα παραδοσιακό νουάρ μυστηρίου, ο συγγραφέας παίζει με την αφήγησή και τους χαρακτήρες του, αλλά ίσως ακόμα και με το μυαλό των αναγνωστών του, ενώ έχει και μια παράδοξη αίσθηση του χιούμορ. Μπορεί να πει κανείς ότι είναι ένα σουρεαλιστικό-παράλογο-υπαρξιακό νουάρ, που αν καταλάβεις τη λογική του μάλλον θα το απολαύσεις (εγώ το απόλαυσα σε πολύ μεγάλο βαθμό), αν όμως το πάρεις στραβά ή περιμένεις κάτι πιο παραδοσιακό, τότε θα το πετάξεις εκνευρισμένος/η στον απέναντι τοίχο. Μάλλον. Τέλος πάντων, σίγουρα το βιβλίο αυτό αποτελεί μια από τις ξεχωριστές στιγμές της φετινής αναγνωστικής χρονιάς, έστω κι αν απλώς παίρνει τέσσερα αστεράκια.
February 18, 2019
Oh I really disliked this in the end. What middling interest I had was completely lost by the fifth and last section.
This is the story of two tough guys, goons for hire, as they pick up odd jobs roughing up guys, collecting debts and breaking hands. All written as a kind of Chandler pastiche, but possibly more of a parody.
One of the goons, Box, passes the time reading sci-fi stories from pulp magazines an acquaintance writes for. Then, as the story progresses and the pair's jobs take a dark turn, his life becomes entwined with the time travel or parralel universe ideas he's been reading about.
It's reminiscent of Paul Auster and thus really not my kind of thing. It's a spectacular failure of style over substance, a literary high-wire act where the author fell to his death about half way through.
This is the story of two tough guys, goons for hire, as they pick up odd jobs roughing up guys, collecting debts and breaking hands. All written as a kind of Chandler pastiche, but possibly more of a parody.
One of the goons, Box, passes the time reading sci-fi stories from pulp magazines an acquaintance writes for. Then, as the story progresses and the pair's jobs take a dark turn, his life becomes entwined with the time travel or parralel universe ideas he's been reading about.
It's reminiscent of Paul Auster and thus really not my kind of thing. It's a spectacular failure of style over substance, a literary high-wire act where the author fell to his death about half way through.
February 23, 2019
Read a great review in the Guardian and took a chance. I should have paid more attention to the comparison with The New York Trilogy, my least favourite Auster experience.
This does noir tropes really well with women always called “twists” or “frails”, but I wasn’t really on board for the final section where it all gets a bit meta. I’m down for literary noir, but this was no Motherless Brooklyn.
This does noir tropes really well with women always called “twists” or “frails”, but I wasn’t really on board for the final section where it all gets a bit meta. I’m down for literary noir, but this was no Motherless Brooklyn.
February 26, 2019
This is fantastic, and could have been written just for me. Grimly funny absurdist-existentialist noir that incorporates pulp sci-fi as well as hardboiled crime fiction elements to become a surprisingly powerful examination of the lasting impact of male violence in its many forms.
It also does one of my favourite things, which is to recount other fictional stories within its own pages, a Vonnegut-style technique I never seem to tire of. The ending, too, which some have complained about, I think works perfectly.
Phenomenally entertaining and sneakily profound.
It also does one of my favourite things, which is to recount other fictional stories within its own pages, a Vonnegut-style technique I never seem to tire of. The ending, too, which some have complained about, I think works perfectly.
Phenomenally entertaining and sneakily profound.
April 13, 2019
Well, here’s a little gem.
Starts straight off with the unbelievable stuff and never lets up. This is not your normal novel at all. It reminded me of The Deadly Percheron in that I felt transported to a slightly different reality. Is this a new genre? If it is I have no name for it, but I heard someone else call it “absurdist-existentialist noir”.
One of the characters has no name that I can fathom which seems a bit weird but works surprisingly well as a device. I have come across other books that try to be this good but fail miserably.
Starts straight off with the unbelievable stuff and never lets up. This is not your normal novel at all. It reminded me of The Deadly Percheron in that I felt transported to a slightly different reality. Is this a new genre? If it is I have no name for it, but I heard someone else call it “absurdist-existentialist noir”.
One of the characters has no name that I can fathom which seems a bit weird but works surprisingly well as a device. I have come across other books that try to be this good but fail miserably.
February 7, 2022
Ένα πολύ ιδιαίτερο βιβλίο, χαοτικό σε σημεία, που μοιάζει να παίζει με τα όρια του νουάρ αλλά στο τέλος ξεφεύγει από αυτά και καταλήγει σε κάτι... διαφορετικό. Δεν ξέρω πως να βρω τις λέξεις που να συνθέσουν το τί είναι ακριβώς ο "Μπράβος", είναι ξεκάθαρες όμως οι λέξεις που μετέφρασε τόσο εξαιρετικά ο Μπαμπασάκης και είναι ξεκάθαρο πως αυτό το βιβλίο δεν είναι αυτό που θα πρότεινα σε κάποιον λάτρη του παραδοσιακού crime fiction, είναι αυτό όμως που θα πρότεινα σε όποιον θέλει να δει τι μπορεί να κάνει το είδος σαν πρόφαση. Ευελπιστώ να μην αργήσουμε να δούμε και αλλά βιβλία του Τρότερ.
May 11, 2024
Experimental novel meets crime noir was not what I was expecting. Perhaps on purpose it's all monotonous violence and pulp magazine musings for page after page. The ending though is good.
April 3, 2019
It’s interesting to read Alan Trotter’s Muscle straight after Violet Levoit’s Scarstruck. Not just because they’re both books set in the 50s, but because they take their inspiration from the pulps. For LeVoit it’s the “sexy” pulps, for Trotter it’s of the noir-ish variety. I enjoyed the odd resonance between the two novels and now believe that both publishers should join forces and release them together. (Happy to wave my commission for that brilliant idea).
Muscle begins with a short, perplexing Prologue involving a man flung from a moving train and the philosophical musings of the two men who did the throwing. We are then introduced to Box - not his real name – and his soon to be partner in all things thuggish ____ (that’s not a slip of the keyboard, that’s how he’s referred to throughout the novel). They meet when ____ is hurled from a car (throwing people from moving objects is clearly a thing for Trotter) and lands in front of the café where Box is smoking a cigarette. Once ____ has spat out some blood and wiped himself down he and Box head off and find the closest fairground and rollercoaster, because that’s what you do when you first arrive in a city. The following day they become henchmen, roughing up the odd shop owner, a form of advertising for a future employer.
Muscle kept reminding me of Hugo Wilcken’s mind-bending novel The Reflection. It’s not as gnarly and knotty as that book but it has that same vibe of an altered reality where what’s “real” feels up for grabs. This is especially the case in the last third where a doppelganger-ish element is introduced and where our narrator – Box – becomes more and more unreliable. Muscle has its own rhythm and beat that took me a moment to get my head around, a voice that is partly hard-boiled and partly meditative. It’s also a book that never entirely settles on a plot, where for good stretches nothing much happens, only to have the story punctuated by a death, a moment of violence, and in the last third something much darker. Muscle is precisely the sort of fiction I love, that takes the familiar or traditional and turns it on its head.
Muscle begins with a short, perplexing Prologue involving a man flung from a moving train and the philosophical musings of the two men who did the throwing. We are then introduced to Box - not his real name – and his soon to be partner in all things thuggish ____ (that’s not a slip of the keyboard, that’s how he’s referred to throughout the novel). They meet when ____ is hurled from a car (throwing people from moving objects is clearly a thing for Trotter) and lands in front of the café where Box is smoking a cigarette. Once ____ has spat out some blood and wiped himself down he and Box head off and find the closest fairground and rollercoaster, because that’s what you do when you first arrive in a city. The following day they become henchmen, roughing up the odd shop owner, a form of advertising for a future employer.
Muscle kept reminding me of Hugo Wilcken’s mind-bending novel The Reflection. It’s not as gnarly and knotty as that book but it has that same vibe of an altered reality where what’s “real” feels up for grabs. This is especially the case in the last third where a doppelganger-ish element is introduced and where our narrator – Box – becomes more and more unreliable. Muscle has its own rhythm and beat that took me a moment to get my head around, a voice that is partly hard-boiled and partly meditative. It’s also a book that never entirely settles on a plot, where for good stretches nothing much happens, only to have the story punctuated by a death, a moment of violence, and in the last third something much darker. Muscle is precisely the sort of fiction I love, that takes the familiar or traditional and turns it on its head.
March 12, 2019
Alan Trotter’s Muscle is a terrific debut novel that has interesting things to say on masculinity and violence; the inability of a man to express himself in any other way than with his fists. The pulp, noir stylings are satisfying enough without adding in the delicious dashes of Trotter’s literary language.
His words really are a treat: delightfully descriptive one moment and bitingly brief the next. Whenever you feel he’s going to teeter over into florid prose, Trotter pulls back, unless it’s a character-beat or part of the sinuous narrative that weaves in and out of the story like a hungry snake.
The tropes of the genre are all there but heightened by the uncertainty that what you’re reading is not what it seems.
If this sounds like Muscle is difficult to pin down, it’s because it is. You’re constantly on edge, wrapped in his world and like the streets of his never-named city, constantly waiting for an explosion of unprovoked violence or a diversion into a fantastical world.
Concerned with worlds within worlds within time within space within minds: it’s dizzyingly well done and recalls such literary creations as Alasdair Gray’s Lanark in its combinations of genres and reality-questioning themes.
Highly recommended.
His words really are a treat: delightfully descriptive one moment and bitingly brief the next. Whenever you feel he’s going to teeter over into florid prose, Trotter pulls back, unless it’s a character-beat or part of the sinuous narrative that weaves in and out of the story like a hungry snake.
The tropes of the genre are all there but heightened by the uncertainty that what you’re reading is not what it seems.
If this sounds like Muscle is difficult to pin down, it’s because it is. You’re constantly on edge, wrapped in his world and like the streets of his never-named city, constantly waiting for an explosion of unprovoked violence or a diversion into a fantastical world.
Concerned with worlds within worlds within time within space within minds: it’s dizzyingly well done and recalls such literary creations as Alasdair Gray’s Lanark in its combinations of genres and reality-questioning themes.
Highly recommended.
March 2, 2019
Written with a brutal elegance (which may sound like it doesn't make sense but it will when you start to read it), Trotter takes the tropes of Noir/hard boiled crime & philosophical science fiction and plaits them together into something decidedly original and strange. Interesting, experimental and stayswith you.
June 17, 2019
I so wanted to like this...…
Just trying to be a bit too clever - stylish without substance.
Eventually had no idea what was going on and where we were headed - ultimately not very far.
Looking at other reviews, maybe I was having a bad day.
Just trying to be a bit too clever - stylish without substance.
Eventually had no idea what was going on and where we were headed - ultimately not very far.
Looking at other reviews, maybe I was having a bad day.
June 27, 2019
Well that ended up very disappointing. Initially I enjoyed the slightly mysterious setup but became more and disillusioned until by the end I didn't really care what happened and the denouement wasn't worth the wait.
This is another bound for the charity shop
This is another bound for the charity shop
April 30, 2019
A real twisty, modernist, hallucinatory riff on old pulp novels.
August 26, 2021
Μονορουφι. Εντυπωσιακό ντεμπούτο.
February 25, 2019
After some months, word started to get around that we were the people to go to if you needed a hand broken. In this city, that was a lot of hands. You’d be surprised. It was all we ever seemed to do: find people, young men mostly, and then break hands. Dried blood began to clog the metallic lighter I’d place between their middle and ring fingers. We grew bored.
This book does a quite fresh take on the old noir genre. I'm not a person who reads detective stories, but I'm completely sold on Conan Doyle's stuff, and I absolutely dig Walter Mosley and Raymond Chandler. However, I do like my stories not being stuck in the usual, old, tritely used detective-story style, so this shook things up for me.
This is Alan Trotter's debut novel, and it's strong - to begin with. It goes sideways about two thirds in, but up till then, all is well. There are a lot of nice sentences in the book, like the following:
The sap’s head lolled side to side and his mouth began chewing on vowels and letting them drip off him with the water.
...and:
The cup rang a small sharp note as it hit the table top, and the waitress ran away like she was chased.
This book is filled with noir clichés but in a good way. What is not very nice, is how the author tries too much towards the end of the book; it becomes muddled, sentences grow out of their britches with nowhere to go, so the results are soiled.
I eagerly await the author's second novel.
March 4, 2020
This is an exceptionally eccentric, and quite brilliant, absurdist pulp novel which always remains uniquely its own thing; formally innovative and hilarious, despite the obvious nods to other authors. Muscle is a heady mixture of so many influences (literary and cinematic), it would take an essay to examine them all - but imagine a mixture of Samuel Beckett, Raymond Chandler, Knut Hamsun, Tom Stoppard, Dashiel Hammett and Kurt Vonnegut, and you get close to the experience. The prose was wildly enjoyable, with such vivid images, it was like walking through a gallery of surrealist art, or walking backstage at a theatre, looking at all the odd props, piecing together the parts to form a coherent narrative. It is darkly humorous, philosophical and, in the end, unbearably sad. Some sentences that I particularly enjoyed:
"The sap's head lolled side to side and his mouth began chewing on vowels and letting them drip off him with the water"
"Nerves jogged him in his seat like he was rattling along in a train carriage. He didn't know where to put his hands until we has two coffees, then he clung to his like it was a ladder over a snake pit."
"He has to think with a kind of 'drifting contemplation', which gives the machine its charge. Holcomb calls it like a gas leak ahead of an explosion: unnoticeable, but containing a great energy."
"He was in a good mood - his face looked like a piece of meat in an advertisement painting, a hearty breakfast lit by a big orange sun."
"One of Holcomb's eyes was swollen and purple. It bulged out of his face like a piece of fruit ready to drop off a bush."
"The instant Charles puts a foot into the room, Box begins to turn. The movement is slow, monumental, like a planet steered on ropes. Box's head turns to them, the dull cabinets of his eyes lighting up."
"The sap's head lolled side to side and his mouth began chewing on vowels and letting them drip off him with the water"
"Nerves jogged him in his seat like he was rattling along in a train carriage. He didn't know where to put his hands until we has two coffees, then he clung to his like it was a ladder over a snake pit."
"He has to think with a kind of 'drifting contemplation', which gives the machine its charge. Holcomb calls it like a gas leak ahead of an explosion: unnoticeable, but containing a great energy."
"He was in a good mood - his face looked like a piece of meat in an advertisement painting, a hearty breakfast lit by a big orange sun."
"One of Holcomb's eyes was swollen and purple. It bulged out of his face like a piece of fruit ready to drop off a bush."
"The instant Charles puts a foot into the room, Box begins to turn. The movement is slow, monumental, like a planet steered on ropes. Box's head turns to them, the dull cabinets of his eyes lighting up."
November 14, 2019
Hard-boiled noir, sci-fi and philosophising on the art of killing. This weird debut from Trotter is difficult to categorise and is as bewildering as it is enjoyable.
Box is a hoodlum, a giant of a man who with his partner (mysteriously known throughout as ____ ) works as muscle for a local gangster, pursuing gambling debts or meting out punishment beatings. Box is taciturn, better known for his brawn than his brain, and seemingly happy to act as sidekick to his bloodthirsty partner. A chance encounter with a private dick changes their lives forever.
Meanwhile, various interludes detail the deeds and musings of a pair of psychopaths (reminiscent of the type of killers seen in the TV series Fargo),
A thought-provoking and entertaining read.
Box is a hoodlum, a giant of a man who with his partner (mysteriously known throughout as ____ ) works as muscle for a local gangster, pursuing gambling debts or meting out punishment beatings. Box is taciturn, better known for his brawn than his brain, and seemingly happy to act as sidekick to his bloodthirsty partner. A chance encounter with a private dick changes their lives forever.
Meanwhile, various interludes detail the deeds and musings of a pair of psychopaths (reminiscent of the type of killers seen in the TV series Fargo),
A thought-provoking and entertaining read.
July 24, 2019
Well. This comes at you wearing Hammett’s coat and pointing Hammett’s gun (a bit Chandler, a bit Spillane too). But mostly it’s in thrall to Beckett, Calvino and Borges with some Stoppard thrown in for a laugh as well.
The story of two garrulous thugs making their way through an unnamed city at an unspecified point in time is slippery beyond casual apprehension, but the writing is utterly beautiful. I feel there’s quite a lot lurking round corners and hiding between paragraphs, and I’ll definitely go back to this one day.
The stories within the story serve the narrative well but are also really strong entities in their own right. It’s good, this.
The story of two garrulous thugs making their way through an unnamed city at an unspecified point in time is slippery beyond casual apprehension, but the writing is utterly beautiful. I feel there’s quite a lot lurking round corners and hiding between paragraphs, and I’ll definitely go back to this one day.
The stories within the story serve the narrative well but are also really strong entities in their own right. It’s good, this.
October 25, 2021
Εξαιρετική γραφή.
Τα ιντερλούδια είναι πολύ ταιριαστά και επιτελούν ακριβώς το σκοπό για τον οποίο υπάρχουν εκεί.
Ίσως το καλύτερο σημείο είναι οι ιστορίες του συγγραφέα που παρεμβάλλονται με τη μορφή αφήγησης από τον ήρωα, και το πως επιδρούν τελικά στο μυαλό του.
Τα ιντερλούδια είναι πολύ ταιριαστά και επιτελούν ακριβώς το σκοπό για τον οποίο υπάρχουν εκεί.
Ίσως το καλύτερο σημείο είναι οι ιστορίες του συγγραφέα που παρεμβάλλονται με τη μορφή αφήγησης από τον ήρωα, και το πως επιδρούν τελικά στο μυαλό του.
April 5, 2019
This was not a book for me. Whilst I got into it originally I struggled to stay with it and ended up picking it up and putting it down a lot.
The story of some old school thugs this was both thrilling and fun in parts.
I got lost in the wrap up near the end and that overall tainted the book for me as I couldn’t really understand what was happening.
I will keep hold of this though and maybe try to re-read and see if I feel differently next time.
The story of some old school thugs this was both thrilling and fun in parts.
I got lost in the wrap up near the end and that overall tainted the book for me as I couldn’t really understand what was happening.
I will keep hold of this though and maybe try to re-read and see if I feel differently next time.
April 22, 2020
Can't decide if I loved or hated this - either way it's a fresh take on well trodden genre fiction. Although the subject matter is insanely spot on for me, I found some of the devices (especially ________ ), really distracting. I'm pretty sure I'm going to be thinking about this book long after I've forgotten books I've absolutely loved, phew what a weird one!
November 3, 2019
It's good to read something from the genres you're not used to, in this case grimy crime noir where the streets are awash with bodies and the broads cause your breath to catch. Where hired muscle make their living breaking thumbs and the corrupt private detectives shoot their way through the story before the Cops can find out what really happened - and then couple it with the story of the hired muscle who is ever so slightly insane.
Not quite, but a bit like Lenny from Of Mice and Men, only with an interest in pulp science fiction magazines.
I suppose I enjoyed it.
I suppose.
Not quite, but a bit like Lenny from Of Mice and Men, only with an interest in pulp science fiction magazines.
I suppose I enjoyed it.
I suppose.
August 28, 2021
4.5 αστέρια. Εάν σας αρέσουν τα κλασσικά αστυνομικά ή νουάρ μυθιστορηματα... προσπεράστε!!! Εάν όμως σας αρέσουν εγκληματίες που φιλοσοφουν πάνω από τα θύματα τους, μαύρο χιούμορ, μετα-νουάρ με πινελιές επιστημονικής φαντασίας (!!!) .... τότε πρέπει να διαβάσετε αυτό το αταξινομητο, εκκεντρικό, σουρεαλιστικο υβρίδιο το οποίο αποπνέει μια κτηνώδη καλαισθησία (όσο οξύμωρο και αν ακούγεται αυτό)... ΕΞΑΙΡΕΤΙΚΗ η μετάφραση του κ. Μπαμπασακη...
ΥΓ: Εάν γυριζόταν ταινία θα ήταν κάτι ανάμεσα σε Sin City και Pulp Fiction... σκηνοθετημενο από τον David Lynch... με πρωταγωνιστή τον Mickey Rurke
ΥΓ: Εάν γυριζόταν ταινία θα ήταν κάτι ανάμεσα σε Sin City και Pulp Fiction... σκηνοθετημενο από τον David Lynch... με πρωταγωνιστή τον Mickey Rurke
December 19, 2021
‘“You have no teeth, no hooks, no grip, so when life provides disappointments you are content. You are an insect so unburdened by any weight of thought that it can move on top of water and live on drifting scum.”’
4.5*
A noir modern classic, desperately confusing yet blindingly eye opening. The unspecified setting seeps through the writing, and Trotter begs you to read it as nothing other than a love letter to the brutal noirs that sang of 1950s New York and the lives of toughs. Fucking loved it.
4.5*
A noir modern classic, desperately confusing yet blindingly eye opening. The unspecified setting seeps through the writing, and Trotter begs you to read it as nothing other than a love letter to the brutal noirs that sang of 1950s New York and the lives of toughs. Fucking loved it.
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