The Man Without

by Ray Robinson

Antony Dobson has lived through a lot in his short twenty-six years. Desperate, loveable and utterly confused, he gets a kick out of taking risks, gets a thrill from taking himself right to the edge and, so far at least, back again. But haunted by childhood memories and guarding a dark, humiliating secret that he dare not reveal, he`s hurtling fast towards the point of no return. Impressive and irresistibly readable, this tight-rope-walk of a novel explores memory, love, identity, and absence in a dazzling display that is in turn sad, witty and deeply affecting. Praise for Ray Robinson`s first novel, Electricity : `An energetic debut, bristling with talent` The Times `Its fast, furious plot, kaleidoscopic imagery, blunt observations and a wry, ingenious, hugely compassionate heroine make this eviscerating debut novel a breath-taking assault on the senses` Guardian

336 pages, Hardcover

First published July 18, 2008

About the author

Robinson first won attention in 2006 with his debut novel, Electricity. It was shortlisted for both the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Authors' Club First Novel Award. The film adaptation of Electricity, starring Agyness Deyn, Tom Georgeson, and Christian Cooke, made its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival 2014, and won Best Screenplay at the National Film Awards 2015.

Robinson's other novels are The Man Without (2008), Forgetting Zoe (2010), and Jawbone Lake (2014).

Forgetting Zoe was a winner of the inaugural Jerwood Fiction Uncovered prize and was the Observer's 'Thriller of the Month'. Robinson was hailed as 'among the most impressive voices of Britain's younger generation' by the Irish Times, and the Irish Independent called Jawbone Lake 'a literary thriller of the highest order'.

Robinson is a post-graduate of Lancaster University, where he was awarded a Ph.D. in Creative Writing in 2006, and is a Mentor for The Literary Consultancy. He has appeared at literary festivals around the world, including La Feria Internacional del Libro de Guadalajara, Mexico, and the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

Robinson is currently working on a feature-length screenplay, and a novel for teenagers.

Reviews

[Nick Davies · Rating 3 out of 5]

This missed the mark overall for me. A couple of other books by the same author I had connected a lot more with, and enjoyed a lot more. In euphemistic terms this was 'a bit more challenging' in dealing with a cast of characters who were unpleasant, fucked-over, and fucked-up. Robinson's non-linear style had in other novels felt less disorientating, and though there were plenty of stunning passages in this story centred around a young man struggling to come to terms with his troubled relationships with his family, friends, colleagues and his self... I didn't find enough common ground with the main character (as similar an age to him as I was when this novel was set) to really connect with his problems. It was an often messy book about an often messed up man, and I was a bit underwhelmed by it.

[Carlo Barton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this, I somehow find myself stumbling upon obscure books similar to this one, and this is probably the best yet. Ray is an under rated author and he doesn't receive enough publicity, I like his writing style in this and one of his other titles Electricity and I find the way he portrayed Antony and his shocking inner struggle and very confusing life to be intriguing and very hazy and sullen.

The way it was written -in it's broken, mundane, almost drug induced convolution- was very much paralleled with Antony's story.

And as another reviewer has said, I to wish to see Ray Robinson create more beautiful works of art such as this.

[Kieran Telo]

Unrated because I gave up within 50 pages. Too fragmented, too inner city gritty on the chat sweary smoking fags about to go mad, again. Have read this type of thing too often before.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I identified so much with the relationship between Antony and his mother. I still can’t forgive though.
Such a deep insight into someone accepting their true self.

[Lewis Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's really interesting. I've enjoyed it more than any new books by any new authors that I've read recently. It has guts. Sometimes the author might not get it perfect, but he tried and that's worthwhile.

Responding to criticism I just saw:
It is fragmented, but a major theme of the book is memory, so it'd read a bit false if it wasn't. It's not overly sweary or smokey and doesn't feel like it's trying to swear, it's just real. The writer uses some beautiful language and has a wide vocabulary, it's good to have a bit of bad language to contrast.

I've read Electricity by this author and that's more neat and sellable but this shows more balls. It's worth reading, the subject is interesting and the language is occasionally quite lovely. It makes me excited to see what this author will write in the future. I hope he works on honing this style and not produce more commercially orientated books.

[Pages and Papercuts]

*Unrated*