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Daisy Chains
David Asquith is a bumptious, preposterous rogue, yet as the rest of the world slides into financial ruin he plans a radiant pathway to personal success and universal happiness.
185 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2010
2 people want to read
About the author
Kevin Ireland
40 books2 followersIreland was born Kevin Mark Jowsey. As an infant he travelled to London with his parents where they lived for a time before returning to New Zealand. Shortly thereafter, his parents' marriage failed and he grew up on his maternal grandfather's Waikato farm, and then in Takapuna where he lived with his father. After leaving school, he studied at Auckland Teachers' College but did not complete a qualification.
After changing his surname by deed poll to Ireland in 1957, he headed to London in 1959 where he remained for twenty-five years (with the interlude of a short interval in Bulgaria, translating Bulgarian poetry into English); for two decades, Ireland was employed by The Times.
In 1986, Ireland was writer-in-residence at Canterbury University; in 1987, he was awarded the Grimshaw-Sargeson Fellowship; in 1989, he was the University of Auckland's writing fellow, assistant editor of Quote Unquote, and president of PEN, 1990–91.
Kevin Ireland OBE has published novels, short stories, memoirs, a book on fishing and another on growing old. Awards include an honorary doctorate, the 2004 Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement and the 2006 A.W. Reed Award for his contribution to New Zealand writing.
Ireland died after a battle with cancer in Auckland at the age of 89.
From book blurb & Wikipedia
After changing his surname by deed poll to Ireland in 1957, he headed to London in 1959 where he remained for twenty-five years (with the interlude of a short interval in Bulgaria, translating Bulgarian poetry into English); for two decades, Ireland was employed by The Times.
In 1986, Ireland was writer-in-residence at Canterbury University; in 1987, he was awarded the Grimshaw-Sargeson Fellowship; in 1989, he was the University of Auckland's writing fellow, assistant editor of Quote Unquote, and president of PEN, 1990–91.
Kevin Ireland OBE has published novels, short stories, memoirs, a book on fishing and another on growing old. Awards include an honorary doctorate, the 2004 Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement and the 2006 A.W. Reed Award for his contribution to New Zealand writing.
Ireland died after a battle with cancer in Auckland at the age of 89.
From book blurb & Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 30, 2014
The protagonist David Asquith (formerly known as Egbert Hardcastle) is a pompous, pontificating prat, a wily, conniving (but sometimes hapless and naive) fraudster and businessman trading on the wrong side of the law.
It's just after the global financial crisis in 2008, and the jumped-up and ridiculous Asquith, whose language sounds like that of a 1960s toastmaster, explains in verbose detail his fantastic gung-ho business venture involving selling fake watches and other sundry items.
Yes there is a story here, and the writing is lively and easy to read, but I didn't care about any of the characters (in fact they annoyed me), and I thought the 185-page novel might work better as a short story than a full-scale novel. It says on the back cover that it "drips with self-delusional comedy". The author was obviously making wry comment about the international financial downturn and institutions of the law, but it wasn't laugh-out-loud funny.
The saving grace was the huge range of vocabulary, which as a wordsmith I took some delight in, although it seemed dated and unlikely for a character of Asquith's apparent middle age to be using in 2009. Clearly, he learnt a lot in the prison library, which may have been more old-fashioned, but I'd have thought he'd have used more modern terms – some of the business jargon of the 2000s like "going forward", "skill set" "blue sky thinking" and so on. The whole book had a dated feel; cell phones and computers barely feature, and there are few other modern references. The cover, too, has a dated feel. Also it wasn't clear to me where the story was set until well through the book when Wellington is mentioned, later Taupo and North Cape. Until then, the fictional city of "Dupchurch" (Auckland?) could have been in New Zealand or in England, for all I knew.
Well written in its own right but not really my cup of tea.
It's just after the global financial crisis in 2008, and the jumped-up and ridiculous Asquith, whose language sounds like that of a 1960s toastmaster, explains in verbose detail his fantastic gung-ho business venture involving selling fake watches and other sundry items.
Yes there is a story here, and the writing is lively and easy to read, but I didn't care about any of the characters (in fact they annoyed me), and I thought the 185-page novel might work better as a short story than a full-scale novel. It says on the back cover that it "drips with self-delusional comedy". The author was obviously making wry comment about the international financial downturn and institutions of the law, but it wasn't laugh-out-loud funny.
The saving grace was the huge range of vocabulary, which as a wordsmith I took some delight in, although it seemed dated and unlikely for a character of Asquith's apparent middle age to be using in 2009. Clearly, he learnt a lot in the prison library, which may have been more old-fashioned, but I'd have thought he'd have used more modern terms – some of the business jargon of the 2000s like "going forward", "skill set" "blue sky thinking" and so on. The whole book had a dated feel; cell phones and computers barely feature, and there are few other modern references. The cover, too, has a dated feel. Also it wasn't clear to me where the story was set until well through the book when Wellington is mentioned, later Taupo and North Cape. Until then, the fictional city of "Dupchurch" (Auckland?) could have been in New Zealand or in England, for all I knew.
Well written in its own right but not really my cup of tea.
Displaying 1 of 1 review