The Patrick Hamilton Appreciation Society discussion

Thanks to Mark for mentioning Memoirs of a Dipper by Nell Leyshon




Mark wrote: "This lean novel -- there's more fat on a butcher's pencil -- chronicles the life of Gary, a dipper... dips into purses, dips into pockets, dips in silver paper when his pint goes flat.

It's a story of childhood, of dreams, of hell and disappointment and lessons and redemption. Leyshon's gift is not only her ability to create a very real character, but also her ability to ease her reader into the character's head and masterfully control how the reader responds.

Lean and potent and visceral and moves along like an amphetamine sulphate rush*




*Not that I've ever indulged in amphetamine sulphate, mind. Let's be very clear on that point. "

His review, along with his peerless track record of great recommendations, has convinced me to read Memoirs of a Dipper by Nell Leyshon. Perhaps you feel the same way too?

If so, add a few comments here before, during and after you read the book.

'Leyshon is a master of domestic suspense' - Observer

'There's different ways to do it: I can slowly move closer step by step, or I can do it in one movement and bump into them. Easiest is in a pub then I can put my drink too close to theirs. Move my stool near theirs. Anything to cross the line.'

Gary is a dipper, a burglar, a thief. He is still at junior school when his father first takes him out on the rob, and proves a fast learner: not much more than a child the first time he gets caught, he is a career criminal as soon as he is out again. But Gary is also fiercely intelligent - he often knows more about the antique furniture he is stealing than the people who own it, and is confident in his ability to trick his way out of any situation, always one step ahead. But all that changes when he falls for Mandy...

And the book's full title is....


Nell Leyshon 'Memoirs of a dipper: in which ... you get to learn shitloads about me and I learn fuck all about you - it's a memoir, it ain't a youmoir'

Nice

Fulsome praise in this Guardian review...

https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...

Thanks for pointing toward the Guardian review, which hits a lot of the targets and misses only a few. The reviewer's main point that I disagree with states: "The book is less successful in depicting other characters... all drawn in broad strokes." While the claim of broad strokes really can't be argued, I saw it as a technique rather than a weak link. Great writing is the same as a great photograph, it's the blurring of the secondary and tertiary features which further sharpens the focus on the foreground. Well, that's my opinion, anyhow.

Leyshon pulled me in straight away, leaving me involved and invested to the point where any of the novel's potential shortcomings were easily forgiven, if barely noticed. It's a book that I'll return to, and an author that I feel compelled to explore further. Can't say better than that!

Mark wrote: "It's a book that I'll return to, and an author that I feel compelled to explore further. Can't say better than that!"

You can't. I'm really looking forward to reading it.

Thanks so much Mark for this recommendation - a great read.


Funnily enough I agree with the Guardian review about the other characters - especially the other family members. whilst Gary is very vivid and credible, I never really felt I had any kind of a feel for his Mum, or Sharon and Alan. As you say, perhaps it is conscious thing to keep our attention on Gary and his world, which is ultimately what this is all about.

I look forward to reading more by Nell Leyshon.

Click here to read my review

Really pleased to hear that you liked the book, as I suspected you might. I'm starting to think that its greatest strength, or one of its greatest strengths, is the degree to which the story [in general] and Gary [in particular] has stayed with me since closing the novel a few weeks ago.

To add my unsolicited remarks about your review...

I understand what you mean about Gary's ups and downs requiring the reader to suspend their disbelief a bit, but I think that the arc[s] of his life would have been a whole lot more believable -- if "believable" is the right word here, which it probably ain't -- his ups and downs would've been a lot more believable had the pacing of the novel been slower. I liked the fast-cut, snapshot pace and telling, although it did tend to pit his highs against his lows in ways that often teetered on the brink of ludicrous. But, as I say, that, for me, is a very minor fault indeed, and one which I was easily able to work myself around.

For myself, I felt like I had just enough of a feel for Gary's family as I needed in order for me to fill in whatever blanks were hazy. They all came across as somehow trapped... mum and sister in bleak ways, and his brother trapped by the various "successes" he'd attained for himself. Dunno, really... to me, they seemed just about right.

The one thing that really stuck out for me, though... and I have no idea whether this is a strength or a weakness, but there was no real pop culture references, hence no real indications as to what years or decades various points of the novel were set in. If I remember correctly, the year 1988 was mentioned twice, but that's about it. Maybe that was an intentional touch... the general ambiguity rendering it somehow timeless.

Thanks Mark. All very perceptive points, especially this one...


Mark wrote: "The one thing that really stuck out for me, though... and I have no idea whether this is a strength or a weakness, but there was no real pop culture references, hence no real indications as to what years or decades various points of the novel were set in. If I remember correctly, the year 1988 was mentioned twice, but that's about it. Maybe that was an intentional touch... the general ambiguity rendering it somehow timeless."

This hadn't occurred to me and it's spot on. It is truly timeless and that must have been a conscious move by Nell - and a very clever trick. I really like novels that are rooted in a time and a place, but now I realise I also like it when that sense is completely absent. Even London, which features quite heavily, is not really evoked, just certain places are dropped in but then there's no words used to bring the places to life. As you say elsewhere, this all puts the focus firmly on Gary and his story.