Meantime: An absolutely gripping detective novel from one of Britain's best known comedians
Autor Frankie Boyleen Limba Engleză Paperback – 30 mar 2023
Glasgow, 2015. Orașul pulsează sub tensiunea post-referendum, un decor unde pierderea politică se împletește brutal cu cea personală. Alegerea acestui moment istoric nu este întâmplătoare; ea oferă fundalul perfect pentru o societate fragmentată, unde adevărul este la fel de greu de fixat ca amintirile unui narator nesigur. În Meantime, îl urmărim pe Felix McAveety, un dependent de Valium a cărui viață se prăbușește când cea mai bună prietenă este găsită ucisă într-un parc local. Găsim în această carte o cursă contra cronometru, dar una bizară, condusă de un om care uită întrebările imediat ce pornește în căutarea răspunsurilor. Putem afirma că ritmul este alert, dar fragmentat, oglindind starea mentală a protagonistului. În tradiția lui Malcolm MacKay, acest roman reîmprospătează stilul „Glasgow noir”, păstrând duritatea mediului interlop, dar injectând o doză de suprarealism prin teme precum inteligența artificială și cultele obscure. Dacă în lucrările sale non-ficțiune, precum Work! Consume! Die! sau My Shit Life So Far, Frankie Boyle folosea satira pentru a ataca sistemul, aici își canalizează furia și umorul cinic într-o structură narativă complexă. Stilul este tăios, cu dialoguri care lovesc rapid, evitând orice urmă de sentimentalism inutil. Este o explorare crudă a răzbunării într-un oraș care pare să se dezintegreze sub ochii noștri, transformând un roman polițist clasic într-o odisee picarescă prin cele mai întunecate colțuri ale Scoției moderne.
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Specificații
ISBN-10: 1399801171
Pagini: 368
Dimensiuni: 128 x 196 x 30 mm
Greutate: 0.26 kg
Editura: John Murray Press
Colecția Baskerville
Locul publicării:London, United Kingdom
De ce să citești această carte
Recomandăm această carte celor care caută un roman polițist atipic, unde umorul negru se ciocnește cu realismul social dur. Cititorul câștigă o perspectivă unică asupra orașului Glasgow, departe de clișeele turistice. Este o lectură esențială pentru fanii lui Malcolm MacKay care vor să experimenteze o voce nouă, capabilă să combine satira politică cu o intrigă criminală tensionată și un final care lovește fără avertisment.
Descriere
*FRANKIE BOYLE'S GRIPPING CRIME NOVEL: AN INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER *
'A dark and entertaining tranche of Glasgow noir . . . [A] deft, engaging thriller' Observer
'Full of scintillating sentences and perfect lines of dialogue' Sunday Times
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Glasgow, 2015. When Valium addict Felix McAveety's best friend Marina is found murdered in the local park, he goes looking for answers to questions that he quickly forgets. Felix enlists the help of a brilliant but mercurial GP; a bright young trade unionist; a failing screenwriter; semi-celebrity crime novelist Jane Pickford; and his crisis fuelled downstairs neighbour Donnie.
Their investigation sends them on a bewildering expedition that takes in Scottish radical politics, Artificial Intelligence, cults, secret agents, smugglers and vegan record shops.
Meantime is a picaresque detective story set against the backdrop of post-referendum Scotland. Frankie B
oyle's compelling debut novel is a tale of murder and revenge, and of personal and political loss.
'A darkest noir, unputdownable crime novel that swerves and surprises, with a gut-punch ending. I loved it!' Denise Mina, author of The Long Drop
'Inherent vices and scalpel-sharp jokes vie with a very human concern for those least garlanded in the rat race of life' Ian Rankin
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Pre-order Frankie Boyle's new book A Short History of the Apocalypse now! Out 7th November 2024
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Real readers love MEANTIME:
'Unlike any thriller you'll ever read' Netgalley review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'A brilliantly original piece of Glasgow noir . . . Fantastic' Netgalley review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'Raw, funny, and heartfelt. I loved it' Real reader review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
'Keeps you on the edge of your seat and I loved the ending' Netgalley review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Recenzii
A gloriously funny mystery that bucks the "cosy crime' trend" . . . Peppered with one-liners, it reads Raymond Chandler in Glasgow . . . Boyle regularly deploys the beautifully offbeat imagery that characterises the best of his stand-up
Starts off the funniest noir - like a Glaswegian Big Lebowski - then takes you somewhere suddenly heartbreaking . . . A debut novel that makes me absolutely INSIST there is more to come
The gags are so good that the book doesn't outstay its welcome [...] anybody who loves jet-black humour is in for a treat
Reads like a twisted Caledonian take on Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye. Inherent vices and scalpel-sharp jokes vie with a very human concern for those least garlanded in the rat race of life
Part whodunnit, part social safari, part extended stand-up monologue . . . the novel is full of scintillating sentences and perfect lines of dialogue
An enjoyably dark and entertaining tranche of Glasgow noir . . . Imagine Withnail and I stumbling into a Bond movie co-written by William McIlvanney and Mick Herron . . . [A] deft, engaging thriller
A surprisingly moving and beautiful journey through one man's sh*tshow of a friend's death/hangover
A fine slice of contemporary noir, full of acute insight into the way we live now
Just finished this and f*ck me, it's total class!! I'm sure all the expletive swears are coming out for this one - and so they should. Ace
Meantime is a tremendous book: a detective story full of twists and turns that is as beautifully written as it is darkly comic. . . Not surprisingly, Meantime is very, very funny. But it is also a gripping work of stylised crime fiction that marks, I suspect, a new and exciting chapter in Boyle's multi-faceted career
Remarkably moving
A sharply written, memorable read
Meantime flies along, filled with laughs and moments that pull you up sharp
Boyle's key strength is in creating such a believable milieu, even when events are exaggerated, underpinned but never derailed by a tongue-in-cheek humour
Frankie Boyle's fiction debut is genuinely engrossing
It's both funny and moving
[Frankie Boyle] has graduated into an extremely fine author with his first novel . . . The book lays bare the various worlds of Glasgow . . . and it slowly becomes that awful word, unputdownable, as the fascinating mixture of violence, drugs and unexpected humour surround the reader
Boyle's darkly comic debut unfolds amid vivid scenes of the seamy Glasgow underworld, its hard-bitten humour offset by an unexpectedly tender conclusion
Word-perfect dialogue and wild imagination