Displaying an uncompromising attitude and a gift for words,
Jonathan Meade's collection of stories, first published in 1984, is
far from conventional. If you have never considered there may be a
link between aniseed and fallen women, you will find one in 'Fur
and Skin', Meades's first story here, in which the description
'dirty dog' is more apposite than you might expect. Animals and
humans are targeted again by other illegal activities in what could
be an idyll in the New Forest, but isn't; the lexicographer in his
40s, who still lives with his mother, finds out why she is so
strangely distressed to find that her surname might be an eponym
for 'foot': he also throws a fascinating light on slang and the
reasons for it; in a far from benign way, the lives of some
ex-prisoners of war overlap that of a much-loved only son who dies
young; the truth or not about sex, betrayal and violence in
Morocco; a hilarious climax winds up a tale set in suburban Surrey,
where country clubs, rituals and pretensions abound; serial rape
has some repercussions for Kim and Ralphy but a puzzle is solved:
all these stories are told here in vivid and often explicit detail.
All kinds of sexual practices, deviant and otherwise, are described
in great detail and in marvellous prose: the writing is flashy and
outstanding; the characterization, even of those playing minor
parts, is strikingly well observed. Even at their most appalling,
there is a skewed logic to the behaviour of Meades's characters and
often humour and pathos. You will be shocked, you may be outraged,
but you will want to read on. (Kirkus UK)
These short stories mark the start of a brilliant and black
literary career. A dog who stars in bestial pornographic movies
describes the slippery slope towards aniseed addiction in 'Fur and
Skin'. 'The Sylvan Life' is a story of rustling, hallucinogenic
mushrooms and incest as they proliferate in the New Forest. In
'Spring and Fall' a rich and childless woman offers a sybaritic
young boy a clandestine family life which becomes his downfall. The
most extraordinary circumstances combine to provide the perfect
alibi for a homosexual 'crime passionnel' in 'Oh So Bent', 'The
Brute's Price' demonstrates the inadvertent steps an innocent man
may take in bringing himself under suspicion of heinous murders on
Portland. An injection of the criminal element into the pretensions
of suburban Surrey provides the squalid drama of 'Rhododendron
Gulch'. In the title story a relentlessly pedantic urge of a
lexicographer to discover why his surname is a slang word for
'foot' leads him to a nightmarish revelation. Jonathan Meades has a
black imagination. Not content with disarming his readers an
outrageous premise, he continues to tease their curiosity from one
end of each story to the other. His is the kind of originality that
comes along rarely, his characters the sort who lurk and linger
round the back alleys of the mind.
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