Behindlings

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View books by Nicola Barker.

A tedious trek around Canvey Island - Rated
If you enjoyed the dark humour of "The Three Button Trick and Other Stories", it is easy to be taken in my all the good reviews on the cover of the "Behindlings". I cannot recommend this book to you, as you will be sure to be disappointed. It is a shame that so many reviewers did not have the guts to write a single critical remark - I can only explain their enthusiasm for this book by speculating that the author bought each of them an expensive lunch.

This novel is tedious to read because the characters lack of motivation stifles plot development. The book comprises of a series of awkward or drunken interactions between characters, a bit like "Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf?", except without any wit or biting humour. I recommend that the author take some time to read "Games people play" to she can get some ideas about character motivation and put a bit more life into her characters.

The author hints the tone of the novel is dark and the humour black by means of setting it in the working class suburb of Canvey Island, but if she were to transpose the location to Southend, Romford or (god forbid) Brentford, you would recognise the tone of this book as being smug and middle class.

A blow-your-mind read - Rated
What an outstanding book!

Barker is clearly a genius. She writes such astonishing prose that constantly surprises with its leaps and bounds of imagination. Her ear for dialogue - the pauses and non-sequiturs - makes her troop of characters vivid with inner life and a wonderful weirdness. Astute, colourful, obscenely brillaint writing.