Cool. Thanks, Bung...About the music references: Hornby knows his stuff, and yeah, Nirvana's rise and the musical changes of the early nineties are integral to 'About A Boy'. But in all honesty I really didn't know how to include that in a review of the book (this is why I don't have a job writing...see, I write fiction...this book review thing puzzles me: I'm never certain what to include, whereas with fiction I just make it up). I can see the vast majority of people liking 'High Fidelity' better, as it is more absurdist and outright funny, and deals with dating issues vs. family issues, whereas 'About A Boy' has a sense of poignancy about it. I like 'About A Boy' better because of the inscription that my friend wrote in it when he gave it to me: "To a man who is going to be a better father than either of us ever had."
When I read that, it didn't even matter if the book sucked. Of course, it DIDN'T, so there's that.
Glad you liked the Vachss (read them all, you won't be disappointed), and glad you liked 'Bloodsucking Fiends'. As far as Chris Moore's stuff goes, pick up 'Coyote Blue' and 'Island of the Sequined Love Nun' (which has one of my FAVORITE CLOSING LINES EVER), which are both funnier than 'Fiends' by a factor of ten. If you like Vachss you may wanna read a good buddy of his in the cause against predators, Joe Lansdale, whose novel 'Mucho Mojo' kicks every kind of ass imaginable...think Vachss in the shit-kicker dustbowl of East Texas, only instead of Burke and Max the Silent you get Hap, an aging white 'Nam protestor and Leonard, his gay black 'Nam vet/war hero best friend. Funny and mean, that book rocks.
And as far as my question about British authors goes...the famous ones are easy: Gaiman, Clive Barker, Pratchett, Douglas Adams, Tad Williams (he IS British, right? He writes like it...dry stuff, man), Tolkein, David Gemmel. Just wondering who here on CHUD focused on that side of the pond.
Other Brits to read are Christopher Brookmyre, who wrote the funny and grim crime novel 'Quite Ugly One Morning', which starts off with the priceless line of 'Jesus fuck!' upon the finding of a SERIOUSLY messed up corpse, and Hugh Laurie (of Jeeves and Wooster fame, as well as 'Stuart Little' and some other films) wrote a GENIUS comedic thriller, one of the few that I felt was well done (comedic crime: easy. Comedic fantasy or sci-fi: a cinch...but a BELIEVABLE thriller that is genuinely funny throughout without ever treading into the absurd? This is the only one I know of.) called 'The Gun Seller', which he originally sent to agents and publishers under a fake name to see if it had any merit on its own aside from being written by a semi-notable actor. It certainly does, and I'll probably do a review of it soon. It's certainly a book that deserves some more exposure.
Do I have a thing for British writers? Nope. Not in the least. The ones I listed above are the cream of what I've read. I don't have a PROBLEM with most of them, mind you, other than when they try to do hard-boiled (98% of the time they suck at it). I was just wondering, I guess.
And there you have it...I have just used up the rest of CHUD's message board space. Sorry.
