By: Irvine Welsh,
on 2/2/2015
When I started writing The Sex Lives of Siamese Twins, I went through my usual routine of making a music playlist to immerse myself in and help me find the characters. As the two main narrators in the book are women, I decided it would be best to concentrate on female singers and "voices" in [...]
By: Dianna Dilworth,
on 11/4/2013
Author Irvine Welsh talked about the film adaptation of his novel Filth which came out in the UK this month, in an interview with Vice.
The conversation delved into Welsh’s life in Chicago, his opinions of Scottish Independence and the current state of dive bars in Leith. Welsh also shared a bit of insight into his writing style.
Here is an excerpt from the interview:
Writers can become too knowledge based. If you’re constantly reading the classics, you’re going to try to write something to emulate that, and it’s never going to be as good. But if you’re more socially engaged and you try to keep active and go out, meeting people, talking to people and travelling on public transport… all these things, I think, are important.
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By: Keith Mansfield,
on 8/31/2011
Most of the entries in this series of things that have impacted on the Johnny Mackintosh books have been either science fiction or science based. I have though saved the biggest influence until last and it comes from another world, but one which many readers will know well: Jo Rowling’s spectacular creation, Harry Potter.
Some people might have heard the story of how I came to begin reading about the boy wizard from Godric’s Hollow, but for those who haven’t here goes. Of course as a publisher I’d heard about Harry and his creator JK Rowling, but I figured he was for kids and I had no interest whatsoever in books about witches and wizards and magic and broomsticks, even though the buzz about this remarkable creation wouldn’t go away.
I was working for a company called Addison-Wesle
y who were based in Boston, Massachusetts, so had been spending time over there. At the end of the week everyone from the office was out a party in a club (I think the House of Blues) and I would be heading back to the UK the next day. I was approached be someone looking a little sheepish who said she had something to tell me – that everyone in the office thought I was Harry Potter.
In hindsight it’s obvious. At the time, as you can see, I wore ridiculous round battered glasses, had black messed up hair, spoke with an English accent and (though I normally cover it under mounds of foundation) I do actually have a lightning-shaped scar on my forehead. Then there are all the mad things that seem to happen when I get angry, but that’s another story…
The next day I found and bought Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone at Logan International Airport and read it on the flight home. Curiously, although I may have read all the Harry Potter books 20-40 times, I’ve still never read the Philosopher’s Stone version of book one where it all began. At that time Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was also published so I bought that at Heathrow Airport on the way home, and Prisoner of Azkaban soon followed. I loved this world that the woman who was to become my writing idol had created. It’s a tribute to her that she could even make things like magic and dragons and Quidditch sound interesting. But most of all it was what we call the voice of the books, and the cleverness of telling everything from Harry’s point of view, even when he got the wrong end of the stick.
It had never occurred to me to write the sort of books that children might want to read (as well as adults). I’d been trying to pen the ultimate cutting edge modern novel, a kind of cross between Iain Banks, Paul Auster, Tibor Fisher and Irvine Welsh (there’s a thought!) when one day, walking back from the
By: Gina MarySol Ruiz,
on 4/17/2007
Kings in Disguise: A Novel
Author: James Vance
Illustrator: Dan Burr
Introduction: Alan Moore
Publisher: W.W. Norton
ISBN-10: 0393328481
ISBN-13: 978-0393328486
Kings in Disguise takes place in1932, the height of the Depression. It’s the story of the Bloch family, young Frankie in particular. Mr. Bloch has plunged into alcoholic despair and can’t find work anywhere. He’s lost just about all hope. Albert, the older brother has lost all respect for his father while Frankie just gets lost at the movies. Gangster movies are his favorites and he carefully saves bottles so that he can get his dime to see a new movie every week.
It all comes to a head when Albert and Mr. Bloch get into a terrible fight and in the morning, Mr. Bloch has disappeared supposedly looking for work in a new town. Albert and 12-year old Frankie are left on their own. Albert tries to rob someone in order to buy food and is injured, will possibly arrested and thrown in jail. Frankie is left on his own and tries to make it to Detroit to find his father and uncle. Frankie runs into a group of hobos with bad intentions but is saved by another hobo calling himself the King of Spain.
The King of Spain is more than a little crazy and sick to boot but he’s a kindly soul and protects Frankie. The two set off riding the rails for Detroit and they encounter just about every kind of lost soul there is. They also find small kindnesses and worthy people which help keep the hope alive. It’s an incredible story told with humor, pathos and gut wrenching reality.
The black and white illustrations by Burr add not only depth to the story but manage to convey such deep emotion.
This story of a child forced into being a man is touching and painfully beautiful. The Great Depression depicted by this amazing graphic novel is depicted in a very realistic and human way.
