On the Radio

I've just done my radio review bit on the Simon Mayo show. Note to self: These things always seem like a good idea at the time, but feel progessively less so as the moment to appear live on the radio approaches.

Thankfully I really liked the book - Runt by Niall Griffiths (especially as he was there in the studio) . It's about a sixteen year old boy who has visions / epileptic fits. The book is told as a stream of conciousness from him, and he has a unique perspective on life which involves a lot of odd words and almost no punctuation. This makes it a little difficult to get into, but once you get the hang of it the book is wonderful. The character of the boy is beautifully drawn, and the relationship with his uncle, with whom he goes to live is just fantastic. Set on a Welsh hill-farm, just after the foot and mouth crisis, this is a bleak book full of death and violence, grief and loneliness. The boy's aunt has killed herself after losing all her sheep to foot and mouth, and the uncle is in a drunken depression. Despite all this however, the viewpoint of the boy is upbeat, he is not at all fazed by the darkness in his life. The uncle regards him as a kind of shaman, and towards the end of the book it becomes clear that this is no ordinary boy. I would highly recommend this book for the power of the language and technical excellence.

No knitting news today. I am in a knitting slump.