George Norton
Playing, the Fool
Earlier this year, Julian Gough won the National Short Story Prize for ‘The Orphan and the Mob’, a gem of comic writing with the ingenuous Jude as its narrator. That piece serves as the prelude to Jude: Level One, and its very first sentence – ‘If I had urinated immediately after breakfast, the Mob would never have burnt down the Orphanage’ – neatly sums up just one of numerous disasters (and sometimes triumphs) Jude unwittingly causes throughout the novel.
Jude, being an orphan, has some interest in his origins, but is soon distracted by his ‘One True Love’, a chip-shop employee in Galway. He pursues her through the town, usually with a mob of some description chasing him, and accidentally ends up creating chaos wherever he goes. Bizarre events
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
'It soon becomes clear that what we have in our hands (or, given its hefty 600-odd pages, on our desks) is a peculiar kind of haunted-house drama.'
Patrick McCabe's 'Poguemahone' is 'ambitious and disturbing', says @funesdamemorius.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/it-started-with-a-kiss
'This is entertainment of the highest class.'
@NJCooper_crime reviews new thrillers by Mick Herron, Kassandra Montag, @LVaughanwrites, @AuthorSJBolton, @ajaychow, @tombradby, @SaraParetsky, @writejemmawayne & @GillianMAuthor.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/may-2022-crime-round-up
'The day Simon and I Vespa-d from Daunt to Daunt to John Sandoe to Hatchards to Goldsboro, places where many of the booksellers have become my friends over the years, was the one with the high puffy clouds, the very strong breeze, the cool-warm sunlight.'
https://literaryreview.co.uk/temple-of-vespa