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Bookish Quotes
"The First Book: Go ahead, it won't bite. Well... maybe a little. More a nip, like. A tingle. It's pleasurable, really. You see, it keeps on opening. You may fall in. Sure, it's hard to get started; remember learning to use knife and fork? Dig in: you'll never reach bottom. It's not like it's the end of the world -- just the world as you think you know it."
Dead Air
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Dead Air
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4 journalers for this copy...
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A 2002 novel by the author of Complicity (which I enjoyed), picked up on the 80% off table at an Ottawa MonsterBookstore. (Left: Iain Banks)
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Ken Nott is a thirty-five year old radio announcer (a "shock jock", in the parlance of Dead Air's back cover) with his own show -- Capital Live! -- on a commercial radio station owned by the wealthy Sir Jamie Werthamley. He fills his radio airtime with left-wing political diatribes mostly focussed on the Bush presidency and the Middle East (especially "the unending oppression of the Palestinian people by America's 51st state"), and is constantly on the verge of getting fired for his intemperate opinions. (His studio has been renamed "the departure lounge".) Ken lives on a houseboat owned by "Sir Jamie" which is moored at Chelsea Wharf. His twenty-something, multiply-pierced girlfriend, Jo LePage, does PR for a record label called Ice House and its flagship band, "Addicta". Ken and his friends attend lots of parties (the novel begins in the middle of a wedding reception in a trendy London loft), where they do lots of drugs and lots of talking before going home to sleep with one another's spouses and girl/boyfriends fairly indiscriminately. Their conversations are reflective of contemporary issues (e.g. references to "The Usual Suspects", Robbie Robertson and "Tubthumping"), which is fun -- though it makes me wonder how well Dead Air will stand the test of time. Banks himself has described Dead Air as "the novel reinvented as rant" (see the review in Scotland on Sunday, below), which is pretty much true. If you don't enjoy a good political rant, Dead Air will leave you cold. There is a modicum of plot and suspense buried underneath all the cleverness and romping. Ken’s other girlfriend, fashion model Celia Merrial, is the wealthy wife of a notorious London gangster. And Ken hasn't been involved with her longer than a few weeks when the threats start rolling in ... Dead Air was nominated for the 2004 IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. You can read the Guardian's review of the book here, and Scotland on Sunday's here. (Photo: houseboats on the Thames at Chelsea Wharf.) |
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I just packaged this book up to be mailed off to karendawn in the next couple days. Happy reading and Merry Christmas from New Westminster, British Columbia!
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Released 6 yrs ago (2/7/2006 UTC) at WILD RELEASE NOTES:
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Released 5 yrs ago (7/15/2006 UTC) at Panera Bread, Niagara Falls Blvd. in Amherst, New York USA WILD RELEASE NOTES:
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