06/24/2007: "Two UK Reviews; A Thought upon British Tabloids"

Hi All,

Here are some UK reviews. The first is from a website called BookMunch, done by a fellow called Darran who I've just completed an interview with. That should be posted at some point and I'll direct you there with a link.

The review ... you know, I didn't read it. I'm pretty sure it's a good one, and no matter I appreciate Darran for providing one at all, but I've become very mercurial with my review-reading habits. I'd almost rather read a nasty one, like Kirkus, than a nice one. What odd currents must be shifting in the deep rivers of my psyche. And God, I'll say it again: every time I see that cover, I think of my brother. Uncanny, the resemblance. Look at his Myspace page and tell me I'm lying:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=78047491

It's him! Or his doppelganger!

review: http://bookmunch.co.uk//view.php?id=1841

The second one is not a whole review; it was sent on from Camilla, my UK publicist. I've noticed that, worried about the reaction from mercurial and frenetic writerly souls such as myself, publicists and editors and so forth only send me good reviews, or parse the good bits out of reviews---probably due to an assumption that any negative words thrust at our work will send us into a crashing funk wherein we sit before the TV, tuned only to static, eating from a one-gallon tin of blueberry pie filling, naked, blueberries dripping all down our sallow chests.

Well, she might be right.

Here's the bit of the review she sent along. It comes from THE DAILY SPORT, which I will talk more about below:

"Craig Davidson launched himself at the literary world with Rust and Bone, a book of short stories that could beat you to a pulp. He showed heavyweight potential then – but this first novel puts him in line for a title challenge… Fight books which batter your senses AND make you think are few and far between. This is as good as any since Brian Burland’s The Sailor and the Fox"

As a result, I did go and order THE SAILOR AND THE FOX (published way back in my birth year, 1975) off Amazon for the princely sum of one penny---which, before long, both RUST AND BONE and THE FIGHTER will be available for, so all you thrifty sorts just have to bide your time until I'm a literary irrelevancy. Not that Brian Burland is a literary irrelevancy, and certainly many great books can be bought on Amazon for a penny. I bought it because the last unknown book my own work was compared to was CUTTER AND BONE, which I later read and was blown away by. So I hope Burland's book is the same.

Anyway, THE DAILY SPORT. I'd never heard of this publication, so, as I'm wont to do, I go check online to see what it's all about. No website, but I do get this:

www.reviewcentre.com/reviews11439.html

... and this unflattering description:

Unabashed trash. Almost zero news content - but plenty of soft porn pictures and adverts for adult chatlines.

...which got me to thinking, Why don't we have these in North America? I mean, conceivably I might be more interested in the current affairs and the workings of our government if said articles were accompanied by soft porn pictures---even better if, having read the pressing news of the day, I could ring up an adult chatline and converse with Stella or Brianna or Demi or whoever about those news items.

We're too prudish, I guess. The closest we've got is the Sunshine Girl---which, as I don't read the Sun, I only see when I use the restroom at a sports bar, where she's almost always tacked to the corkboard hovering above the urinals. Maybe it's a uniquely British thing. I didn't see the likes of it in France, though I must admit I didn't spend a lot of my time on smut patrol. Well, I mean, a GOODLY lot of it was spent on smut patrol, but then a goodly lot of every day of my life is spent thus employed. The point of the matter is, I didn't see anything like that.

Though I did spend a few late nights out in France and, upon returning to my hotel room before hitting the sack, I noticed that French TV turns into softcore porn after midnight. A lot like Cinderella's coach and horses turning into ... uh, porn ... after midnight. Okay, so that's a weak analogy, or not really an analogy at all, more like a tortured bit of nonsense, but you know what? I'm trying out new material.

And Canadian TV used to be the same. I remember when I was in highschool, CITY TV out of Toronto used to become softcore porn, too. The infamous "Blue Movie"---which really wasn't so provocative or tittillating, not that I could recall; a lot of soft-focus Euro arthouse movies, hirsute ladies running round a sun-dappled meadow naked while some tortured artist type spied on them from a faraway garret, wistful with Euro ennui. But there were boobs and bums and romping, grab-ass, random femme-on-femme horseplay which, for libido-swelled teens such as myself, was fine as cherry wine.

I have no point to any of this, so adios for now.

All best, Craig.