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Posted 20 hours ago

Meantime: The gripping debut crime novel from Frankie Boyle

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Thanks for the advanced copy I was really looking forward to reading this as I am a big Frankie Boyle fan. I can’t remember the last book I read where I laughed out loud so much, was fascinated by the odd and endearing characters and didn’t really mind what the plot was. Donnie confesses to being an anarchist infiltrating the police, then a police officer infiltrating environmental activists. He was a permanent panellist on Mock the Week for seven series and has made guest appearances on several popular panel shows including Have I Got News for You, 8 Out of 10 Cats, Would I Lie to You?

With rare exceptions such as bank holidays, the book group meets on the first Wednesday of every month at 7. The title to be read and discussed is sign-posted and on sale for the whole of the previous month (with a discount for those who make it known they intend to come) and everybody is welcome, whether first-timer, part-timer or regular-timer. It holds a different kind of magic, one where the disappointment from the referendum eats at the shoes of people walking to work, hailing taxis, and people on serious comedowns in dingy wee flats that contain all the hope of a mouldy pizza sitting on the countertop. It’s really quite surreal to be honest as it follows the main character in Felix as he investigate ps the death of a friend.Boyle said at the Edinburgh Book Festival in 2022: "I would much rather, if I could, segue into writing novels and just stay in the house and not travel so much". It jumps about and trails away, in ebbs and flows, which keep you engaged without having to pay too much attention. He is our narrator and, as you can expect from a man of his "highs" the story is somewhat confusing in places. There’s lots of humour throughout, as you would expect from Frankie Boyle, but I enjoyed the layers of dark conspiracy that made up the mystery that Felix sets out to uncover. Against that there are some moments that are - perhaps somewhat surprisingly - quite poignant and there are also a number of sections that not only made me smile, but actually caused me to laugh audibly.

For the first 2/3s it is relentlessly funny, a Frankie Boyle stand up in paperback (with some bits directly grafted from his stand up shows, obvious only to the discerning fan). Chilton said that Meantime "blazes with the sort of edgy, near-the-knuckle humour that has made Boyle such a popular comedian", with "spiky, challenging" social commentary and many "thought-provoking reflections". If you like a character who has the capacity to surprise and whose laid back exterior actually hides a very deep emotional core, then I think you may well bond with him.

The reason the book is a three star is because it just tried to do too much, the plot itself became a little lost and there seemed almost too much to it. Beware if you are offended by drug taking and gratuitous and appalling swear words, but that's Glasgow for you!

The Guardian 's Wilson found that Meantime, a "funny and moving" novel, was the "most impressive" celebrity crime fiction of the year.

The rambling, incoherent narrative you’d expect from a narrator on drugs, but what I didn’t expect was the pompous, continual banality of his internal monologue.

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