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Meantime: The gripping debut crime novel from Frankie Boyle

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The characterisation is so real, that’s where the laughs came from for me is when he’s describing the people around him with this horrid honesty. The evolution of the characters works wonderfully, especially Felix: piecing together his personal story is on a par with trying to solve the crime he's investigating. Frontline Noir, founded in 2008, is a publisher of current affairs and recent history titles covering controversial topics and events, often written by people who were participants or otherwise affected. This amount includes seller specified domestic postage charges as well as applicable international postage, dispatch, and other fees.

It’s dazzingly funny, grappling with big ideas, and is heartbreakingly tinged with personal and political loss.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. In this light his tanned, bloated head looked not unlike a haunted paper bag, his glazed eyes fixed on some bleak internal horizon. John Dugdale of The Times compared Meantime to the book Inherent Vice (2009) by Thomas Pynchon, which features a cannabis-consuming detective and mixes crime fiction with political satire.

Though he had written non-fiction before, Meantime was Boyle's first novel; he wrote parts of the novel in hotels after stand-up performances and while wandering his hometown Glasgow. Whether you are Yes or No, right or left wing, “woke” or “gammon”, he is more than willing to have a pop at you. I do however think that the mystery thriller aspect of the book was kind of secondary to all of the other stuff.

Although the book is marketed as a crime novel, I’d say it’s more philosophical in nature with the occasional plot point - normally this would irritate me, but his writing is so sharp and interesting that I actually enjoyed the meandering pace.

Boyle said on Twitter in September 2022 that he planned to begin writing a second novel over Christmas. If you enjoyed Trainspotting for the madness that it was, and appreciate the intelligence that sits behind some of Frankie Boyle's more controversial moments, then I think you'll enjoy it.Finding himself a suspect, Felix and his overweight neighbour, Donnie, also partial to mind-altering substances, decide to undertake their own investigation: “We were the two people least suited to investigating anything, but with the right drug combinations we could be whoever we had to be. He is suspected and makes the ingenuous decision to turn detective, despite being out of his box most of the time. The mystery that underpins this crime novel is solid enough, but I can't help thinking that its role is secondary and it is essentially only a vehicle for the author to air his thoughts - both comedic and socio-political. As the evidence begins to arrive fast and furious, Felix enlists the help of others including his ecstatic downstairs neighbor, as well as a successful crime novelist among others, to bring about justice for his friend. You Have Been Watching, Never Mind the Buzzcocks (as guest host and team captain when Phill Jupitus was unavailable for recording), and Argumental, as well as writing for Jimmy Carr’s Distraction and Sean Lock’s TV Heaven, Telly Hell.

I loved Felix’s interactions with the suspects as well as those close to him that he would come to find he couldn’t trust completely either. Which is perhaps a bad metaphor for this book seeing as many of Felix's days are lost in a drug fuelled haze. Felix's lack of confidence in his views, Boyle said, allows detours into commentary on society and culture. David Chong – a GP and drug dealer associated with Marina and obsessed with the idea that the universe is simulated.It’s VERY political, extremely satirical and I’m not sure if it���s all just Frankie Boyle writing a massive Parody of life today.

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