Boyracers

Bissett's debut novel is-underneath the stylistic semi-pyrotechnics and pop culture references-a fairly traditional angsty coming-of-age story. Set in Falkirk (a medium-sized town roughly halfway between Glasgow and Edinburgh) circa 1999-2000 (based on pop culture references, such as the impending release of the U2 album "All That You Can't Leave Behind"), it's the story of four guys who cling to their friendship as the only ray of light in an otherwise bland life. At 15, Alvin is the runt of the lot, and his Tolkein / Stephen King / Clive Barker obsessions make him the default nerd of the quartet. Add to that, a miserable home life (his alcoholic mother disappeared, leaving his unemployed father permanently depressed and blasting The Sex Pistols, while his older brother escaped to London), and a crush on the prettiest, wealthiest girl in school, and you get one unhappy kid. It's never really clear how he became so close to Franny, Dolby, and Brian, all of whom are several years older and have dead-end jobs, but he buys into the group delusion that friendship is all you need in life.The bulk of the book consists of the guys cruising around town in Dolby's car, scoping girls and avoiding the menacing eyes of "weapons" (teenage thugs). There's lots of aimless teen chatter about stuff like who was the best Batman, the release date of the new U2 album, what video to rent, and so forth. Interwoven with this is the inevitable process of Alvin's maturation, including his first drinking session, his first sex, his first time driving, and of course, the harsh stripping away of some of life's illusions. None of these are anything new, but Bissett handles each ably, managing to wring some empathy for wee Alvin out of scenes that we've all seen a hundred times before in film, television, and print. Stylistically, there's a bit of Scots dialect, but it's pretty low key, certainly not the level of Welsh or Kelman. Bissett tries to weave in song lyrics throughout-sometimes breaking a paragraph in the middle of a word to throw in a stanza-in an attempt to show how pervasive and important music is to teenagers. Sometimes this works, but often it's intrusive. Similarly, paragraphs are broken in the most arbitrary manner, almost as if the typesetter came along at the end and as a joke, just started putting in paragraph markers at random. Not sure what the point of that is, other than maybe to suggest the chaotic nature of teenagerdom... All in all, this is a decent read, but nothing special. Probably not worth seeking out unless you're trying to keep up with all the latest Scottish fiction or are a big fan of coming of age stories. Oh yes, the title is a slang term coined in the UK and New Zealand for teenage drivers who aggressively flout the law and participate in illegal street racing (kind of like the gearheads in The Fast and The Furious).