Utterly Monkey

Curious to read Nick Laird after noting that he was on the Booker longlist for Glover's Mistake, this title was sitting on the library shelves just waiting to be read. While it does fall into the lad/caper formula, this book is a much finer piece of writing than other examples of the genre. He has so many wonderful, comical observations of everyday life that I found utterly delightful. Light, easy and very funny - don't listen to the grumpy reviewers - it's pure formula but very well executed.

I found this a terrifickly well realized novel, driven less by plot than by the characters' ambivalent relationships to their various backgrounds, which collide in the life of the laconic, but sensitive, narrator. It's not lad lit as usual, but carefully staged observations about those things that swirl around and within us. The last few scenes contain, certainly, some of the weaker ones of the novel, but there's something of interest on every page. Laird's just a wonderful writer; the real thing.

I really enjoyed this book. It is not a work of genius. It will not change your life. Nevertheless, it was interesting, funny, and even a little exciting. In all honesty, if you don't laugh at the story that sparks the fist fight between Geordie and Danny, you would never have liked this book anyway. I look forward to Laird's next novel. I would take with a grain of salt reviews (such as the booklist review above) that do not understand that the IRA is a Republican organization, and all of the Irish characters in this book are Protestants, and Unionists. That error means they missed one of the interesting things about this book. It is one of the rare instances of a book set, in part, in Northern Ireland told from the Protestant perspective. That is a serious gap in a reviewer's understanding. Ditto all of the "lad lit" descriptions. Lad mags, at least, are for 20 something kids trying to feel sophisticated. The point of Danny's redemption is not meant for those kids. They won't understand it. Only after you've had the opportunity to sell your soul for work a few times will it make sense. Hence, the work cannot possibly be for "lads."

I gladly give this book 4 stars because the descriptions are sometimes stunningly astute. A joy to read. Perhaps it's my age (60 year old female), but I found the "teenage boy" humor/jokes too infantile. A lawyer thinking and sometimes acting like a 12 year old does not work for me. However, the plot held together well and I will be ready to read Nick Laird's next book. Can't wait to see what brilliant, but subtle descriptions he uses next.

Having the pleasure (and no doubt embarassment) of being married to the most beautiful and famous novelist in London, Laird has no right to be this talented. What a debut novel! Wrongly dismissed as "lad lit" by stuffy critics, this shrewd and incisively written comedy of chickens coming home to roost is funny, compelling, craftily worded, but never ornate; the action flows fast but not fast enough to obscure Laird's sardonic skill, and the knowing details of slum life in Belfast and white-collar work in England. A terrific read-the most impressive debut I've seen in years.