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The Brilliant and Forever by Kevin MacNeil (view source)
Revision as of 13:50, 29 March 2016
, 13:50, 29 March 2016Created page with "{{infobox |title=The Brilliant and Forever |sort= Brilliant and Forever |author=Kevin MacNeil |reviewer= Stephen Leach |genre=Humour |summary=An absurdist, metafictional novel..."
{{infobox
|title=The Brilliant and Forever
|sort= Brilliant and Forever
|author=Kevin MacNeil
|reviewer= Stephen Leach
|genre=Humour
|summary=An absurdist, metafictional novel that will do all it can to wring a laugh from you.
|rating=3.5
|buy=Maybe
|borrow=Maybe
|pages=256
|publisher=Polygon
|date=Mar 2016
|isbn= 9781846973376
|website=http://www.kevinmacneil.com/
|video=
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846973376</amazonuk>
|amazonus=<amazonus>1846973376</amazonus>
}}
You know sometimes when someone tells a joke, everyone else laughs, and you're sat there wondering what was so funny?
I had that feeling a few times while I was reading this book.
There was a lot of really good stuff – I mean, one of the characters is an alpaca. Already pretty funny, right? (It… makes sense in context.) It's an odd but strangely compelling premise: a remote Scottish island where people and alpacas practice their craft to enter a short story in the titular Brilliant and Forever festival. Very early on, it becomes apparent that the alpacas are struggling against something of a divide with the humans, viewed by them as little more than second-class citizens. But everyone on the island – human and alpaca alike – is obsessed with writing, each of them desperate to make their mark and become a famous author.
It's quite fine, nuanced writing, every other line a joke. Not all of them hit the mark. I'm not a huge fan of wordplay, and some of the more deliberate jokes like 'haiku-kery' (poetry-based cooking, get it?) were stretched a little too thin to keep on being funny after their first mention. On my initial read I struggled to keep focus during the long stretches of the narrator's inner monologue, which I felt really should have been chopped down or done away with completely. And yet when I reread these sections I found I enjoyed them a lot more – much more so than the numerous one-liners.
Where this novel really succeeds is in the way it examines the writing process and interweaves different stories together. MacNeil includes all 13 short stories written for the titular festival in the text, and this is the novel's triumph, switching between them quickly while somehow managing not to make them blend into the same voice. Some of them have unexpected endings: some are sad, some are funny, and all are clever – I didn't fully recognise how clever the book was until I'd finished it.
Taste is such a difficult thing to predict. I felt sure I would love this book, really love it. But while I didn't dislike it, it didn't have the effect on me I expected. Perhaps in a week's time, I'll snap my fingers and say ''Oh…!'' I want to reread it one day for that exact reason. For now, though, I'm sure Archie the alpaca would shrug and say to me ''It's a jazz thing you don't get…''
If you like intelligent fiction that will make you chuckle, you might enjoy [[Solar by Ian McEwan]].
{{amazontext|amazon=1846973376}}
{{amazonUStext|amazon=1846973376}}
{{commenthead}}
|title=The Brilliant and Forever
|sort= Brilliant and Forever
|author=Kevin MacNeil
|reviewer= Stephen Leach
|genre=Humour
|summary=An absurdist, metafictional novel that will do all it can to wring a laugh from you.
|rating=3.5
|buy=Maybe
|borrow=Maybe
|pages=256
|publisher=Polygon
|date=Mar 2016
|isbn= 9781846973376
|website=http://www.kevinmacneil.com/
|video=
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846973376</amazonuk>
|amazonus=<amazonus>1846973376</amazonus>
}}
You know sometimes when someone tells a joke, everyone else laughs, and you're sat there wondering what was so funny?
I had that feeling a few times while I was reading this book.
There was a lot of really good stuff – I mean, one of the characters is an alpaca. Already pretty funny, right? (It… makes sense in context.) It's an odd but strangely compelling premise: a remote Scottish island where people and alpacas practice their craft to enter a short story in the titular Brilliant and Forever festival. Very early on, it becomes apparent that the alpacas are struggling against something of a divide with the humans, viewed by them as little more than second-class citizens. But everyone on the island – human and alpaca alike – is obsessed with writing, each of them desperate to make their mark and become a famous author.
It's quite fine, nuanced writing, every other line a joke. Not all of them hit the mark. I'm not a huge fan of wordplay, and some of the more deliberate jokes like 'haiku-kery' (poetry-based cooking, get it?) were stretched a little too thin to keep on being funny after their first mention. On my initial read I struggled to keep focus during the long stretches of the narrator's inner monologue, which I felt really should have been chopped down or done away with completely. And yet when I reread these sections I found I enjoyed them a lot more – much more so than the numerous one-liners.
Where this novel really succeeds is in the way it examines the writing process and interweaves different stories together. MacNeil includes all 13 short stories written for the titular festival in the text, and this is the novel's triumph, switching between them quickly while somehow managing not to make them blend into the same voice. Some of them have unexpected endings: some are sad, some are funny, and all are clever – I didn't fully recognise how clever the book was until I'd finished it.
Taste is such a difficult thing to predict. I felt sure I would love this book, really love it. But while I didn't dislike it, it didn't have the effect on me I expected. Perhaps in a week's time, I'll snap my fingers and say ''Oh…!'' I want to reread it one day for that exact reason. For now, though, I'm sure Archie the alpaca would shrug and say to me ''It's a jazz thing you don't get…''
If you like intelligent fiction that will make you chuckle, you might enjoy [[Solar by Ian McEwan]].
{{amazontext|amazon=1846973376}}
{{amazonUStext|amazon=1846973376}}
{{commenthead}}