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Reversed Forecast Introduction of the ebook: Reversed Forecast
Đánh giá : 3.58 /5 (sao)
The first novel by the acclaimed, brilliantly unconventional Nicola Barker, prize-winning author of The Yips
Reversed Forecast is a vivid snapshot of pre-gentrification London and a tale of finding love in less-than-scenic places. Chance meetings between its cast of inimitably odd individuals—Ruby, the betting-shop cashier; violently disturbed (and disturbing) Vincent; Sam The first novel by the acclaimed, brilliantly unconventional Nicola Barker, prize-winning author of The Yips
Reversed Forecast is a vivid snapshot of pre-gentrification London and a tale of finding love in less-than-scenic places. Chance meetings between its cast of inimitably odd individuals—Ruby, the betting-shop cashier; violently disturbed (and disturbing) Vincent; Samantha, the would-be cabaret singer; and Little Buttercup, the never-quite-made-it greyhound—result in the unlikeliest of couples. There’s always the risk that it could all be disastrous as characters try—or don’t try—to make winning combinations. But as Ruby, the story’s soft-centered heroine, observes: “Losing, that’s the whole point of the gamble.”
Dazzling, gritty, and surprising, Reversed Forecast is the uniquely entertaining first novel by Nicola Barker, previously shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and winner of the Hawthornden Prize and IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. “Beautifully rendered—well written, clear and revelatory.” —The Times (London) “A capital fairy tale.” —The Guardian
“A strange and wonderful novel.” —The Sunday Times (London) “An imaginative lowlife tale, told with acuteness and verve.” —The Literary Review
Nicola Barker’s eight previous novels include Darkmans (short-listed for the 2007 Man Booker and Ondaatje prizes, and winner of the Hawthornden Prize), Wide Open (winner of the 2000 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award), and Clear (long-listed for the Man Booker Prize in 2004). She has also written two prize-winning collections of short stories, and her work has been translated into more than twenty languages. She lives in East London.
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Review ebook Reversed Forecast
[4.5] More bizarre and chaotically loveable eccentrics from NB, back in the less gentrified time when a shambolic northern art graduate could work in a bookie’s and afford to live in a grotty studio in Soho. Feels like home even though I wasn’t there then. Dog racing, crap low-level criminals, pub bands, and a strange teenage girl obsessed with pigeons (who’d probably now be considered to be on the autistic spectrum) all feature.
Along with confused, fluid, lust/annoyance-fuelled sexual attracti [4.5] More bizarre and chaotically loveable eccentrics from NB, back in the less gentrified time when a shambolic northern art graduate could work in a bookie’s and afford to live in a grotty studio in Soho. Feels like home even though I wasn’t there then. Dog racing, crap low-level criminals, pub bands, and a strange teenage girl obsessed with pigeons (who’d probably now be considered to be on the autistic spectrum) all feature.
Along with confused, fluid, lust/annoyance-fuelled sexual attractions, with a scene or two that I initially misread as troubled – such is the way discourse on these things have changed over the last two decades, but it was only ever playfighting. A reminder that people are more complicated than Tumblr would like them to be.(And of a time with someone when I thought silently, “You can’t carry on like that these days, haven’t you grown out of that like I did? Didn’t you get the memo? I worry someone who didn’t used to be this way herself might end up accusing you of something”.)
Most ludicrous line: Vincent stared at the guitar. ‘If you’re expecting me to vomit into a musical instrument, I’d prefer a trumpet.’
One of my favourite Barkers, re-read worthy, along with the superlative Darkmans – and the two early short story collections which, unlike her recent manic writing style, feature a relaxed tone similar to this short novel, her first. …more
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