The Peace process
An update, and I hope a pertinent one, as it seems like the country has gone David Peace crazy, on account of Red Riding (can't wait for tomorrow night's installment, can't wait for tomorrow night's, can't wait for tomorrow, can't wait for - can't wait etc.) and the imminent movie adaptation of The Damned United, which I have seen and although there's a review embargo I can say it's as good as Peace fans will have hoped ie. rooted in the book and the author's parallel Derby/Leeds narrative, but writer Peter Morgan has actually turned a serious book into a terrific period comedy, so odious comparisons need not be made.Anyway, I'm over halfway through 1983 and hurtling, via a triple parallel narrative and three layers of flashback, towards the horrible conclusion of the Quartet - and thus the Trilogy. I'm now convinced that 1980 is better than 1974, and 1983 is shaping up to be even better than 1980. We'll see. There's certainly stuff in 1983 that will make your hair curl in terms of retrospective evidence, and I almost know whodunnit. Piggott, the solicitor who turns up in 1983 and dominates one strand (he's played by Mark Addy in the third film, so I'm unable to picture him as anybody else - damn those films), achieves a new poetry of self-loathing and physical disintegration. You'll love him.
The past couple of weeks have been intense, in terms of fiction consumption. Quite out of the ordinary for me. For the record, the two non-fiction books that I've had to forsake in favour of devouring Peace to the bitter end, are Lenin by Robert Service and Israel by Martin Gilbert, which will have to wait. Once I've finished 1983, which might be today, might be tomorrow (today, tomorrow, tomorrow, today), I'm afraid I'm returning to GB84, which I haven't finished, and then, with crushing finality, it'll be onto Tokyo Year Zero, Peace's most recent, and first to venture outside Yorkshire, where the skies are always black and grey and it's always starting to rain.
I love him.
posted by Andrew Collins @ 6:39 AM
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10 Comments:
I've just started reading 1974 and I am really looking forward to tomorrow night just for the simple reason Paddy C's in this one.
It's nice that UK drama seems to be on the up. These budget cuts might make producers and execs think differently about what they produce and focus on the writers writing good matrial and not about setting the show in Afirca or in the 1960's trap that 'Heartbeat' seems still to be in after almost 20years.
Don't expect much sunshine from Tokyo Year Zero, Andrew. It leaves more to the imagination, and that's SCARY.
well we already know 'you like 1980' Andrew, from the tv program. (sorry) ;)
Dear oh dear.
Just watched the second episode last night (my husband's a TV critic so he got a preview DVD) and I have to admit, I'm a little underwhelmed by the whole thing. It's very watchable, the acting is great, it looks fantastic, and the script is fine, but after about half an hour I just felt the grimness was so overwrought and heavy-handed that it started descending into parody and unintentional hilarity (especially when we realised that every single character only spoke in a harrowing whisper). By the end of the episode we were wondering whether the yorkshire police force had killed David Peace's puppy or something...
I must be thick. I've read all the Yorkshire books except 1983 and although I did enjoy them, I spent too much time confused - either by the lack of punctuation in places (why?!) or the sheer number of characters. That and the unremitting nastiness.
Often the repetition seems contrived.
Often the repetition seems.
Often the rep - you get my drift, but I do reckon that could work well in the edit of a film, so it was a shame we haven't seen much of that on C4.
Having said all that, I still went out and bought Tokyo Year Zero! (Not read it yet)
Andrew: Have youe ever read any James Elroy (LA confidential etc)? If not you may like him as has been said before he and peace share a similar style. I do find both a little full on ar times but enjoyable. Also fans of dammned united should check out Tony harrison poetry which alos inspired peace's work.
Can we expect a MItford like obsession with Peace now?
Also are you now going to set the lawyers on Herrin, I'm sure you could just for what he said about your mum.
Simon in sunny Sevenoaks
Don't know if this has already been mentioned but if you go to www.guardian.co.uk/deals you can get a free copy of 1974 (just pay £2.25 P&P)
Zoe
An hour and a half in ands its rubbish. That'll be why The Damned United is STILL half read on my night stand! grac
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