Mr Starlight

Predictable to the very last page. ( )

The story follows the theatrical and personal history of two brothers("Sel" and "Cled") and their family from the post war years to the 80's and death of "Sel". One becomes a major star in the Liberace mould and the other a seasonal holiday artiste.

Some rare funny moments mostly at Cled lack of insight into his lack of star quality. But as a whole the novel rarely worked for me. The family was supposed to be from Birmingham and with a welsh background but the idiom and phrases used had neither influence. They spoke in some imitation northern English as imagined by people living in the home counties.For Americans this is like some Yankee writing a novel set in the deep south based on no more knowledge of the area then from watching old episodes of The Dukes of Hazzard

I found the characters cliched and two-dimensional and the context poorly sketched out. An even worse crime:it rarely rang psychologically true.

One to avoid unless stuck on a long journey and wanting to analyse ways to avoid faults in your own writing. ( )