Toby Litt

Mutants Essays is a collection of essays from accomplished novelist and creative writing lecturer Toby Litt. Full disclosure - I received my copy in return for a review here. I'll leave it to you to imagine how daunting it is to write a review/essay on someone so erudite and talented knowing that they will read it! Also knowing that I'm a fan and that Deadkidsongs is one of my favourite books should tell you that although this is an honest review, the expectation is that I would enjoy the show more book (spoiler alert - I did!)

The book is split into two halves - "What I think" and "Why I think it" and includes the text of several of Litt's summer lectures on creative writing. Litt teaches at Birkbeck which is one of the top Creative Writing courses on Unistats. And, judging by these lectures, you can see why. Being a writer, aspiring to be published, as I am they really hit the spot for me - but you don't have to be a writer to get something from them, for example you'll get an insight as to why some authors have the swing and others don't.

However these lectures, including one on how jazz can teach you about writing (hence the swing comment above), come after a series of essays on writers as varied as Tolstoy and Spark. It's obvious that Litt is well-read and reads well. These are insightful, and often entertaining essays. I especially liked the one on Muriel Spark, a writer I admire. The description of headfuck literature in an essay entitled - Headfuck fiction versus Carlos Labbé really chimed with me too, especially since I read Navidad Y Matanza in 2014.

The "what I think" section then is full of confident opinion pieces, but what of "why I think it?" Well here we get some insights into reading, on perversity, on monsters, on ghost stories and why historical fiction is problematic. These essays are just as insightful as the first half's. For example the essay on Sebald clarified what it is that I've been struggling to express about the writer since reading The rings of Saturn and The Emigrants.

I also enjoyed the essay on Hogarth and London, having attended the same exhibition that sparked the essay and the insight it gave into Litt's own novels - especially Hospital another of his books I'd recommend.

If there were any criticism it would be that some of the information contained in what are clearly originally standalone essays is repeated in others that were not originally meant to be read together. But there are only a couple of examples of this, and it didn't mar my enjoyment of the collection.

Overall - This is a collection you should read if you are interested in literature, in reading it or writing it and/or you're a fan of Litt's fiction.

Highly Recommended. show less

Toby Litt's okay are a moderately successful Canadian indie band and this is their story from school-days formation up to and beyond the death of guitarist crab twenty years later. The story is narrated by the drummer – clap (the other members are singer syph and bassist mono) – who is, handily for Litt, the most sober and self-aware of the group.

Although the book manages to stay entertaining through all the overdoses, break-ups and excesses, what really makes it a great read are the two show more or three key moments related which bring a depth and humanity to the story. Plenty is borrowed and modified from well-known rock myths – the fishing obsessed band member and the giving away of a suitcase of money to name two I noticed – and half the fun is spotting the ones you know, but it only really works because of the skilful way he has created a bunch of people that seem real, not like rock stars.

Also smart is the way Litt neatly side-steps the key point of what they actually sound like, letting you hear your own soundtrack. For what its worth, I thought they would sound a bit like a cross between Coldplay and Snow Patrol. (Coldpatrol or Snow Play maybe?) Horrific I know, but don't let that put you off reading the book. show less

The year is 1995 and Mary has returned from University to Bedford. She is bored and goes to a party where she meets three people, Jack, Neal and Maggie, Bedford's self-confessed 'Beats'. This group want to ignore anything that was created after 1966, for them the end of the Beat movement.

After joining the group for a 'Beat Happening' at the public library Mary decides that she wants to sleep with Jack because he looks dangerous, she becomes a fake Beatnik and even dates Neal so she can get show more to Jack. Mary, Jack and Neal along with his cat Koko set off to Brighton where they share bedroom threesomes but divisions between the group leads to Neal suddenly disappearing. When Koko dies Mary and Neal set off to America to scatter her ashes in New York and in California, crossing the country following in the footsteps of 'Sal' Jack Kerouac's hero in his novel 'The Road', Jack's favourite novel.

This book is meant as a warning against the danger of excesses and could have been so much more. The initial premise seems good, the Beat generation were an interesting sub-culture whose ethos was to be Bold, be Brave and be Balanced, members looked to reject materialism and sought experiences that were 'Real' which included sex, drugs and Eastern spirituality, even if this particular group's belief that it all suddenly ended in 1966 seemed a tad ludicrous.

The main problem with this book is that it just doesn't go anywhere despite its subtitle of 'An English Road Movie. Nor are any of the characters very likeable. Jack is a sexist egomaniac, Neal is quiet, easily influenced and has a thing for his cat which soon gets boring, Maggie isn't even necessary whilst Mary is in her own words 'a bitch' who despite not liking Jack as a person is still willing to follow him everywhere and do virtually everything that he suggests even if this means hurting Neal. Litt tries to fill his story with Beat expressions, like “dig,” “hip” and “man.” and whilst the dialogue feels fresh at certain moments it quickly stagnates.

When the book does finally get on the road it is dull and whilst Mary and Jack finally reach their destination the story doesn't and is left open ended. I continued reading it in the forlorn hope that it would improve but it never really raised its level above the dull and as such I can't in all honesty recommend it, there are far too many better books out there. show less

Two (or Three) Flew Over the Nun's Nest
Review of the Galley Beggar Press general release (grey cover) edition (2019)

This was an extraordinary caper comedy about Elliott, a boy in a wheelchair with cerebral palsy, and his blind friend Jim and how they work towards an escape into the outdoor world from the orphanage / institution where they live under the care of several nuns. I don't want to overstate my Cuckoo's Nest parallel too much, so I'll quickly say here that the nuns are pretty benign show more and there is no dominant evil Nurse Ratched character, although Sister Britta is the one most flagged as the disciplinarian. There is another older boy Charlie though who is a bully and the main antagonist.

The extraordinary element is that Elliott can't speak beyond several wordless approximations of language and can only slightly move one hand and somewhat jiggle his wheelchair and Jim, as stated, is blind. These two still manage to create a means of communication about which it would be somewhat spoilery to get into details. Suffice it say that Elliott is very gifted musically and is able to hum melodies quite easily and Jim is pretty good at that as well. Also there are a few reasons the book is set in 1979 in a pre-digital age. One of these reasons is that the main early Beatles Greatest Hits collections were the so-called Red Album (Beatles 1962-1966) and Blue Album (Beatles 1967-1970) issued in 1974 in various formats including cassette tapes.

I will confess to a bit of hesitancy when I started this book as stream-of-consciousness novels can often require a lot of concentration in order to keep up with the mental leaps. But it all flowed so naturally and smoothly that there were really few issues in keeping up with Elliott (who you have to accept is writing this as a memoir having the added advantage of later technological and medical breakthroughs that he refers to towards the end of the book). Also, don't be put off by the back cover blurb that refers to "30 to 40 pages of tears". This book is not a tragedy and your tears may be those of joy or laughter.

This was easily one of my top reads of 2019 and I also took advantage of a recent Galley Beggar Press sale offering to pick up additional copies as future gifts for reading friends who might otherwise miss it.

Patience was one of the selections in Shakespeare and Company's 2019 Year of Reading subscription series which is an excellent annual curated series. You can see the variety of the 2019 selections on this tagged shelf. show less