You Were Never Really Here

I saw the movie a few months ago and was quite disappointed by it. But the story at the root of it seemed like something I should enjoy, so I was surprised and intrigued when I saw this novella sitting on the library shelf. I hadn't even known the movie was an adaptation.

Indeed, reading the story was much better. It is a straightforward crime noir that reminded me of Richard Stark's Parker and Andrew Vachss' Burke novel series. A damaged man does good things by way of bad means. The prose is lean, the plot is simple, and the lead character is sympathetic.

This is another case of a good book becoming a bad movie. The filmmakers decided to slow things way down and add layers of murk and symbolism. And while Joaquin Phoenix is a decent show more actor, he just didn't click in this role for me. show less

'You Were Never Really Here’ is sixty-five pages of focused, brutal violence. It tells the story of a man who has suffered traumas that have so broken him and left him so afraid of his own potential for violence that he has isolated himself, minimising his contact with people, leaving almost no trace as he moves through his days. He has turned himself into something as simple and dangerous as the hammer that is his weapon of choice. The title refers to Joe’s view of himself as a man passing through the world without truly being a part of it.

Joe’s only reason for continuing to live is to turn the violence that is always trying to burst out of him, into a tool he wields against those who traffick the children he is covertly show more commissioned to rescue. Part of Joe’s trauma comes from his years as an undercover FBI agent breaking human trafficking gangs. Now he uses the knowledge he gained from that work, but without having to keep his violence leashed while he does it.

The violence starts on the first page. There is neither joy nor rage in it, just necessity. The prose, like the protagonist, is lean, muscular and brutal. The pace is relentless rather than fast. The tone is bleak. The action scenes are vivid.

This isn’t a story of redemptive heroics. It’s the story of a man who has made himself into a hammer and who sees every obstacle as a nail.

In 2017, Lynne Ramsay adapted this novella into a film starring Joaquin Phoenix, Judith Roberts and Ekaterina Samsonov. Click on the YouTube link below to see the trailer.

https://youtu.be/R8oYYg75Qvg?si=2t7mnTgAmPb11gcr show less

If this book was longer I'd have given it 5 stars. It is a novella. Like catholic sex, it stops just about the place where you don’t want it to stop and it leaves you gasping for more. I like Joe, he carries a hammer because it frightens people. The writing is like a hammer too, it beats you over the head and around the shoulders relentlessly. Just when you think it could not get any darker in there he whacks you again and you see stars. The writing is so tight I swear the book creaked and groaned from the tension.

This noir at its best and you should try it, it wont take much of your time like a quick knee trembler up a dark alley with a catholic conclusion.

This was a short, well-written thriller of the gritty and noir variety. The main character is Joe, ex-marine, ex-FBI, who lives off the grid (though with his ageing mother), and who works as investigator for hire. His specialty is recovering young teens who have been sold into pedophilic and prostitute rings. His favourite weapon is a hammer because his father used one to beat both him and his mother with.

You were never really here is a competent thriller novella: you get exactly what you expect. Though I still think the movie was better.

Film noir writ large - or small, I should say. A fairly decent book, but just a snack rather than anything substantial, Ames' dark shocker feels like something better suited to the big screen with its reliance on overused tropes and simple, direct storytelling.

Solid hardboiled tale in the vein of Drive.

A highly-charged and hard-boiled private detective story. None of the likeable goofiness you might have expected from Ames.