This
is one of Iain Banks’ earlier novels. It
is about Daniel Weir or Weird (Weir.D) as he is known. Daniel is a famous rock-star who, in his
early thirties, has retired from the limelight and now lives in a church in
Glasgow. He is tall, gangly and clumsy
so not your normal pop star material. We
join Daniel as he reminisces about his hedonistic days on the road. The tale switches between the past and the
present where we follow him on his drunken escapades with his heavy-drinking
working-class pals who don’t know his true identity. We see Daniel struggling with the guilt he
feels for various things that have happened in the past. In the end he meets up with his first
love. It is a short book, but felt long
to me as I didn’t enjoy it. I don’t
think I cared enough about, or particularly liked any of the characters. I found the characters were similar to those
in "The Steep Approach to Garbandale," which I enjoyed. It has left me wondering if all Iain Banks’
novels are written using the same type of characters.
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