For brothers Brian and Alex, born and bred in Barnsley, career choices were few and like their father they went down the pit. Until there weren’t any pits anymore.
Nowadays the jobs on offer to the next generation – Alex’s son Simon, and his boyfriend Ryan – are different, reflecting the new economy. Ryan is a security officer at the main shopping mall. Simon works at a call centre while pursuing supplementary careers as a drag queen and provider of pay-to-view on-line gay porn (some of which is graphically shared with the reader).
This short novel delivers three connected narratives. In the here and now, Simon and Ryan’s relationship is examined along with attitudes towards it from the locals. At the same time, but with flashbacks to the past, Brian is participating in a study project conducted by some university academics keen to assess the town’s collective memory of its mining past. They may be keen, but Brian and the other locals are lukewarm but appreciative of the tea and biscuits. The third strand goes back another generation and uses repetition and evocative prose to give a taste of the miner’s daily grind.
The mix of styles –
novelistic, academic, poetic – each expertly crafted, and the use of short
chapters, ensure interest is maintained to the end with each strand having a
resolution of sorts.
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