Finished

Even the Dogs. It's really very good indeed. The prose is torrential, tough and lovely. It's full of astounding, nail-on-the-head images, the plot is great and the experimental narration and structure a wild success. It's also harrowing, moving and extremely convincing. Bloody hell. There are few downsides. I wish Robert's alcoholism hadn't been sort of explained or reasoned out by the revelation of his head injury. I just don't think there needs to be a reason - not that the book offers it as a full explanation or a justification. I wondered if repeating the intermingled images and narrative technique so often was maybe slightly indulgent, but hell, it's pretty effective to read. The only other thing was Steve being surprised that soldiers got shot in Northern Ireland. I wasn't really convinced by his 'my country lied to me' mantra. Apparently Lee Rourke is asking himself why he hasn't read Jon McGregor before, somewhere out there on the internet. I'm asking myself the same thing.