The Grampus
BFD writer for Insight Politics John Black has published his debut novel. The Grampus was sent an early copy and this is his review.
It retails for $35 and is available from all good bookshops or directly from the publisher www.trosspublishing.co.nz or via e-mail [email protected]
**If you order directly from the publisher, postage will be included in the price.
Man Down by John Black
This is a very funny book replete with dry humour and features our protagonist, Martin King, an almost failed librarian at the North Shag Rock Public Library.
He is a difficult character to assess as he seems a combination of the Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin and Tom Sharpe’s Wilt. Martin is a man of contrast and querulousness in the world of an increasingly woke library.
The book is divided into three sections: Down, Up, and Down (Again) which are the story of Martin’s life. Martin is in his late 20s, losing his hair. He likes his beer and (cheap) whisky on Fridays, Saturday and one other day when the stresses of the job require forgetfulness. He muddles through his day-to-day existence in a state of perpetual self-doubt. He lives in a one-bedroom flat shared with his maniacal friend Deke.
Martin is a man of unrequited love and a perpetual failure. His love for Katherine, fellow traveller in the library, is constantly disturbed by his being completely unable to talk to her and by the ever-present figure of Tad, unfailingly polite, considerate and cheerful.
Martin has other pressures as well. The disastrous ‘efficiency expert’ the library has engaged to improve the library service and reorientate it for the future, inevitably means some sort of automated book exchange system and loss of most of the jobs. Martin’s superior, the formidable Erica Polwart, brusque and efficient, keeps Martin dangling between success and failure; on the one hand castigating him for still not being fully qualified but then asking Martin to MC the re-dedication of the statue of the mustachioed Sir Edward Lazenby, whose money paid for establishing the library.
To his horror, Martin, at best terrified of public speaking, would not only MC the ceremony but would also be expected to deliver a long-winded speech and announce the winner of a new Poetry Prize dedicated to Sir Edward.
Martin, somewhat the worse for wear and in a state of anger and frustration enters the poetry competition.
Descending into farce, confusion is heaped on confusion. Chaos erupts.
The penultimate phase of this tale is laugh-out-loud funny as the various factions at the re-dedication break into violence with extremist groups who oppose the dedication, a group of left-wing protestors who support it, the middle class group who went to bask in the glow of their new-found street poet and the desperate dignitaries trying to quell the riot.
Nevertheless, all is not lost and in an upbeat finale, Martin needs to make a decision.
Man Down is a delightful book, easy to read with a style that flows across the page. Peopled with well-developed characters it is at once believable and absurd. The humour is not at Martin’s expense – he is an unwitting pawn caught in the ebb and flow of the North Shag Rock Library and, as Polwart says, the Library Com-MUN-ity. With officious officials, the slimy Tad, the crazy Deke, the beautiful Katherine and a strong support cast, this is a must read and a real change from so much of New Zealand’s somewhat bleak fiction. Read it and enjoy.
Man Down retails for $35 and is available from all good bookshops, directly from the publisher www.trosspublishing.co.nz, or via e-mail [email protected]
**If you order directly from the publisher postage will be included in the price.