“Declan Burke is his own genre. The Lammisters dazzles, beguiles and transcends. Virtuoso from start to finish.” – Eoin McNamee “This bourbon-smooth riot of jazz-age excess, high satire and Wodehouse flamboyance is a pitch-perfect bullseye of comic brilliance.” – Irish Independent Books of the Year 2019 “This rapid-fire novel deserves a place on any bookshelf that grants asylum to PG Wodehouse, Flann O’Brien or Kyril Bonfiglioli.” – Eoin Colfer, Guardian Best Books of the Year 2019 “The funniest book of the year.” – Sunday Independent “Declan Burke is one funny bastard. The Lammisters ... conducts a forensic analysis on the anatomy of a story.” – Liz Nugent “Burke’s exuberant prose takes centre stage … He plays with language like a jazz soloist stretching the boundaries of musical theory.” – Totally Dublin “A mega-meta smorgasbord of inventive language ... linguistic verve not just on every page but every line.Irish Times “Above all, The Lammisters gives the impression of a writer enjoying himself. And so, dear reader, should you.” – Sunday Times “A triumph of absurdity, which burlesques the literary canon from Shakespeare, Pope and Austen to Flann O’Brien … The Lammisters is very clever indeed.” – The Guardian

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

This Week We're Reading ... Running Mates and Pulp Culture

At a twist per page, Garbhan Downey’s crackerjack political comedy-thriller Running Mates has roughly 291 twists (although some of them, if we’re being academic about it, actually qualify as turns) – the words ‘Hiaasen’ and ‘Carl’ spring to mind in no particular order, as do the words ‘Bateman’ and ‘Bateman’ (you’re not allowed call him Colin anymore, according to a Headline fatwa). The story? A Derry newspaper editor and a stunning-if-profane judge fall out of the nuptial bed and into a presidential race down South, with a CSI-style body count along the way. “Downey's pace, wit and fresh eye on the body politic of Ireland make for a great read,” claims one enlightened soul over on Amazon … Meanwhile, Woody Haut’s Pulp Culture and The Cold War is a more sober affair, despite the flamboyant cover, but it’s a fact-tastic take on “the seminal crime novels of the Forties and Fifties, featuring the work of two dozen or so pulp novelists, including Raymond Chandler, Jim Thompson and Charles Willeford, whose dicks decode the culture as well as investigate the crime,” says the Richmond Review. Okay, but is it any good? Well, we loved it … but then, we like cold baked-bean sandwiches too, so what do we know?

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