“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, June 6, 2007

“Ya Wanna Do It Here Or Down The Station, Punk?” # 419: Cormac Millar

Yep, it’s rubber-hose time, folks: a rapid-fire Q&A for those shifty-looking usual suspects ...
What crime novel would you like to have written?
The Galton Case by Ross Macdonald. A compelling trip through family secrets, present and past, the mystery of your own identity.
Who do you read for guilty pleasures?
John Mortimer’s Rumpole books. A writer who found his groove.
Most satisfying writing moment?
Doing a line of pure iambic pentameter to round off An Irish Solution.
The best Irish crime novel is …?
Of those I’ve read, possibly The Book of Evidence by John Banville.
What Irish crime novel would make a great movie?
The Statement by Brian Moore. Nothing Irish about it, thanks be to God.
Worst / best thing about being a writer?
Worst: the impossibility of finding enough time, if you work in an endless job like mine (university teaching). Best: Setting out to say something, failing to say it, then finding you’ve said something better. But it doesn’t always work out that way.
Why does John Banville use a pseudonym for writing crime?
Fleeing his creditors? Certainly not. Because he never noticed that “John Banville” writes crime stories? Hardly. Influenced by A.A. Fair (now known to be Erle Stanley Gardner)? Perish the thought. Market segmentation? Unthinkable. The example of Salvatore Lombino (a.k.a. Ed McBain & Evan Hunter)? Don’t be vulgar. Perhaps inspired by François-Marie Arouet? Yes, I think that sounds much better. But who am I to carp? I'm somewhat pseudonymous myself.
The three best words to describe your own writing are …?
Prolix. Awful prolix.

Cormac Millar is the author of An Irish Solution and The Grounds

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Moore's magnificent The Statement was, actually, made into a movie starring Michael Caine in 2003. Thank God no one knows about it because it is truly awful. Michael Caine is generally class, but this one rates right down there with Jaws: The Revenge and that pile of crap he made with Steven Segal.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0340376/

Much better (and fitting, for a site about Irish crime) is Caine's equally-unknown The Actors. That Dublin-set flick is as funny as Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, has a great cast, and features all sorts of crooks going about their mischief.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0307919/

PS How could Brian Moore fit so much that is so lasting into such short novels? A brillant man!