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abbie_ 's review for:
Something Like Happy
by John Burnside
3.75 stars
I read this collection during the great July heatwave in an attempt to transport myself to Burnside’s gloomy, rainy, snowy Scotland... and he did not disappoint! I love the way he juxtaposes urban Scotland with folklore and a sense of unease, I’ve never read anyone else quite like him.
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Something Like Happy explores the lives of various ordinary people - truck drivers, authors, husbands and wives in complacent marriages, people stuck in dead end jobs - and makes them extraordinary. He shows their secret inner lives, the beauty and hope that glimmers there, or else something much darker entirely...
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My favourite by far was Deer Larder, a deliciously dark and spine-tingling tale in which a man begins to receive unusual emails from a man who thinks he’s emailing someone else. As the emails get gradually more chilling, the protagonist wonders whether he’s the victim of an elaborate hoax, or whether he’s privy to one man’s descent into madness. I loved the way he weaved in the ethereal and folklore, while still maintaining a sense of reality!
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He also writes about some fucked up relationships between husbands and wives that are endlessly fascinating - and horrifying. Admittedly I wasn’t a fan of a few of the stories, but it wasn’t that they were bad, just not as memorable as some others!
I read this collection during the great July heatwave in an attempt to transport myself to Burnside’s gloomy, rainy, snowy Scotland... and he did not disappoint! I love the way he juxtaposes urban Scotland with folklore and a sense of unease, I’ve never read anyone else quite like him.
.
Something Like Happy explores the lives of various ordinary people - truck drivers, authors, husbands and wives in complacent marriages, people stuck in dead end jobs - and makes them extraordinary. He shows their secret inner lives, the beauty and hope that glimmers there, or else something much darker entirely...
.
My favourite by far was Deer Larder, a deliciously dark and spine-tingling tale in which a man begins to receive unusual emails from a man who thinks he’s emailing someone else. As the emails get gradually more chilling, the protagonist wonders whether he’s the victim of an elaborate hoax, or whether he’s privy to one man’s descent into madness. I loved the way he weaved in the ethereal and folklore, while still maintaining a sense of reality!
.
He also writes about some fucked up relationships between husbands and wives that are endlessly fascinating - and horrifying. Admittedly I wasn’t a fan of a few of the stories, but it wasn’t that they were bad, just not as memorable as some others!