The Concrete Grove
The Concrete Grove
Gary McMahon
We recommend Gary McMahon’s The Concrete Grove.
Set on a scary council estate, the hint of geography in a map of the estate does not disappoint and place becomes a leading character - not a flat or separated one, but one penetrating and penetrated by human fears and joys.
We loved the transcendence of it all, but literally and paradoxically rooted, we just about got through the ordeals in order to get to the chance to change. And loved the difficult goodness at the end - retribution and redemption and Hailey off on what sounded to us like a very long drift - the 'awfully big adventure' - your last words "Everything is beautiful and nothing hurts" were like our own feelings about drifting and making work and performance 'in site': "short of serious injury nothing can go wrong and everything's significant".
So not only did we have the thrill of the fiction, but lovely personal associations of walking with Hailey towards the next monsters. Much happened that we did not foresee and when we had given up hope of much more than revenge we got so much more! So, thank you, Gary, thank you!! Great novel.
Crab Man
Go here for all Crab Man / Mytho's other reviews
Gary McMahon
We recommend Gary McMahon’s The Concrete Grove.
Set on a scary council estate, the hint of geography in a map of the estate does not disappoint and place becomes a leading character - not a flat or separated one, but one penetrating and penetrated by human fears and joys.
We loved the transcendence of it all, but literally and paradoxically rooted, we just about got through the ordeals in order to get to the chance to change. And loved the difficult goodness at the end - retribution and redemption and Hailey off on what sounded to us like a very long drift - the 'awfully big adventure' - your last words "Everything is beautiful and nothing hurts" were like our own feelings about drifting and making work and performance 'in site': "short of serious injury nothing can go wrong and everything's significant".
So not only did we have the thrill of the fiction, but lovely personal associations of walking with Hailey towards the next monsters. Much happened that we did not foresee and when we had given up hope of much more than revenge we got so much more! So, thank you, Gary, thank you!! Great novel.
Crab Man
Go here for all Crab Man / Mytho's other reviews