Andrew Crumey: Mr Mee

[chillicheese]

Ignore the pretensions contained within most reviews. Yes, the subjects of the stories are involved in separate yet intertwined quests for the truth surrounding the stars of 18th century philosophy. But think of it more like Scottish academics get a few surprises in the style of pulp fiction.
The Author's site descirbes it as "An elderly bookworm, a love-sick lecturer and an eighteenth-century mystery are combined with comic results." which is a fair if bland description of the plots. The outstanding achievement here is the continual convergence of the three stories until they become one. And then with a final flourish in the epilogue, we get another twist in the threads which ties the knot securely

The three stories are also each endowed with a differnt tone, especially in the humour. The elderly academic discovering 21st century life is simply played for laughs while the younger writer's retrospective tale is more like a careful piece of comic observation. Meanwhile, the ignorant buffonery of the duo who hound Rousseau owes more to the Shakespearian fools in Merry Wives and Much Ado.

Has anyone read Mobius DIck yet - I'm waiting for it to come out in paperback as I can't carry hardbacks on the train :)

[rick green]

Welcome, chilicheese.
I saw on your blog how wshaw nudged you over here.
I hope you stick around long enough to feel at home.
Looking forward to more reviews.

[Wavid]

Yes, welcome Chilicheese and thanks for posting a review straight off. Why not let us all in on your likes and dislikes by posting a Top-Ten?

It's nice that w invited you over - it's about time he did something for us after we all bought thousands of copies of his book and reviewed it so slavishly. :wink:

[John Self]

I read Mr Mee earlier this year - or was it last year? - as someone had been pressing Crumey on me for years without my ever succumbing. I have to say I enjoyed it and was impressed with exactly what chillicheese describes - the convergence of the stories like the twining of a rope. However in the end I did feel it was more an impressive trick than an enduring achievement and I ended up decanting the book to the charity shop on one of my regular clearouts. Of course reading chillicheese's assessment makes me rather wish I hadn't. Perhaps I too will pick up Mobius Dick when it hits paperback. Have you read D'Alembert's Principle or Music in a Foreign Language, chilli?

[chillicheese]

Firstly, thanks for all your comments, great to recieve such a warm welcome.

In answer to all your points raised above :

Rick - yes, I'll be sticking around and there's a bucket load of reviews that I could pour over this forum but perhaps you'd all prefer a delicate trickle.

Wavid - I'm grateful to ws for exposing me to the multiple scratchings of the almost unpronouncable palimpsest fora. All time TopTen is near impossible as it would have to include everything from Dahl's Charlie to Dostoevsky's Raskolnikov stopping off at Casteneda's Juan along the way. So, instead, how about my best 10 books I've read this year :
1) Curious Incident - Insightful and compassionate.
2) A far cry from Kensington - Spark at her most cutting edge.
3) Morality for Beautiful Girls - Mma Makutsi's finest hour.
4) The Demolished Man - Alfred Bester's mind-blowing descriptions of telepathy.
5) anything by Philp K. Dick.
6) Post Office - Bukowski's shambling alcoholic work blog.
7) Attention All Shipping - because I love radio 4
8) The Necropolis Railway - the pages are coated in black grease and soot.
9) Hadji Murat - Tolstoy's last, brilliant contrast of the elite and the subjugated.
10) The Last Family in England - great pace for a piece of pop dog fiction.

Bottom 10 - anything by Dan Brown or Tibor Fischer.


John - you're so right about Crumey's conjuring trick. It's only because it was so well exectuted that I think we can forgive the bending of the individual threads to fit the overall tapestry. I haven't read the others and probably won't, at least until I've done the new one.

I look forward to ploughing through all your other reviews, there's some truly refreshing originality contained within these ping-pong post pages.

[wshaw]

Originally Posted by Wavid

It's nice that w invited you over - it's about time he did something for us after we all bought thousands of copies of his book and reviewed it so slavishly. :wink:

Does this mean you're up for buying another thousand ever time I introduce someone? Hey. This is better than amway.

Welcome chillicheese.

And Wavid, without Palimpsest I would have sold half as many books.

Just like Sean Wright.

I am cravenly grateful.

Just like Sean Wright.

Maybe not like Sean Wright, actually.