Boyracers by Alan Bissett

review by Maryom

Meet Alvin a sixteen year old from Falkirk. He's staying on at school to take his Highers* with a special interest in English Lit and horror stories but lives for the nights when he meets up with his older mates to go racing round the streets of Falkirk in their car Belinda. On the way they discuss everything from football to physics, sex to Clive Barker, all liberally sprinkled with film quotes and song lyrics. Gradually though a darker side of this carefree life starts to emerge - violence, accidents and above all the sheer monotony of 'grown up' life in Falkirk. Alvin realises that he, at least, has a chance to escape - that university offers the prospect of a more exciting, more fulfilling life beyond Falkirk - but will that be betraying his mates?

I've been meaning to track down Boyracers ever since I was astounded by its sequel Pack Men.  To be honest I'd been expecting something less enthralling - an everyday tale of teenage angst and growing up - and yet again Alan Bissett has managed to surprise me! 

Boyracers is a high energy, petrol and Irn Bru fuelled race through teenage life told as it happens, in almost one long stream of consciousness with quirky page lay-outs and grammar. The reader is dropped slam bang, mid-sentence into the back seat of the Lads car tearing round Falkirk and kept pinned there. This was one of those books that once started, I didn't want to put down - and it left me so 'wired' that despite reading till late at night I couldn't sleep! A book I'd highly recommend to teens and to those of us oldies who haven't quite forgotten what it is to be young!

What I read was the 10th anniversary edition, re-edited and 'resprayed' by the author but presumably not substantially different to its original text. Having read Bissett's first novel and his latest I'm now off to find the in-between ones - and to see if he can surprise me some more!

*Scottish A-level equivalent 

Maryom's review - 5 stars

Publisher - Polygon

Genre - teen/adult crossover, literary fiction

Buy Boyracers from Amazon

Edinburgh International Book Festival 2012

This year we timed our annual holiday so as to spend a week in Edinburgh to take in events at the festival as well as meet people and step outside a bit and enjoy fringe events too.

The first week was to be our week and we set aside just 3 days to attend the festival but what we didn't realise is that the festival is actually addictive and that we quickly changed that to 6 days, so if you plan on attending the festival at all then be warned!

We met and made a lot of friends and attended events and book signings and here are but a few.

i) Alan Bissett - Maryom chatted about Pack Men and how it is not just for male football fans. We also saw Alan at the Festival Cafe (a BBC Scotland radio show) where he talked about and performed a brief excerpt from his one man fringe show for arachnophobes - extremely funny, catch him if you can.

ii) Barry Hutchinson - We talked with Barry and other Scottish authors about the difficulties caused by branding books as 'Scottish' and how buyers in England avoid such books for some reason perhaps in the belief that they are "all haggis and tartan".

iii) Linda Strachan - We chatted about many things and had a sneak preview of the cover for Don't Judge Me, her next teen novel to be published by Strident in Autumn.

iv) Keren David and Cat Clarke talked about motivations for writing, methods of writing and other things and read from their latest books and The Mole discussed with Cat Clarke the character with which she identifies and although we disagreed on choice her father was in agreement with The Mole.

v) Keith Charters  - We chatted at length on many subjects surrounding publishing and many NOT publishing related.

vi) Matt Cartney - We chatted about several things... but more on this meeting in a later post.

vii) Edward Wilson talked of his route to writing spy thrillers and read from his  book.

viii) James Mayhew - We saw him story telling and painting in a way that he does so well.

ix) S J Watson signed Maryom's copy of Before I Go To Sleep and chatted about it and the publicity campaign surrounding it.

And one of the great things is that at the festival you can meet so many people by chance..while in the yurt, apparently Neil Gaiman walked past and we missed him, we brushed passed and chatted with Nicola Morgan in the bookshop and we met and chatted with Victoria Campbell as well as brushing past an Archbishop.

The problem is that you cannot do everything you want to do and we missed many people. There were also so many authors and friends we would like to have met in the second week, but sadly due to the GCSE results day in England then it had to be the first week only.

Pack Men by Alan Bissett

Not Just For Football Fans
review by Maryom

2008 - Rangers are playing in the UEFA Cup Final in Manchester and hoards of their fans are travelling south to join in the party and watch the match - if not actually in the stadium - then on the next best thing, the huge screens erected around the city centre. Not a situation to end calmly. Among them are old friends Alvin, Frannie and Dolby - and Dolby's young son, Jack - on a mini bus packed with fans from Falkirk, for a lads' day out come reunion.

This has unfortunately been languishing for too long on the TBR pile as I'd picked it up, had a quick glance and dismissed it as a novel about football hooligans - oops, I should take a bit more care before I decide to write something off.

The story centres round Alvin, the only one of the group to leave Falkirk. He's been to university, now lives in Edinburgh and dreams of being a horror writer, how can he fit in with his old mates? From the first page the reader feels him wincing at being surrounded by the sectarianism and pack mentality of the bus's other fans. While he tries to hide his discomfort and blend back in for the day, it becomes apparent that he has a bigger secret that he doesn't want to share with even his closest mates.

Against this compelling story background Alan Bissett explores themes of sectarianism, belonging and how we are defined by class and/or religion. Read it for the surface plot or the thought provoking deeper issues - whichever, it's really enjoyable. Just don't make my mistake and reject it out of hand. Pack Men is not just a book for football fans - I've never watched a game in my life!

Warning - it is an Adult novel and sexually explicit.
Since reading pack Men, I've discovered it's effectively a sequel - the main characters appear in a previous Bissett novel, Boyracer, set about 10 years before. It's obviously not necessary to read this to enjoy Pack Men but I think it's now one to track down and see what additional insights it brings.

Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Hatchette Scotland 
Genre - Adult Fiction

Buy Pack Men from Amazon