“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

Monday, May 18, 2009

A GONZO NOIR: In Which The Log-Rolling Dilemma Rears Its Ugly Log

As all three regular readers of CAP will be aware, my latest opus – BAD FOR GOOD: A GONZO NOIR – is being sent out to publishers for the by-now traditional mass rejection. Notwithstanding the fact that it may never be published, I’ve already started asking other writers for blurbs, which is a necessary evil in this day and age. As all three regular readers of CAP – one of whom, I’m reliably informed, is Adrian McKinty (right, currently topping the ‘Who is the Sexiest Irish Crime Writer?’ poll) – will also be aware, I think Adrian McKinty is a terrific writer. I got in touch with him after reading DEAD I WELL MAY BE, which is as good a novel of any stripe as I’ve ever read, and we’ve stayed in touch since. As well as being a top writer, he’s a good bloke, and at this stage he’s a mate.
  In saying all that, I asked him to read BFGAGN as part of my ongoing bid for world domination because he’s one of my favourite writers – his latest, FIFTY GRAND, is in my not-entirely-humble opinion one of the best novels published to date this year. Anyway, the point of telling you all that is that you may or may not want to take what he says about BFGAGN below with a Siberian mine-sized pinch of salt. To wit:
“What happens when the voices in a writer’s head come to life? In Declan Burke’s funny and intelligent A GONZO NOIR we find out. Burke has written a deep, lyrical and moving crime novel about the difficulty of writing a crime novel. Dangerous fictional creations and real people and fictionalised real people battle for a writer’s soul in an intoxicating and exciting novel of which the master himself, Flann O’Brien, would be proud.” – Adrian McKinty, author of FIFTY GRAND.
  I’m not questioning the man’s integrity, you understand. I’m just saying, it’s best to be up-front and honest about these things. It’s a small matter of principle …

10 comments:

adrian mckinty said...

Well then you also should have mentioned that I recently called you the c word. but in the Glasgow sense of it I think rather than the American.

adrian mckinty said...

And listen I know that photograph is going to cost me valuable votes so let me again point out that that it was taken after a 19 hour flight, at two in morning, after an evening's drinking (et. alia) on Dec's camera phone.

Anonymous said...

Oh, that explains it. Btw, you are not leading the vote. Declan seems incapable of reading a simple list properly. CrimeFest after effects?

adrian mckinty said...

Miss Witch

It aint even close. And there was me with my bribe of Smörgåsbord all set to go...

Declan Burke said...

People - (1) There's a long way to go yet. (2) All bribes are good. (3) McKinty was leading when I wrote the post, but then John Connolly obviously got a whiff of what was going on ...

Cheers, Dec

Anonymous said...

Wow. A man who can dot and put rings where they belong and not a single unwanted ø! Smelly cheese will do it for me, Adrian. No need for the whole table. So shall I change my vote from Mr Burke to you? I'm outraged I can't vote several times over.

I'm just not sure which McKinty I'm looking at. The Cuban mafia boss, or the sweet Dad figure playing with young child in tall grass?

conor said...

my appetite for the new opus is being whetted nicely, but i can't help wishing it wasn't called "A Gonzo Noir". I just dont like it; it sounds like a genre, or even a very rough working title, rather than a proper, finished, title. (is it a genre?) Only my inconsiderable 2 cents, and, anyway, what do i know?

Declan Burke said...

Ms Witch, you are perhaps the only woman in Western Europe who finds perfect Scandavian punctuation sexy. Whether that's good or bad I'm still not sure ...

Adrian - It's either that pic or the one where you look like an incontinent psychopath. Your choice, mate ...

Conor - Welcome aboard, squire. As you may or may not already know, nothing around here is written in stone. By the time the book comes out - if, I should say - it's entirely possible that it'll be called "A Primrose for Penelope" and I'll have had a sex-change. Oh, and feel free to suggest a new title ...

Cheers, Dec

Declan Burke said...

Ooops - That's what happens when you leave a comment whilst squinting against the glare of the sun beaming in your window ... That should, of course, be "prefrect Scandinavian pruncturashun", Ms Witch ...

Cheers, Dec

Anonymous said...

Prefrect pruncturashun. I don't think so. Umlaut, you lout. Won't mention here what we call the dots at witch headquarters...