“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

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

The Embiggened O # 2,013: Evans Sent

The End-of-Year round-ups are coming in thick and thicker, people, and Mark Evans at the Irish Examiner has done our “sharp, witty, 200 km/h” humble offering THE BIG O proud. To wit:
“THE BIG O is the Sligo-born author’s second novel, disproving the difficult tag by following the many sub-plots he constructed for EIGHTBALL BOOGIE with a cleaner, smarter tale. However, it is Burke’s dialogue that stays longest in the mind. This author doesn’t do exposition. Why use colourful prose to describe what’s happened when you can get one of the likeable characters to tell it like it is? So, do yourself a favour if you’ve found yourself in a bit of a reading rut – let these gun-toting, scheming criminal oddballs blow the cobwebs away.”
Mark? Consider us blown away. We thank you kindly, sir …

2 comments:

Linkmeister said...

Er, not to accuse you of any such thing, but has Mr. Evans never heard of "As You Know Bob" syndrome? (Part 5 - Background)

"A pernicious form of info-dump through dialogue, in which characters tell each other things they already know, for the sake of getting the reader up-to-speed. This very common technique is also known as "Rod and Don dialogue" (attr. Damon Knight) or "maid and butler dialogue" (attr Algis Budrys)."

Declan Burke said...

How's tricks, Steve? Never heard of 'Rod and Don' or 'As you know, Bob'. I aim for "No one ever skips dialogue." (attr. Elmore Leonard). Hey, you have to have something to aim for, right? Cheers, Dec