David Peace

[Clorms]

Hi, new user here. I've registered cos I have a nagging query and can't think how to solve it.

 

I have recently got into David Peace (incredible 1st person stream of consciousness prose, James Ellroy-like but wrapped up in dark plot lines set in late C20th Northern England), but I'm working backwards through his work. The thing is, having just started '1980', I am reminded of a book I read 5 - 7 years ago. I have scoured my bookshelves but I must have lent the book out, I've no idea what it was, so here goes - try & help me:

 

Its a crime novel, set in 1970's West Yorkshire. The opening chapter involves a child abduction from Morley. The main protagonist is a junior reporter on the Yorkshire Post - he is a 'loose cannon' type (similar to the guy off the Life on Mars tv series) but as the plot deepens he becomes embroiled and IIRK, becomes chief suspect. It is dark, powerful and, well, very David Peace - like.

 

OK - while typing this I am thinking 'this story is SO like David Peace, its is spooky, I wonder if...?' So I have trawled the 'net for a few minutes and found what I am looking for. The book I read was '1974' by David Peace!

 

So I have no reason to post now. Except to say, if you haven't read any David Peace, have a go. If you are of a certain age (say 35 or older) the plots will have a chilling resonance, as they are usually wrapped up around real life , high profile events (Yorkshire Ripper, Brian Clough, Miners Strike) and real places that, if you grew up around West Yorkshire particularly, you will recognise (in 1980 our hero stakes out Headingley after a Ripper killing, scoffing chicken from the Arndale Centre KFC).

 

The plots are dark, graphic and steeped in perversity, violence and corruption. They aren't supernatural horror stories or Agatha Christie who dunnits, but real, hardcore street level crime thrillers. Have you read (or seen the film of) Complicity by iain banks? swap the soaring scenery of Scotland for the cobbles and concrete of cleckheaton, whisky for wino's, intrigue for incest (enough alliteration already!) and you are there.

I'm a fan then. Anyone else out there can back me up?

[Kell]

I've never even heard of David Peace before now, but his work sounds interesting. I may well look out for some of his books once I've whittled down my Mountain of TBR books. One to keep in mind I think! Thanks for the recommendation, and welcome to the forum!

[Roland Butter]

I read The Damned United last year. I thought it was OK, but no more. I certainly found it hard to see why it received such ecstatic reviews. On the other hand, it was probably not typical of his work, and his novel GB84, based around the miners' strike, sounds interesting. I'm tempted to give him another go.

[~Andrea~]

I've never heard of David Peace. When I first saw the thread title I read it as David Pearce and thought, oh, has Dave Pearce (Radio 1 DJ) got a book out?

 

Ahem, sorry. The concept sounds interesting, with the books being based on years. Not sure if it's for me though. I don't like my drama too gritty or unpleasant.

[Clorms]

Hi guys

 

Thanks for your welcome; Roland, I disagree about Damned Utd, it was my "first" Peace (disregarding that I had already unwittingly read 1974) and I found it utterly absorbing. I'm old enough to know who Brian Clough and Don Revie are (were), but young enough that I wasn't around when it happened. So I was reading this novel as a memoir, as an autobiography.

To anyone who was around and witnessed the football matches, press conferences and TV interviews that actually happened it's got to be like a behind the scenes revalation. An absolute must for anyone who remembers '70s football, Leeds fan or not. And hats of to Peace for the research that must have gone into that fiction (and indeed ALL his work). Sorry Roland, maybe its just a beautiful south / grim up north thing

[Roland Butter]

Hi Clorms

 

As any Forum member will testify:

 

1. I bow to no-one in my love of all things Northern ; and

 

2. Clough was - and still is, in a retrospective kind of way -

an all-time hero for me, and as someone who's been around

the game for many years at non-league level and worked for

professional clubs, that kind of hero worship doesn't come

easily to me.

 

So I don't think my view of the book was coloured by any lack of understanding in those respects.

 

It may be that, because I'm old enough to know the Clough story intimately, there wasn't anything in the book which was an eye-opener for me. As I said, I didn't dislike it - I just didn't quite understand why it reaped the high level of praise that it received.

 

I do think you ought to avoid regarding it as a biography, though. It's very patently a work of fiction: "I wonder what happened behind the scenes at Elland Road? Maybe Clough would have done this..." and purports to be nothing else. As a biography, it must be considered historically suspect, and I know that Clough's widow has been scathing about the book precisely because of those historical inaccuracies. As fiction, it can work, but if it purported to be a biography it would be worthless.

 

I'm sure we'll agree to differ on this, but that's the beauty of the Book Club Forum! Welcome aboard.

[Clorms]

Roland

respect to your deeeper subject knowledge re football. My reaction to this book was that it was very REALISTIC, not that I thought it was REAL. I wasn't aware of Clough's family's reaction to it, though I can imagine how it must feel having your deceased use as subject matter for fiction, but the man was a national institution so maybe it comes with the territory - just listen to all the various fictions we are dosed with, daily, about Diana - 10 years down the line.

 

Anyway, I'm off - to explore the rest of this forum, and maybe do a spot of work, who knows....