Is Star Read crime novel Meantime a clue to the next life of Frankie Boyle?
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Make no mistake, if you read Meantime by Frankie Boyle, his first crime novel which got itself nominated for the Bloody Scotland Debut award when it came out last year, you are going to have a laugh. Probably quite a lot of them.
And that you could have predicted if you had ever stopped by the controversial Scottish stand-up’s act, or one of his politically savvy satirical shows, like Tramadol Nights or Frankie Boyle’s New World Order.
Great one-liners, spot on observational comedy, bad language, surreal episodes and strangely warm about life for someone with apparently no fear at the flak he gets for mercilessly slating easy targets. That’s what you expect. Even before you open the cover of Meantime, there’s a chance this is going to be something a bit special.
After all, the man’s essentially been writing the sharpest stuff since for years, ever since he started concocting his legendary stand-up sets.
But there’s a surprise or two. The big, OK maybe literary, words start hitting you on page one – equivocal, demurred, peremptorily. But to be fair, Frankie’s got an English lit degree and why shouldn't he get to flex his vocabulary's muscles?
The story has a great start, as our hero Felix is startled awake: “I was worried that I might still be tripping but no, there was definitely a policeman standing at the side of the bed holding my hand.”
World-weary Valium addict Felix wakens to find his best pal Marina is no more – and his investigations start to unravel a life long gone wrong – his own, if nothing else.
Teaming up with his neighbour Donnie, Felix is driven on by regret, in the strange post-referendum vacuum Scotland lived through, meeting strange characters, like celebrity writer Jane. Of course the writer has lived that experience as Frankie Boyle is a celebrity writer himself – who can forget My Sh** Life So Far?
His Glasgow, his characters, a seedy world awash with drugs and trouble, have the authentic feel of coming from a man who has walked the walk. Word-perfect dialogue and wild imagination, they’re just a bonus.
But despite declaring a few years ago that his stand up tours were coming to an end, he's still out there – two sold out nights are coming to Eden Court on Thursday and Friday, June 15 and 16.
In the last year there have been a few Scottish comedians trying their creative imaginations out on the world of books. Janey Godley is also venturing into crime with Nothing Left Unsaid about a dying woman's legacy to her daughter. And Kevin Bridges's The Black Dog, is a novel about a young wannabe writer whose life changes when he crosses paths with his local celebrity. Frankie Boyle's Meantime is maybe the first sign of a shift into the writing life and a place in the growing world of tartan noir crime fiction.
Meantime by Frankie Boyle (Baskerville, £9.99)
