3.5 out of 5 stars
On Amazon UK
On Amazon.com
On Goodreads
How I discovered this book: it was submitted to Rosie's Book Review Team, of which I am a member, but it was this review by fellow team member Olga that made me choose it.
Genre: Futuristic, noir, dystopian, black humour.
This unusual novella takes place over the course of one day, and is set during a time when literature has been made illegal, and where secret, underground networks exchange books... Billy Stringer, the hero, is caught up in one of these. It's one of those 'life in the day of' scenarios, in which you find out more about Billy's situation by way of flashbacks, including his dying-a-death relationship with girlfriend Jane, her parents' disapproval of him, and an occasion when he got embarrassingly drunk while socialising with her colleagues.
In this strange world we're given a hint of how the lack of reading material has affected the literacy skills of the people. Billy and Jane communicate on their 'tabs' ~ everyone has one, in the same way that, increasingly, people in our world are attached to their smartphones as if they are an extra limb without which they cannot function. The way in which Billy and Jane write to each other makes 'text speak' or the abbreviations used on social media look like great literature. Words are spelled phonetically, using the fewest possible letters, as if they have never been taught basic English, despite being both educated and intelligent.
It's a curious book; the characters and atmosphere are painted cleverly and effectively. I liked the writing style very much, with its dark humour and astute observations. Occasionally there is a poignant reminder of the world of the past: 'There was a reception desk that Billy supposed had been used when the building was new, a good couple of hundred years ago. Nowadays everyone would be scanned discreetly and visitors directed via their tabs and earpieces'.
'We don't know exactly when Literature® takes place and we don't know exactly where'
I did like it, and I realise that part of the point of it is that we don't know 'when' or 'why', but I would have liked just a little more explanation. I read parts of the first quarter of the book over a few times, thinking that I had missed something, and was a third of the way through before I realised that I didn't really know exactly what was going on. Just a little more scene setting would have made it even better, I think, and would give it a broader appeal, especially to lovers of dystopian fiction. The blurb likens it to the 'razor wit of Raymond Chandler' and the 'extraordinary vision of Philip K Dick'; I am put off by such comparisons as I think they are for the reader to decide upon, which is why I passed it by at first glance. In this case, the story stands up well enough on its own without making such grandiose claims.
4.5 out of 5 stars
On Amazon.co.uk
On Amazon.com
On Goodreads
How I discovered this book: It was submitted to Rosie Amber's Book Review Team, of which I am a member.
'The past is a stone - you can carry it around with you, or you can step up on it to see what's coming over the next hill'.
The Last Meridian is a crime novel set in the 1960s, in the 'noir' sub-genre; it's not one I've explored before, and somewhere near the beginning I realised I should read it out loud, leaning against a lamp-lit wall down a dark alley, wearing a fedora and smoking a French cigarette. I imagined this; it really did make the dialogue work!
In the first chapter in 1948, a girl drives away from Illinois, along Route 66, heading for LA. We don't know why, but Lynn becomes Nina, and starts a new career as an interior designer for the stars. Meanwhile, back in 1965, a man associated with the underworld is murdered, and the murder is witnessed by the teenage son of the victim's girlfriend. Nina's involvement in this is one I didn't guess at all, and, as the mother of the boy tries to save her son, a private detective called CS and a journalist/writer called Jimmy are brought in, centre stage.
The book took a short while to gel for me as there are a lot of characters to remember, at the beginning, but before 10% I'd settled into the back-and-forth-in-time structure, and begun to really enjoy it. Mr Hefferon is masterful at creating atmosphere, and I loved the cynical, seedy crime/Hollywood characters. I especially liked some of the short backstories; that of CS, and mother Larissa, in particular. The character I found the most interesting was Jimmy, and I liked the extracts from his manuscript, and his philosophical pondering... 'in some cross-layered way, each of us is the supporting cast for all of us ... how do we arrive at the places where our lives mesh with the people we need for our own narrative?'.
...I liked the observations about the people, fashions and culture: 'Beards, shaggy hair and abraded clothing were just becoming the craze of the anti-establishment, yet this juvenile bandito remained stuck in 1958, unconcerned with change. He had chosen his look ... he would wear it proudly until time and prison sucked the black from his mane'.
...about the locations: 'No one with any style lives in Bakersfield ... it's all money and no pizazz. What kind of claim is 'Halfway to Fresno'?'
....and about Nina's dysfunctional marriage: 'In
a lovers' paradox, they found each other attractive at different times,
but never at the same time... it was a marriage of inconvenience'.
Joe Hefferon is an intelligent and talented writer, and I hope he is as proud of this clever and delightfully atmospheric novel as he should be.
The novel ends at around 90%, after which there is an author's note, acknowledgements, and an excerpt from another novel from the same publishing company.
