A frustrated loner and book lover, convinced he is destined to write a best seller and become a literary legend – before even typing a single word – begins taking out his “writer’s block” on the local community.Depressed and volatile, his explosive outbursts within the privacy of his own home begin to manifest in public as his increasing creative frustrations and disastrous romantic relationships … relationships pile up, causing him to become a source of amusement among the regulars at local pubs and bars – but who will have the last laugh?
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I chose to read this novel as a proud member of Rosie’s Book Review Team and received a copy from the author. This does not affect my review in any way.
I enjoy stories told in the first person, I like getting right inside a character, being privy to all their thoughts and emotions and those of the unnamed narrator of this tale are extraordinary. Our protagonist believes himself to be the all-conquering author of a masterpiece of literary magnificence. The only problem being that he hasn’t written one word of it…yet. He lives an eccentric lifestyle in his flat and tries to channel his Grandfather’s spirit as if believing this will funnel some sort of divine inspiration that will overcome his writer’s block and allow his words to be unleashed upon the waiting world.
I thoroughly enjoyed Motel’s writing. Graphically descriptive it’s sharply quick witted and highly perceptive of this would be writer’s unusual lifestyle. An emergency potato – why haven’t I ever thought of having one of those? I loved the dark humour throughout this tightly written story and there were many, many priceless moments which made up a fabulous read.
Our narrator eventually comes up the name Inkker Hauser, in unusual fashion. His relationships are disastrous and you would never want to have him as your neighbour but I liked him very much. However, you do need to buckle up to take on the ride that is Inkker when he goes on a date with the lovely Tylissa.
He drinks a staggering amount and wanting to impress her with his intellectual and literary genius spouts all sorts of what to most people would be nonsense but which Inkker is earnestly serious about – this ‘A psychonaut. A sailor of the soul, a navigator of the mind. I happen to be something of one’ is how he describes himself to her. As the drink takes hold his behaviour becomes increasingly erratic and you can only sympathise with poor Tylissa and admire her tenacity for hanging on in there particularly when he does something that is a definite no-no in my book!
Many pages of this darkly humorous novel are taken up with the date. That might seem like a lot of words just to describe a date but every one of them is needed in order to convey the sheer craziness as it descends into mayhem for Inkker. There are so many reasons why you shouldn’t like this narrator and yet I really do. In some bizarre way, considering how he behaves, he comes across as fragile and endearing and I feel protective of him, especially when he is aware of being mocked by others.
Because it’s written in the first person we are exposed to his thoughts, feelings and anxieties and these show his vulnerability and increasing desperation as the night unravels. But nothing that has gone before compares to the pain you can feel Inkker going through when he meets his new neighbours.
They are, Claire, who calls him Inky, and Adrian, a writer of novels, and they invite Inkker to a flat warming party telling him to ‘dress fancy’ a term he misunderstands but I loved the amount of planning that went into his appearance.
Inkker’s behaviour becomes increasingly wild. He’s banned from his local, The Laughing Goat, but when he goes to make the peace in an attempt to be allowed back in he can’t help but cause more trouble. His eccentric domestic habits become more and more surreal, I mean, the mannequin, what is going on there? Towards the end his violent thoughts and destructive actions escalate to levels that wreak havoc on his life and then there is a devastating setback for him, the desperate grief that follows all consuming. And you feel it, you really do.
Excellently written I would recommend this to everyone who fancies reading something highly original and totally entertaining – and don’t we all want to do that? I truly hope to read much more from this terrific writer in the future.
Rum Hijack was originally written as three novellas, some years ago; I read them all as they came out, and loved them – now they’re back as one novel, a new and improved version that retains all that I liked about the original, but is much more streamlined, better edited and put together so well that you can’t see the join, as it were.
The nameless young male protagonist tells his story in the first person; later to call himself Inkker Hauser, he lives alone in a flat left to him by his grandfather, does not work, and leads a rather lonely life; often, his only company is his beloved goldfish, Kursk (named after his favourite nautical disaster), and the staff and drinkers at his local pub.
Inkker is convinced that he is destined to become a writer of such importance that, once his masterpiece is written, all other literary works will pale beside it. He pours scorn on self-published ebook writers, on the pretentious and the less intelligent, sure that once his words burst forth, the world will recognise and revere his unmatched talent. His lack of production he puts down to ‘writer’s block’, and, as his frustration mounts, his grip on reality slides slowly down hill, lost in alcoholic and drug-induced chaos.
Although very much a contemporary novel, with its references to the technology and culture of today, the book it reminds me of most is Victorian comic novel Three Men In A Boat by Jerome K Jerome; similarly, the young man darts off at tangents to talk about something else in such a way that you don’t mind because it’s every bit as entertaining as the main story. Also, the observations about human behaviour are both amusing and remarkably astute, and the standard of the writing itself is as good as any cult literary classic.
Aside from this, what makes the book work so well is the fact that the young man is oddly likeable, despite his deranged alcoholism and cynical outlook. I found myself really wanting him to find some love and peace of mind. He is kind to the less fortunate, and to the old lady in a nearby flat, and his love for his fish is very sweet and quite heartbreaking, because he has no one else on which to focus. There’s also a terrifically moving section in which he talks at length about a childhood outing with his grandfather.
His loneliness and shame over the consequences of his bizarre actions is sometimes painful to read – having said that, though, one of my favourite parts in the entire book is the cringe-making downward spiral of a disastrous date, in which his behaviour becomes increasingly out of control as he drinks far too much and tops it up with cocaine. The best ‘bad date’ story I’ve read!
If you like Charles Bukowski, Hunter Thompson, Philip K Dick, William Burroughs… I hope this book can gain the visibility and readership it deserves, because I believe it could become one of those novels about which, in years to come, people will say, “What? You haven’t read Rum Hijack?”