Why "The Unfortunates"?

"Only a few years ago, it was Jennings schoolboy stories that I brought you. Now, I pack avant-garde books: Tom Mallin, Alan Burns, a B.S.Johnson play" That quote comes from a poem by my late brother Dennis, called "Declan at Twenty". It would be difficult to overestimate the importance and impact that the authors he mentions had on me. The leap from "Jennings Goes to School" to Tom Mallin's "Dodecahedron" was not sudden or immediate but it was certainly considerable. To go from the innocent humour of schoolboy shenanigans to the depths of human misery was a profound disjunction but also strangely exhilarating. To know that such writing existed and that there was so much of it to be explored was a pointer to one possible direction I could follow in my life. Among the books Dennis told me about was one called "The Unfortunates", by B.S. Johnson which, he told me, came in a box of loose, unbound quires or chapters with a first chapter and a final chapter but with the option of reading all of the other chapters in any order one wished. Again, I was amazed and excited by the existence of such a book and the new-found knowledge that writers were thinking of ways to break with the traditional, realist, linear novel. It wasn't until 1999 that I was able to acquire and read my own copy of "The Unfortunates" when it was republished by Picador. Before that, I had only been able to see and hold it on an occasional visit to Dennis' home in Dublin. He had the original edition, with its very striking, cancer cells cover. I'm sure that, had eBay exited at the time, I would have tried to save up for and buy a copy. Now they sell for around £150. Over three decades have passed since Dennis wrote that poem but a lot of what he observed about me in that poem still holds true (I'm never sure if that's a good or bad thing). I'm still very interested in birds, in jazz and in wanting justice and equality in the world. Above all, I am still fascinated by the ways in which writers represent their lives and the troubled lives they imagine into being; the multitude of ways in which this can be done; the innovative use of language that brings us to fresh realisations about the apparently mundane matters of everyday existence. I love the way the best writers can show us the basic humour and absurdity of life or convince us that impossible happenings -on the page, at least - are only limited by our ability to imagine. My hope here is that, as often as possible, I will post my thoughts about books I have read and give honest assessments of how well or otherwise I believe the authors have accomplished what I believe they set out to achieve. One thing I know for certain is that my postings will not appear in any regular way because at times all of my reading will be for reviews that will be published elsewhere. But I hope I manage, whenever possible, to be of use here in highlighting the many great works of literature which don't get noticed to the extent they deserve because of increasingly limited review space in newspapers and because the PR departments of the biggest publishing conglomerates are so much more powerful than the smaller, independent publishers who can't afford the services of a PR company. Everything I write here will be done in memory of, and in gratitude to, Dennis O'Driscoll (1954 - 2012) and B. S. Johnson (1933 - 1973).