Wednesday, March 08, 2023

Review of "Elmet" by Fiona Mozley

Oh blimey, what a book! A depiction of rural, underclass, off-the-grid life. The people here are one fraction of that subculture...the kind that intermingles with Travellers, takes part in illegal bare knuckle prizefights, poaches and hunts...not the solar-powered vegan off-grid van-dwelling underclass, even though vans also feature here. Heroin addiction is in the background, though not specifically mentioned.

It's rough and violent, and often shocking. The book is also well written, structured and has some very evocative nature writing. It sometimes uses language that I don't think the first-person narrator would actually use, but that doesn't matter too much.

This is a debut novel, and it's pretty brilliant, though not an easy read.

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