Review: A distinctive strain of black comedy
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 09 21, 2012
When I read Nigel Bird's short stories, what struck me was his ability to shift between sadness, humor, and violence. This tough-to-manage blend is on full display again in his novel. Joe is an anti-hero. His life is constantly teetering on the brink of chaos. He does some appalling things. Yet I still found myself pulling for him because he does possess a streak of goodness...his conscience won't let him alone.I consider Bird to be an heir to a British literary tradition: the works of Alan Sillitoe, John Braine, and others from the late 1950s and early '60s. After Sillitoe died in 2010, there was a very good column in the UK's Daily Telegraph about how these authors were disparate. The term "movement" and the "Angry Young Men" label it wore weren't really all that applicable. But they -- and this book -- have things in common. They feature young anti-heroes who clash with staid society. Northern England provides a gritty backdrop (though it's not the main location here). And amid the bleakness, there are scenes that make one laugh out loud. The way Joe gets into so many horrible entanglements, and somehow tiptoes out of them, was like a demented version of "Lucky Jim". (Kingsley Amis was another one of those anti-British-establishment authors.)But enough of that comparison, because In Loco Parentis has its own style: Nigel Bird's style.