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Most reviewed Kieron Smith, Boy

28.04.08 Anna Richardson

James Kelman attracted a lot of media coverage, making it to the “most reviewed” spot last weekend (25th to 27th April).

The author who caused much controversy when his expletives-heavy How Late it Was, How Late won the Man Booker Prize in 1994, was back on the literary pages, with his latest, Kieron Smith, Boy (Hamish Hamilton), eliciting strong responses from reviewers.

David Robson, in the Sunday Telegraph, pointed out that “if James Kelman is gently taking the mickey out of his critics, one has to admire the style with which he does it”. Robson believed the novel was “a welcome return to form by one of the heavyweights of British fiction” and that it had "the the excitement of lived experience, recollected with painterly precision”.

Michel Faber also referred to Kelman’s previous run-ins with the critics in the Guardian. “Kelman remains one of the most distinctive writers in Britain,” he wrote. “And, in a climate where snooty critics still chatter about his ‘barbarian’ behaviour and inappropriate dress at the Booker prize-giving ceremony, it is more important than ever that his voice is heard.”

However, he also found that the novel resembled Finnegans Wake in that it was “a literary endeavour whose achievement seems great when it’s dipped into at random, but which proves intolerably wearisome when tackled at length”.

Stephen Abell, in the Daily Telegraph agreed that “this is not an easy read, by any means: the narrative is relentless, prioritising substance over style”, but added that “it feels important to persist”.

Meanwhile, both Simon Kövesi in the Independent and Irvine Welsh in the Financial Times maintained that Kelman has reached new grounds. “This is an outstanding novel of immense power; and is Kelman’s best yet,” writes Kövesi, and Welsh exclaims: “It might just be Kelman’s greatest achievement to date.”

MOST REVIEWED (25th April to 27th April):

Kieron Smith, Boy by James Kelman
(Hamish Hamilton 9780241142417 £18.99)
“A magnificent and important novel” Financial Times
“Outstanding” Independent
“Exhileratingly good” Sunday Telegraph
“Rhapsody to redundancy” Daily Telegraph
“Intolerably wearisome when tackled at length” Guardian

All the Sad Young Literary Men by Keith Gessen
(Heinemann 9780434017614 £12.99)
“Gessen is a skilful enough writer to give depth and ambiguity to [the characters]” Daily Telegraph
“Accomplished study of youthful ideologus” Financial Times
“He has the potential to be very good indeed” Observer

Body Shopping by Donna Dickenson
(Oneworld 9781851685912 £16.99)
“Thoughtful, intelligent, highly readable work written by someone with impeccable credentials” Financial Times
“Combines lucid exaplanations of legal arguments and case studies with thought-provoking polemicism” Guardian
“Powerful” Sunday Times

Revelation by C J Sansom
(Macmillan 9781405092722 £17.99)
“Absorbing and thought-provoking window on the tudor world” Guardian
“Very skilfully constructed” Observer
"As pertinent today as to the Tudors" Sunday Times

Media Anna Richardson James Kelman Most Reviewed

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