By William Heaney
Written in the first person it’s the memoir of a middle-aged man, living in London, with a respectable job running government-backed committees of various wastes of money, who is suffering from an ill-received divorce and errant teenage kids. In his spare time he drinks enormous quantities of red wine and donates money to GoPoint, a charity for the homeless, which he funds by running a very profitable sideline in collectable books which, when he can’t find an original, he forges and he also writes artful and nonsensical poetry that a friend passes off as his own and who, incidentally, is critically acclaimed as the voice of a generation, the income from which also aids those in need. Oh, and he can see demons. In fact he can see all one thousand five hundred and sixty seven of the shadowy, indistinct known demons that prey on the weaknesses of men, and William Heaney has his moments of weakness.
Despite being presented as a memoir, this book really only deals with two time periods. The present – or very near present – and a specific period of the author’s past when they first realised they could see demons and discovered the damage they could do. It reads as easily as any novel and, while at first glance it’s a strange choice for this reviewer, it is a lovely book. The pace is slow and steady, kind of like a middle aged man really, and allows the characters, especially Heaney, time to fully develop into interesting people with layers, textures and real depth and it also leaves space for the rich, fluid dialogue to breathe. The story, such as it is, builds beautifully, meandering now and then for emphasis, but reaching a timely and satisfying conclusion as the protagonists seek to deal with their own individual demons.
The giveaway, for those that don’t already know, is that this book is written by sci-fi and fantasy stalwart, Graham Joyce. I know this for two reasons, his story “An Ordinary Soldier of The Queen”, published in The Paris Review, has just won an O. Henry short story prize in the US and it is contained within this book as a major plot point. The second, is that I….erm…read it on his blog!
So why the pseudonym? Well, the book deals with themes of fraudulent persona, faked letters and papers and plagiarised memoirs and has a statement to make about what he calls “the misery memoir” of those who try to make their childhood appear more colourful than it really was, and that nice Mr. Joyce thought releasing it as a memoir, under a pen name, would add another thematic layer. Unfortunately this was a bridge too far for the US market and thus it will be released their as ‘How To Make Friends With Demons’ under his own name.
Anyway, whatever the title it’s a terrific book. It’s engaging and absorbing, a little sentimental, which these days is no bad thing, and has enough of a sprinkling of the fantastic to keep you wondering. Seek out a copy now, and keep your eye out for the collected poetry of Diamond Jaz which, I’m sure, will form the companion volume to this memoir very soon.
Memoirs Of A Master Forger is published by Gollanz and is available from Amazon
William Heaney has blog that you can read here.
Graham Joyce on the other hand has blog which you can reach here.