What you (may have) missed on 3:AM this week:
Fiction: ‘Frames’ by Julian Baker
Flash fiction: ‘Sign Here’ by Eric Balaz
Poetry: In the 26th of the Maintenant series, SJ Fowler interviews the Spanish poet Juan Andrés García Román; ‘Four Poems’ by Juan Andrés García Román; ‘Four Poems’ by Robert Bohm; ‘Two Poems’ by
Reviewed: Max Dunbar on Francis Beckett’s What Did the Baby Boomers Ever Do For Us?; Colin Herd on Alberto Manguel’s All Men are Liars; Anna Aslanyan on Ismail Kadare’s The Accident
Interviewed: David F. Hoenigman interviews Jesse Glass; Andrew Stevens talks to Patrick Wright; Ben Myers talks Richard with Alan Kelly:
” The fact that you call him ‘doomed’ is interesting and a point I try to explore through the fictionalisation of his life. Can someone from a good home and who is educated, good looking, well-liked and outwardly successful be doomed? Is life pre-ordained or do you choose that path? That’s why I include some quotes from Hamlet in the book actually – because that play concerns similar themes.
The book is very much written as a novel in order to explore these deeper truths about who Richey Edwards was – it’s an approach that David Peace used very successfully in The Damned United. There may have been the odd inaccuracy about his portrayal of Brian Clough, but the essence was there and I think it worked. Yet you also have to be careful not to stray too far from the plausible truth, and also avoid the possibly of causing upset to Richey Edwards’ family and friends. While researching the book I was told quite a few personal anecdotes from many people who knew him that I ultimately chose to leave out, not because they were contentious or controversial, but because they were personal and wouldn’t necessarily have added to the narrative. This series of anecdotes raised some interesting points though, such as the realisation that every person is as much a composite of the recollections, opinions and memories of others, and their self-perception almost becomes secondary to that. It’s the same with history isn’t it? History is not what really happens, but how it is written down. I didn’t feel hugely restricted in what I wrote about though, and hope that people who read Richard will realise this isn’t some salacious cash-in, but a modern novel about modern problems.”
First posted: Sunday, September 12th, 2010.
