Short stories By Andrew McIntyre
THE SHORT, THE LONG AND THE TALL
Here are five videos of the author reading his stories at the USA launch.
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=4F1F896BD1E44D63
Click the picture to go to the author's site for details of signed or customized
copies
Order from:
THE BOOK DEPOSITORY (free postage worldwide)
Below you can read a review of the book
from Gold Dust Magazine.
For an interview with the author, see Gold Dust Magazine,
(Issue 18, Winter 2010).
Reviewed by David Gardiner
Andrew McIntyre was the writer of two
of the best short stories ever to appear in Gold Dust magazine, Dirty War and
the equally dark sequel Snuff. The two appear together in this collection,
which at first glance seems to squeeze no fewer than thirty-four stories into
its hundred-and-forty or so pages. This, however, is somewhat deceptive, as
many of the stories might be more accurately described as sections that follow
on from one another to constitute single narratives. Another stylistic oddity
that readers of the collection will need to get used to is McIntyre’s refusal
to use quotation marks or any other form of separation between dialogue and
narration. As a technique this is no longer all that unusual and I found that I
adapted to it quite quickly, but it does produce rather large, dense single
paragraphs which can be daunting on the page, and it requires you to read more
slowly than usual, which may be a deliberate aim of the author. I have yet to
be convinced that the format yields any positive advantages, but am keeping an
open mind.
The recurrent theme of the collection
is war and armed conflict, mostly under the tropical sun in far away places.
McIntyre’s central characters are typically hard-bitten chain-smoking
Westerners, thoroughly disillusioned former idealists, we suspect, cynically
playing whatever role they have slipped into in the local attempt to realise
Dante’s Inferno. The over-riding message seems to be that war attracts or where
necessary creates the vilest monsters that can exist in human shape.
What we get from these tales is a
thoroughly jaundiced yet strangely compelling view of the human race as a
bickering, mean-spirited pack of predators driven by a need to dominate and
subdue. There isn’t really anybody to like in McIntyre’s stories, and this I
think may constitute their only weakness. We long for contrast, light and
shade, angels to counterbalance the devils, and they aren’t really there. But
aside from this it is extremely difficult to find anything to criticise in the
way these tales are told or constructed. They are nicely-paced, highly
atmospheric, and have a good balance of narration, description and dialogue.
It’s easy for the reader to enter imaginatively into the world of each story,
and enough space is left for us to interpret things in our own way. The
characters are rounded and believable, extreme at times but never caricatures.
There is a brilliant creative mind at
work behind these offerings, and if you have a strong enough stomach to survive
them it’s a collection that will engage, repel, fascinate, and live on in your
imagination long after you have turned the final page.
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