Shade
New Member
2002: Schott's Original Miscellany
2003: Eats, Shoots & Leaves
2004: Superhero for Hire
Whether or not this book takes off, superhero-like, as the others above did (and as it deserves to), the comparison is valid. Superhero for Hire has at least as much variety as any miscellany and up to 50% more punctuation than Eats, Shoots & Leaves.
And it shows skills of storytelling, comedy and tragedy that those two fairly lack. William Shaw pesters and prods the poor sods who fill the pockets of our local papers with classified ads and finds out the stories behind them - then distills each into a three- to six-page mini-epic. Quite literally all human life is here, neatly categorised: the confused-of-birth and the fighting-against-death; the love of women and the love of used women's footwear; alien spotters and god-botherers. Yet, despite the cartoonish cover, if the book has a presiding theme it is of the good or bad which comes from sadness, regret, longing. The punk tattooing his body bit by bit to block the pain of his childhood; the damaged lovers nervously looking forward to their first holiday together; the adoptee singing his way out of his father's rejection. The effect of Shaw's laconic style - he has a journalist's fondness for the one-line paragraph, but we won't hold that against him - is disproportionate to its muted, understated tone. He lets the people and the stories speak for themselves to extraordinary effect. The breathing space within the prose allows room for thoughts and resonances to develop. (I would never admit, for example, that I once or twice had to flick a stray mote of dust from my eye while reading.) And although it's a book which cries out to be dipped into (but careful you don't drop it into the bowl, it's quite small), you'll be hard pressed to resist reading on and on once you get started.
The little book about small ads is a big hit with me.
2003: Eats, Shoots & Leaves
2004: Superhero for Hire
Whether or not this book takes off, superhero-like, as the others above did (and as it deserves to), the comparison is valid. Superhero for Hire has at least as much variety as any miscellany and up to 50% more punctuation than Eats, Shoots & Leaves.
And it shows skills of storytelling, comedy and tragedy that those two fairly lack. William Shaw pesters and prods the poor sods who fill the pockets of our local papers with classified ads and finds out the stories behind them - then distills each into a three- to six-page mini-epic. Quite literally all human life is here, neatly categorised: the confused-of-birth and the fighting-against-death; the love of women and the love of used women's footwear; alien spotters and god-botherers. Yet, despite the cartoonish cover, if the book has a presiding theme it is of the good or bad which comes from sadness, regret, longing. The punk tattooing his body bit by bit to block the pain of his childhood; the damaged lovers nervously looking forward to their first holiday together; the adoptee singing his way out of his father's rejection. The effect of Shaw's laconic style - he has a journalist's fondness for the one-line paragraph, but we won't hold that against him - is disproportionate to its muted, understated tone. He lets the people and the stories speak for themselves to extraordinary effect. The breathing space within the prose allows room for thoughts and resonances to develop. (I would never admit, for example, that I once or twice had to flick a stray mote of dust from my eye while reading.) And although it's a book which cries out to be dipped into (but careful you don't drop it into the bowl, it's quite small), you'll be hard pressed to resist reading on and on once you get started.
The little book about small ads is a big hit with me.
