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"My stomach felt small and tender, shrunken." Lights Edmund Davie.
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The narrator lives in an unnamed city and the action takes course over a 24 hour period from dawn. A burning electronic device thrown through a front window wakes a sleeper. Our hero walks the streets of the city all day, meeting his girlfriend Anne several times and visiting his friend Gerald to collect the wreckage of the device. Gerald has been writing a book and lives amongst the manuscript. The narrator takes the device to be fixed, describes buildings and other features of the city, visits bookshops, bars and a gallery, and plays some music at a concert, after which Anne leaves him for good. The protagonist then returns home to copy out Gerald's book, then goes back to Gerald's house to throw the device through the front window. Along the way the narrator has visions, hallucinations and imaginary experiences, tells a little of his background and indulges in quasi-philosophical musing and pseudo-mystical speculation. After studying French literature and teaching English in the South of France, Edmund Davie embarked on a career in electronic music, touring Europe and Asia, while working as an actor, designer, computer programmer and office clerk. Eventually drink and despair led to a period sleeping rough in a boiler room in Moorgate, London, during which time he began work on Lights. Written over a 10 month period beneath a London bank, this is Edmund Davie's first novel. He continues to write poetry, fiction and music and currently lives in London. |
