White Mexicans [review by Catfish McDaris]

David Louden takes us on a wild rollercoaster adventure through Hollywood, California and many other exotic locales; as seen through the eyes of a highly gifted Irish writer from Northern Belfast. He’s had many influences, but he writes with his own unique voice and style. He’s rolling virgins into the inky jaws of his typer, staring at tits in bars while sipping Guinness. This tale is chock full of dynamite dialogue. David has a great ear and an eye to the keyhole of the world. He tackles beatniks in Venice, gun control, he fights with a Marine and gets beat up, and ends up with a nice chick with a well-trimmed garden. 

Reading this magical book was better than Disneyland on mushrooms. 

When David takes on the Valley girls, I feel like we must be related. Then we learn about prize fighters and Don King with a white hard-on and the tiger and the chicken, which will remain a mystery. There is some steamy sex, so be forewarned: mushrooms and snappers, pumping the hammer, a cunt time share, and two men using a woman to saw down a tree. You will get women with flat stomachs, curvy hips that love turkey neck and banjos. There’s advice from a dog, Elvis in Vietnam, a polka dot dress, and a bottle of rum. Kick back in Belfast in the Bunch of Grapes Bar and read Post Office while listening to Black Sabbath. Then we get into hairy balls and cock nuggets: is that English food, I’ve heard of spotted dick. Heroes and Batman at the Pig and Whistle, a bank heist, MEGA-TITS and ASS-ZILLA. Onto the Angel of I-580, a steak sandwich, and a hand job by Black Hitler. A car named Mexico and White Mexicans: actors coming to the U.S. from England taking Americans acting jobs. Warm chocolate eyes, switchblades, Dago red, mean green marijuana, off to the track and grifters whistling Cinderella Rockefella. 

I can’t say enough good things about White Mexicans by Mr. Louden. He’s a force to be reckoned with. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this book from the other side of the tracks. I was taken to the dangerous ‘hood, places where no self-respecting person would venture into. This is where David Louden and I both thrive and belong.

AMAZON U.S [click here]

AMAZON U.K [click here]

Funny, Dark Humor and Ugly in the Best Sort of Way

First Amazon.com review of White Mexicans has landed.  Don't miss out, grab it at the introductory rate before the "get rich quick" scheme kicks in and I jack up the price.

WEREBEARS!

PS. I would definitely see WEREBEARS! if it came out. Yea that's right I start with a PS. You don't have to end with PS. Ending with PS? Well that's just BS. Okay enough of that.

White Mexicans is about Doug, an Irishman down on his luck. He is foul-mouthed and obscene, but funny and charming. Due to financial reasons he's forced to play along in the LA scene, which is grotesque and something always happens.

David Louden delivers an interesting and funny novel with his unique voice, not a voice a mother-in-law would love. The short stories are rangy and a definite must!

A Visceral Romp Through A Beautiful Mind

LOST ANGELES

Amazon.com Review

This book is not about vice, or about the vacant. It's a story of lost hope turning in on itself to be birthed as triumph. Yes, there are bucket loads of drugs, sex and mayhem. All in the course of people finding themselves out. A dive into the abyss to find the sun. If you enjoy Bukowski or Palahniuk you'll love this author. Just be warned it is very difficult to put down.

A well-written tale of the seedy LA underworld

A YEAR AND A HALF on and we're looking back at some of the reviews from Lost Angeles...and maybe even convince you to buy yourself a copy. Yup, that's right I'm that much of a whore.

This is a great book and I would thoroughly recommend it.  After an enthralling start I was expecting a weak ending but it just got better and better.  Superb.

[Amazon USA] [Amazon UK]

Great Find

A YEAR AND A HALF on and we're looking back at some of the reviews from Lost Angeles...and maybe even convince you to buy yourself a copy. Yup, that's right I'm that much of a whore.

Doug Morgan is a young Irishman in Los Angeles with ten grand in his pocket and self-destruction in mind.  With this premise, you could be forgiven for thinking that David Louden’s Lost Angeles would be little more than a comical booze-fuelled odyssey through the low (and high) life of Noughties Hollywood.  But what Louden achieves is much greater than this.  By contrasting and paralleling Morgan’s misadventures in the acid neon glare of the clubs and dives of LA with the unravelling relationship in wintry Belfast that led him there, Louden has created a work of depth and warmth that means for once, Bukowski comparisons are justified.  Louden has a turn of phrase that could put bigger names to shame, and an eye for detail that means his Belfast and North Hollywood are as sharply-defined as the well-drawn characters.  Moving, big-hearted and often hilarious, Louden has produced something genuinely special.  Not to be missed.

[Amazon USA] [Amazon UK]

Loved This Book!

A YEAR AND A HALF on and we're looking back at some of the reviews from Lost Angeles...and maybe even convince you to buy yourself a copy. Yup, that's right I'm that much of a whore.

I’ve always been fascinated with the dark side of life; how somebody from an affluent family can tumble into the abyss of drugs and alcohol or how somebody from the worst possible upbringing can rise above it all and find success.  But most of the time, in real life, it’s a little of both, somebody from an all too common place in society claws their way up and then…bam!...there is a catalyst, spins a person around, and the descent into darkness begins.  This is life and this is, much to my pleasure, the joy and truth of reading Lost Angeles.  David Louden brings to life a cast of colourful, deeply flawed, characters and puts them in one place as he unfolds a tale of love, lust, loss, strength, sorrow, friendship, joy and, most importantly, hope, all displayed through an alcohol saturated, drug hazed lens.  I loved this book for its honesty and its humor, but also for its glimpses into the potential darkness that looms within all of us.  I especially loved it, however, for its humanity.  Five stars?  Absolutely.

[Amazon USA] [Amazon UK]

Fan-effing-tastic

A YEAR AND A HALF on and we're looking back at some of the reviews from Lost Angeles...and maybe even convince you to buy yourself a copy. Yup, that's right I'm that much of a whore.

I absolutely loved this book, I read it in two days. It's gut-wrenching raw emotion mixed with a sassy black sense of humour that made me laugh out loud more than once. Very touching, very real. Congrats Dave, wish I could write like that.

[Amazon USA] [Amazon UK]

Trip to the edge of self-destruction

A YEAR AND A HALF on and we're looking back at some of the reviews from Lost Angeles...and maybe even convince you to buy yourself a copy. Yup, that's right I'm that much of a whore.

I came across this novel in Goodreads. I followed with interest the author's reviews of other works and his blog and I must admit I loved the title. It had been on my `to read' list for a while, and I'm pleased to say that I finally found the time to read it and I'm very pleased I did.

Lost Angeles reads like a memoir, but not your standard memoir (if there is such a thing). The book follows the protagonist, Doug, a young and articulate man from Belfast, and his travels/adventures in Los Angeles. Doug is not in Los Angeles to see the sights, although the does see many sights (some that none of us would wish to see). From the beginning you realise that he's there with a mission. You don't come to realise quite how determined he is to self-destruct until much later in the book. He drinks, takes drugs, engages in casual sex, and drifts from cheap accommodation to even cheaper digs (including the Lost Angeles of the title that used to be a place for sex for sale) all the time meeting real people. Some idiots, some nice but misguided, some lost and looking, some also drifters.

The reasons for Doug's trip are slowly revealed through interspersed chapters about his life back home (I'm a bit reluctant to call them flashbacks. They're memories, but too long, detailed and elaborate to be what's more generally understood as flashback). You quickly realise that he's mourning the end of what seems to have been his most significant relationship, but later you realise that there is more to it than that, and come to care and empathise with Doug even more. Because if there's something notable about the novel is that despite behaviour that many of us would neither approve of, not adhere to, we like Doug. He might drive us insane if we met him but...whilst embarked on his self-destructive path he tries his hardest to help others and to do no harm. By the end you're rooting for him and hope that against all odds things will work out for him.

A very personal novel, I truly enjoyed Lost Angeles. This is a novel for adults and I'd recommend it to anybody who wants to read about real people coping with life, as best they can. I look forward to many more books by Mr Louden.

[Amazon USA] [Amazon UK]

Children of the After: Awakening [Book One] - Review

If you're a Young Adult enthusiast, fan of thrillers and post-apocalyptic novels you won't get much better than Jeremy Laszlo's Children of the After: Awakening [Book One].

Children of the After: Awakening has something that's all too often missing from Young Adult fiction, and genre fiction in general. Gravitas. Laszlo handles the third person narrative of three siblings and their journey, not just through post-apocalyptic Chicago, but through loss with style. Rarely is the drama of the narrative overplayed, sentimentalised or egged. The emotions are given time to brew honestly and emerge genuinely and for that there are few peers to this first in the series. Taut, intelligent and extremely well paced, Children of the After: Awakening will have to counting the remaining pages, wishing there were more.

Ti Amo Bella Roma

Two incredibly powerful novellas from the most important American writer of his generation. I love John Fante, I love his prose and the guilt of Catholicism he laces throughout his work. Greater appreciation of WEST OF ROME can be found the more you encounter the man's work. Truly magnificent.

After Forever Ends

When it comes to 'the genre' this book is a little outside my wheelhouse but what drew me to it and sustained my interest and devotion throughout is the unflinching honesty with which the text is written. Love is a subject that many think easy to write but is hard to avoid sounding chocolate box, unrealistic and schmulchy. Melodie Ramone's AFTER FOREVER ENDS has an unbelievable bravery to commit to paper the honest events that spark and re-spark love within the flickering souls of two people and it's because of this that the characters are not only well drawn, believable and (quite often) hilarious but endlessly endearing to the soul.

From their time together in boarding school, through their first house together and *no spoilers* beyond what you'll find in AFTER FOREVER ENDS is captivating characters amidst the genuine ups-and-downs of life told with by an author brave enough to shed her armour and stand before the reader scars and all. Breathtakingly beautiful, poignant, funny and most of all honest.

5 star review: Trip To The Edge of Self Destruction

I came across this novel in Goodreads. I followed with interest the author's reviews of other works and his blog and I must admit I loved the title. It had been on my `to read' list for a while, and I'm pleased to say that I finally found the time to read it and I'm very pleased I did.
Lost Angeles reads like a memoir, but not your standard memoir (if there is such a thing). The book follows the protagonist, Doug, a young and articulate man from Belfast, and his travels/adventures in Los Angeles. Doug is not in Los Angeles to see the sights, although the does see many sights (some that none of us would wish to see). From the beginning you realise that he's there with a mission. You don't come to realise quite how determined he is to self-destruct until much later in the book. He drinks, takes drugs, engages in casual sex, and drifts from cheap accommodation to even cheaper digs (including the `Lost Angeles' of the title that used to be a place for sex for sale) all the time meeting real people. Some idiots, some nice but misguided, some lost and looking, some also drifters.
The reasons for Doug's trip are slowly revealed through interspersed chapters about his life back home (I'm a bit reluctant to call them flashbacks. They're memories, but too long, detailed and elaborate to be what's more generally understood as flashback). You quickly realise that he's mourning the end of what seems to have been his most significant relationship, but later you realise that there is more to it than that, and come to care and empathise with Doug even more. Because if there's something notable about the novel is that despite behaviour that many of us would neither approve of, not adhere to, we like Doug. He might drive us insane if we met him but...whilst embarked on his self-destructive path he tries his hardest to help others and to do no harm. By the end you're rooting for him and hope that against all odds things will work out for him.
A very personal novel, I truly enjoyed Lost Angeles. This is a novel for adults and I'd recommend it to anybody who wants to read about real people coping with life, as best they can. I look forward to many more books by Mr Louden.

Context and Conrad

There's a lot made of Conrad's work and it lingers largely around the book's title. It's a book that's well over 100 years old and to understand it, and it's brilliance you need to view it in the context of which it belongs. Ask yourself. In a western when the "Injins" are circling the wagons do you wonder why they haven't tweeted for help? No? Then why should context be any different here. It's very much a story of the whole, the idea of the unit rather than the individual and it's that idea in a culture of selfish individualism that is incredibly interesting. An excellent book about morale, work and the dangerous contagiousness of apathy and laziness.

More Than Acceptable In Any Decade

It wasn't a book that I went looking for but when I saw the name and read the synopsis I knew I wanted to read it. Noir is hard, it's a thankless genre to attempt to write. Many writers have tried, failed and look contrived...thank Christ for Thom Fell. Acceptable in the Eighties is a contemporary noir cut from coat tails of Raymond Chandler with the sharp English tongue of Peter Cook. Fell knows where to adhere to genre conventions and where to push the boundaries. A gem for all who remember beta-max and a lesson for those who don't.

Brilliantly Behan

THERE'S A SAYING about brightest stars and duration of time they burn and Brendan Behan is proof positive that there's something to it. Borstal Boy showcases not just the best of his writing but the man behind the pen, it's fantastic in it's grounding and as matter of fact as an Irish mammy.

Bad Year But A Crackin' Book!

LIKE BROTHERHOOD of the Grape Fante deals with desire, aspiration and the working class trap of the Molise family.  In this template for Brotherhood he sketches a complicated teen who's stuck in his economic restraints and battling against the restrictions to his goals.  Never has a book been so bitterly sweet in it's successes.

Bad Boy...but One Hell of a Read!

BAD BOY is more than a book, it's more than fiction or nonfiction, it's a document of a time in American history that was unlike any other.  A time when the power of the nation was on the cusp of exploding forth in a wave of possibility and it's captured perfectly by one of the most linguistically creative writers the twentieth century was fortunate to have.

Go-Kids, Go-Series, Go-Read!

PARKER PERKINS is an average young Manhattan boy with a healthy interested in video-games and one in particular; the Go-Boy simulator from his favourite film franchise but he didn't know it would come to save his life on his birthday.  When an East Coast terrorist attack touches his life in ways he could never imagine it sets in motion a chain of events that will change the young boy's life forever.

I came to the book cold; I'm thirty-one years of age and outside what I had always imagined would be the key demographic for a series of books that sets it's stall out as Harry Potter meets Iron Man but strip away genre and the one thing that unites good books is the writing and A Shadow Passed Over The Son has it in spades.

At one hundred and eleven pages it's a tantalisingly short read but one that doesn't waste a word in establishing not just a world that's familiar yet futuristic while at the same time already aged but in creating characters that are identifiably human both brilliant and flawed in their humanity and always a delight.  The walls groaning, flexing before imploding...a chorus of cheers, echoing somewhere up there, atop the mountain of rubble demonstrates a style of writing that's lyrical and poetic yet depicts the grotesque; the destructive in such a beautiful way that you understand why people slow down to examine car crashes on the freeway.  Sky City South is already old; it's a wonderful use of the science fiction motif of the new already old that brings visual recollections of the likes of Bladerunner that add a grounding to the narrative that brings it out of the usual Young Adult wheelhouse and into a more dangerous and unpredictable world.

Schneider's characterisation of Parker is wonderful; you get a real sense that the author has poured a lot of his own knowledge into the young protagonist as he's a complex and contradictory lead that's deserving of a narrative that, from the outset, pulls no punches.  The estranged, protracted relationship between Parker and his military father is tortured and so heartbreakingly sweet.  It's difficult to go into details without writing into a narrative corner but it's the most powerful relationship of the book and is another signifier of a writer and a narrative for that matter that's willing to push against genre in order to create a psychologically realistic emotional landscape.  The book is littered with excellent supporting characters that will, I'm sure, over the course of the series develop further into the kind of figures that stick around in your heart long after the story has finished with this reviewer's personal favourite and early front runner being Colby who is not only the object of all Go-Boy fans envy or disdain (depending on the character) but is also one precocious little Hollywood child star and more than a little wrong upstairs (if you know what I mean) which has been overlooked due to the sycophantic nature of celebrity and the eternal quest modern society seems to have for being in the company of those who are famed.  I love how he goes into monologues; how he breaks with social conventions in conversation and is not only the breadwinner of his family but an absolute tyrant.  It's a great pastiche of the "fame machine" and a welcome inclusion in a wonderfully written, well paced and flawlessly directed narrative 

The first book in any series is something of a thankless task.  It has so much to do; it has a narrative to establish and plot; characters to introduce and flesh out so that when future instalments come along it's easier to care about them without the author telling to why you should.  Schneider deals with this first hurdle; this arguably joint highest hurdle (alongside the conclusion of the series) with great style, confidence and intelligence that's not only made A Shadow Passed Over The Son a joy to read but a real surprise and has certainly made me long to read further beyond book one's ending.

Ryan Schneider's A Shadow Passed Over The Son is out now!

Extra rye, easy on the eye

There's a lot made of the fact this is Bukowski's most autobiographical work but there's so much more to it than that.  I was disappointed in Hollywood, I had expected more the first time I read it and the second it just felt a little inflated towards the end but Ham on Rye is a masterclass in writing.  Perfect storytelling, perfect humour and the writing is as tight as lazer guided as it's ever going to be.  It has echoes of Fante without coming across as an imitation, it's beautifully penned and realistically romantic with every sentence.  I wish I could read it again for the first time.

Fante-tastic!

There's nothing to say here.  Fante is one of the most amazing writers who has ever graced the page and Ask the Dust is a book that will open a door in your mind you never even knew was there.  It's made even better when you read The Road to Los Angeles and you can see his working out, his blueprint for Bandini.