The tenor of deadkidsongs is Just William meets Lord of the Flies with a nod to the latter-day works of Nick Hornby, which gives you some idea of what a different-but interesting-book it is. The story concerns four pre-pubescent boys, all members of a gang called Gang, growing up in darkest Devon in the 70s. Against a background of Cold War rumours and Last War memories they play their conkers and cowboys an' injuns, their war and show-us-yer-willy games. Then their clumsy and wistfully innocent Arcadia is overturned when one of them dies; from there the narrative unravels until the reader is not sure who is telling what to whom, nor quite how reliable the teller might be.
To recapture a lost childhood is ambitious enough; Litt's aim is to do that and then some: he wants to say profound things about masculinity, nostalgia, violence and nationhood. Whether he succeeds or not is moot; anyone sincerely interested in the modern British novel will want to read this to decide for themselves. --Sean Thomas
]]>Toby Litt, born in 1968, lives in East London. With film rights sold to Hollywood, mass market success in England, Corpsing's entrance to the American market is overdue.
]]>"Alphabed" is particularly striking and insightful: it's an A to Z of dying sexual passion which spares neither blushes nor expletives as it dissects the decay inherent in carnality. Similarly, "On The Etiquette of Eye-Contact During Oral Sex" does exactly what it says on the tin: even if the wit sometimes flags, it's full of salutary advice on the trickiest of erotic acts. But it's not just sex that benefits from the Litt technique. The first story, "Dreamgirls", is a mildly touching fantasy on what it means for inner wishes to come true. The "Audioguide" is nobly experimental and almost entirely confusing (it's probably about museums) but is never less than smart. Best of the lot is "Mapmaking Among The Middle Classes"--it's a deliciously sly dig at the feng shui of bourgeois socialising.
Litt's bestselling novels, like Deadkidsongs and Beatniks have proved he's a dab hand at examining generational angst and masculine hang-ups; this impressive collection of short stories shows he has other talents, too.--Sean Thomas
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