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Blind Spot
"Some days I wish something truly bad would happen so that I would have something genuine to worry about." When his parents' car is hit by a train, Luke, a failed actor, returns to his Edmonton hometown to attend their funeral, wrap up their affairs, and prepare their house to be sold off. But while all others around him grieve, Luke remains detached, striking up a relationship with a woman in a neighbouring house ... and stumbling across evidence that his mother may have engaged in a longstanding extramarital affair herself. In Luke, Laurence Miall has crafted an unforgettable literary antihero, a man disconnected from the pain of those around him, yet blind to his own faults. With his clean, forceful language and a familiarity with the darker corners of the male psyche, Blind Spot is a gripping literary debut.
- GenresLiterary Fiction
232 pages, Paperback
First published September 15, 2014
1 person is currently reading
244 people want to read
About the author
Laurence Miall
1 book3 followersLaurence Miall is a Montreal-based writer who spent his childhood in England before immigrating to Edmonton, Alberta, at the age of 14. He has contributed to the Edmonton Journal and his short stories have been finalists in the Summer Literary Awards contest and Glimmer Train's Short Story Award for New Writers. His most recent publications are the novel, Blind Spot (NeWest Press) and the short story "The City of Magnitogorsk" (Cosmonauts Avenue).
Miall is the co-editor of carte blanche, the official publication of the Quebec Writers' Federation.
Miall is the co-editor of carte blanche, the official publication of the Quebec Writers' Federation.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 10, 2014
Check out my review here/
http://www.iheartedmonton.org/2014/10...
http://www.iheartedmonton.org/2014/10...
August 20, 2014
For once, I'm glad Goodreads doesn't allow half stars, because I don't know how I feel about this book yet. It's somewhere between 2.5 and 3.5 and I need some time to figure it out. One thing, though: there are some seriously unlikeable characters. I said "You're gross" and "are you serious?" out loud in my last hour of reading. I tend to have visceral reactions while reading, but even for me, that's a little weird. I can't figure out if the end is meant to be ridiculous or sad or both (leaning toward sad.) Full review to come!
May 6, 2015
Fast moving well written psychologically convincing. Deep insights litter this novel and the style feels taut and driven by a mysterious unease. Luke is fascinating as a passive aggressive young man pursuing hidden truth that he can't quite handle and Laurence Miall is a remarkably gifted writer.
August 21, 2014
I'd have given this 3.5 stars if I could. It was an interesting first novel, with a clear writing style and an engaging story about a troubled family and the aftermath of a tragedy.
January 1, 2015
“I don't write books for people to be friends with the characters. If you want to find friends, go to a cocktail party.” ― Zoë Heller
It seems incongruous: an enjoyable book with a protagonist you'd love to punch about the neck and face. It stands to reason that likeable books have likeable narrators, but the great writers have proven this isn't always the case. Notes from the Underground, Catcher in the Rye, A Confederacy of Dunces. With a lesser book, from a lesser writer, an unlikeable protagonist can be enough to sink the ship. But what a talented writer does is make us understand that the issue isn't whether or not the narrator is likeable, it is whether or not he is compelling.
With Blind Spot, Laurence Miall introduces us to Luke, an unreasonably bitter and angst-ridden failed actor with a host of unresolved (and, arguably, unwarranted) parental issues. He seems every bit that white, middle-class, suburban kid whose upbringing was so bland and safe he felt somehow victimized by it. Having never felt love for (or from) his parents, Luke has grown into an emotionally stunted adult who never feels at fault for his own failures. His life has unraveled both personally and professionally, and all he does is bring everybody down with him.
Throughout, he remains a grade A, capital D, Dick. I disliked him from the first page to the last page, and yet, somehow, Miall kept me reading.
Luke is living in Vancouver when his parents' car is hit by a train. He returns to Edmonton, his hometown, to attend their funeral, wrap up their affairs, and fix some things with their house so that it can be sold. While his sister grieves, Luke is, at best, apathetic. Unable to drudge up even the faintest feeling of loss, Luke strikes up an affair with a woman in a neighbouring house. Amidst all of this, he discovers that his mother may have been having an affair of her own.
Publisher NeWest Press generously dubs Luke an anti-hero, but if there was any heroism at work in Blind Spot it managed to slip by me. Luke is a bitter, delusional prick who handles an extremely delicate situation with the grace of a drunk hippo on skates. His fatal flaw is that he remains disconnected to everyone around him. He blames everyone but himself for his sorry state of affairs (quite literally), and is completely blind to his own faults. There is almost nothing redeeming about him, and yet I just couldn't put this book down.
I think Laurence Miall has a new novel called Blind Spot. Thanks, Edmonton Journal. Thanks, Edmonton Journal. Thanks, Edmonton Journal.
Miall is completely and utterly unapologetic in his portrayal of Luke. He explores some of the darkest, most selfish, wretched corners of the male psyche, and makes no attempt at sugar coating them. It's a testament to Miall that, if anything, I wanted Blind Spot to be longer. I wish he had delved deeper into what made Luke tick (or not tick, depending on how you look at it). I wanted him to explore the most interesting aspect of the novel: the omnipresent gulf that existed between him and his parents. As it stands, we see only faint glimpses of this relationship.
"I don't entirely believe that flesh and blood shit. It's true for some people, but not for everybody. What about the kids who went on the killing spree in Columbine? Surely, after the fact, their parents thought, 'How did these children come from us?' I mean, you wouldn't have thought it was possible. You give birth to a baby who grows up to be a cold-hearted killer. And it works the other way around, too. You see your parents acting a certain way and you ask, 'How the hell can I be related to them?"
Miall specifically set out to write a short novel, and in that, I think he did this story a disservice. Every issue I have with the book stems from me wanting more. More insight into a character. More consequences for Luke's behavior. More attention to the apparent social disorder that Luke is suffering from. Blind Spot scratches the surface on so many interesting ideas, and yet, most of the time, the surface is all we get.
But despite any shortcomings, Blind Spot remains another nice find for NeWest Press, who seem to have a knack for rescuing writers from obscurity. Miall had essentially given up being a novelist after years of being jerked around by some of the country's larger publishing houses. But thanks to NeWest, his book found a home, and an audience. Were it not for them, Blind Spot would have gone on, sadly, unread. In some ways it's a difficult book to read, but I think it's a worthwhile one.
With Blind Spot, Edmonton has another literary feather in its cap. It may be a bit too inside in its portrayal of the city, but Edmontonians should appreciate the many ways in which Miall gets it right, like when he describes flying into the city:
"The crowd heaves a collective sigh. The crowd says with a shrug of loosening shoulders, silently, we're home. And what else could the crowd say? What else could Edmonton be but home? It's not like arriving in New York or London -- or even Vancouver -- where it is likely that you arrived with a purpose in mind, with an air of expectation, with a sense of excitement. You return to Edmonton like you return to your bed."
Blind Spot strikes me as a novel Jonathan Tropper would write if he got drunk on hard booze, determined to get his demons out. Miall writes in clear, confident, compulsively readable prose, prose strong enough to make you forgive him for casting his lot with a wet blanket like Luke.
Like any good car crash, Blind Spot is a disturbing experience ... but you can't look away.
It seems incongruous: an enjoyable book with a protagonist you'd love to punch about the neck and face. It stands to reason that likeable books have likeable narrators, but the great writers have proven this isn't always the case. Notes from the Underground, Catcher in the Rye, A Confederacy of Dunces. With a lesser book, from a lesser writer, an unlikeable protagonist can be enough to sink the ship. But what a talented writer does is make us understand that the issue isn't whether or not the narrator is likeable, it is whether or not he is compelling.
With Blind Spot, Laurence Miall introduces us to Luke, an unreasonably bitter and angst-ridden failed actor with a host of unresolved (and, arguably, unwarranted) parental issues. He seems every bit that white, middle-class, suburban kid whose upbringing was so bland and safe he felt somehow victimized by it. Having never felt love for (or from) his parents, Luke has grown into an emotionally stunted adult who never feels at fault for his own failures. His life has unraveled both personally and professionally, and all he does is bring everybody down with him.
Throughout, he remains a grade A, capital D, Dick. I disliked him from the first page to the last page, and yet, somehow, Miall kept me reading.
Luke is living in Vancouver when his parents' car is hit by a train. He returns to Edmonton, his hometown, to attend their funeral, wrap up their affairs, and fix some things with their house so that it can be sold. While his sister grieves, Luke is, at best, apathetic. Unable to drudge up even the faintest feeling of loss, Luke strikes up an affair with a woman in a neighbouring house. Amidst all of this, he discovers that his mother may have been having an affair of her own.
Publisher NeWest Press generously dubs Luke an anti-hero, but if there was any heroism at work in Blind Spot it managed to slip by me. Luke is a bitter, delusional prick who handles an extremely delicate situation with the grace of a drunk hippo on skates. His fatal flaw is that he remains disconnected to everyone around him. He blames everyone but himself for his sorry state of affairs (quite literally), and is completely blind to his own faults. There is almost nothing redeeming about him, and yet I just couldn't put this book down.
I think Laurence Miall has a new novel called Blind Spot. Thanks, Edmonton Journal. Thanks, Edmonton Journal. Thanks, Edmonton Journal.
Miall is completely and utterly unapologetic in his portrayal of Luke. He explores some of the darkest, most selfish, wretched corners of the male psyche, and makes no attempt at sugar coating them. It's a testament to Miall that, if anything, I wanted Blind Spot to be longer. I wish he had delved deeper into what made Luke tick (or not tick, depending on how you look at it). I wanted him to explore the most interesting aspect of the novel: the omnipresent gulf that existed between him and his parents. As it stands, we see only faint glimpses of this relationship.
"I don't entirely believe that flesh and blood shit. It's true for some people, but not for everybody. What about the kids who went on the killing spree in Columbine? Surely, after the fact, their parents thought, 'How did these children come from us?' I mean, you wouldn't have thought it was possible. You give birth to a baby who grows up to be a cold-hearted killer. And it works the other way around, too. You see your parents acting a certain way and you ask, 'How the hell can I be related to them?"
Miall specifically set out to write a short novel, and in that, I think he did this story a disservice. Every issue I have with the book stems from me wanting more. More insight into a character. More consequences for Luke's behavior. More attention to the apparent social disorder that Luke is suffering from. Blind Spot scratches the surface on so many interesting ideas, and yet, most of the time, the surface is all we get.
But despite any shortcomings, Blind Spot remains another nice find for NeWest Press, who seem to have a knack for rescuing writers from obscurity. Miall had essentially given up being a novelist after years of being jerked around by some of the country's larger publishing houses. But thanks to NeWest, his book found a home, and an audience. Were it not for them, Blind Spot would have gone on, sadly, unread. In some ways it's a difficult book to read, but I think it's a worthwhile one.
With Blind Spot, Edmonton has another literary feather in its cap. It may be a bit too inside in its portrayal of the city, but Edmontonians should appreciate the many ways in which Miall gets it right, like when he describes flying into the city:
"The crowd heaves a collective sigh. The crowd says with a shrug of loosening shoulders, silently, we're home. And what else could the crowd say? What else could Edmonton be but home? It's not like arriving in New York or London -- or even Vancouver -- where it is likely that you arrived with a purpose in mind, with an air of expectation, with a sense of excitement. You return to Edmonton like you return to your bed."
Blind Spot strikes me as a novel Jonathan Tropper would write if he got drunk on hard booze, determined to get his demons out. Miall writes in clear, confident, compulsively readable prose, prose strong enough to make you forgive him for casting his lot with a wet blanket like Luke.
Like any good car crash, Blind Spot is a disturbing experience ... but you can't look away.
July 23, 2016
*I received a copy of this book via Goodreads Giveaways*
This is the story of Luke, a man constantly unsatisfied with his life, who goes back to his hometown (Edmonton) after his parents' death and discovers things about them that disturbs him.
I enjoyed most parts of this story. Luke often came up as a selfish and unlikeable prick, but I was eager to learn what would happen to him and which secrets he would unravel.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that one part of this story took place in Montreal. Because this is my hometown, and also because I'm very familiar with its club scene, I noticed a little anachronism. Nothing major, but since the authors are looking for critiques on this site, this might interest Laurence Miall. At some point, the protagonist thinks about his past. He goes back to his childhood, in "(...) 1979, or maybe even longer ago"(p. 101). He was begging his father for ice cream and running after a balloon. He then describes another moment from about the same time in his childhood, when he was in his high chair. From these infos, I take it he was around two years old (or a little more or less if he had a slower or faster development). Then he remembers a trip with his family to Montreal, when he was sixteen. So if he was around two in 1979 (or even longer ago), this means he was sixteen in 1993 (or longer ago). But when Luke's in Montreal, he notices a bunch of strip clubs with promises of "girls, girls, girls and contact dances. The problem is that contact dances became legal in Quebec only in 1999, after the Blais Pelletier Supreme Court's decision. There were contact dances going on before that in suburbs and other Quebec regions, but not directly in the city of Montreal. Like I said, nothing major...Just nitpicking. *wink* This detail had no influence in my rating.
Overall this was a good story, but I would have preferred a different ending. It wasn't bad, but not fully satisfying.
This is the story of Luke, a man constantly unsatisfied with his life, who goes back to his hometown (Edmonton) after his parents' death and discovers things about them that disturbs him.
I enjoyed most parts of this story. Luke often came up as a selfish and unlikeable prick, but I was eager to learn what would happen to him and which secrets he would unravel.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that one part of this story took place in Montreal. Because this is my hometown, and also because I'm very familiar with its club scene, I noticed a little anachronism. Nothing major, but since the authors are looking for critiques on this site, this might interest Laurence Miall. At some point, the protagonist thinks about his past. He goes back to his childhood, in "(...) 1979, or maybe even longer ago"(p. 101). He was begging his father for ice cream and running after a balloon. He then describes another moment from about the same time in his childhood, when he was in his high chair. From these infos, I take it he was around two years old (or a little more or less if he had a slower or faster development). Then he remembers a trip with his family to Montreal, when he was sixteen. So if he was around two in 1979 (or even longer ago), this means he was sixteen in 1993 (or longer ago). But when Luke's in Montreal, he notices a bunch of strip clubs with promises of "girls, girls, girls and contact dances. The problem is that contact dances became legal in Quebec only in 1999, after the Blais Pelletier Supreme Court's decision. There were contact dances going on before that in suburbs and other Quebec regions, but not directly in the city of Montreal. Like I said, nothing major...Just nitpicking. *wink* This detail had no influence in my rating.
Overall this was a good story, but I would have preferred a different ending. It wasn't bad, but not fully satisfying.
October 2, 2014
This is the first time I can remember not having warm feelings for the main character, Luke was hard to like his character was negative, that being said it was a welcome change and I enjoyed the story. For a first time book publishing I commend the writer and would be interested to read more of his work in the future.
September 24, 2014
Luke's world is rocked by the sudden death of his parents, not because they were close - exactly the opposite was true - but because there was so much left unsaid. As the details come out, Luke struggles to keep his bearings.
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October 27, 2014If you want to find out what I thought of this book, please listen to the Write Reads podcast, available on Itunes.
The podcast should be up Nov. 3.
The podcast should be up Nov. 3.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews