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Material Remains
On a hungover Friday morning, Mike McEwan's life of tea, pints, late mornings and the occasional essay comes to an abrupt halt. Consumed with guilt, grief and confusion, Mike haunts the ruins of St Andrews, rebuilding them in his mind and obsessing about the loss of someone he barely knew, unsure of his place in her life, or her death.
The discovery of an ancient plague burial site drags Mike back into contact with those around him. But life has changed, both for himself and others, and the burial ground holds more than the bones of those long dead.
Mike peels back the layers of earth and the darkness of its history and tries desperately to connect the victims of the past to the tumult of his present.
Student life around him continues at its own bizarre and drunken pace. Late-night parties, stolen golf carts and ridiculous drinking games go on for most as always. But others have been dragged in as well, and look on Mike with suspicion and rage.
The discovery of an ancient plague burial site drags Mike back into contact with those around him. But life has changed, both for himself and others, and the burial ground holds more than the bones of those long dead.
Mike peels back the layers of earth and the darkness of its history and tries desperately to connect the victims of the past to the tumult of his present.
Student life around him continues at its own bizarre and drunken pace. Late-night parties, stolen golf carts and ridiculous drinking games go on for most as always. But others have been dragged in as well, and look on Mike with suspicion and rage.
352 pages, Paperback
First published February 7, 2019
17 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
February 11, 2019
Single Song Soundtrack for Material Remains: “Nothing Compares 2 You” by Sinéad O'Connor
Material Remains is set in St. Andrews Scotland. For some people, St. Andrews is hallowed ground for golf. The Royal and Ancient course is the birthplace of the sport. For others, St. Andrews is home to one of Scotland's most prestigious universities. For still others it is a summer holiday destination on the east coast of Scotland. For the majority of people, though, St. Andrews is a place they've never heard of.
The novel is set in the 90s and follows a university student, Mike MacEwan. He's a history undergraduate with a passion for archeology, pints of Old Peculiar and cups of tea. In that way, he is a perfectly ordinary Scotsman (maybe not his choice in pints but pints nonetheless). He meets a girl, Charlie. They have a moment. Two days later she's found dead at the base of the cliffs that form a part of St. Andrews's rugged coastline.
I kept expecting Material Remains to be one thing when it really is something else. A lot of credit should be given to Mr Bray for constructing a narrative in such a way that allows the reader's expectations to wander a bit. Rich is never coy about his intent, but he is also not quick to point you in the right direction either. Material Remains is heartfelt. It is somber at times and funny in others. It is filled with awkward moments and tender moments. It builds tension and holds your attention simply because the characters and the scenes are all identifiable.
For me, what continues to resonate in my mind is how Material Remains addresses the aftermath of Charlie's death. The protagonist, Mike, struggles with coming to terms with the brevity of their relationship and his feelings for a woman he barely knew. He worries about how her social circle, who are all emotional messes, view him. Gossip in a small, university town can spread like a wildfire. Mike agonizes over how much grief he is allowed to express and if it's even appropriate to feel as bad as he does compared to her other friends and family.
It's this idea that really stuck with me because it is uniquely human. We equate experience (or time spent) with the right to express an emotional response, right? That "How could you be sad? You hardly knew them!" Or, "Why is he/she getting treated so special? They're practically strangers!" The outrage when someone could possibly be as sad as you, or as happy. Grief is more often a selfish affair than it is not.
In that moment when we judge another's right to be sad, we have created a kind of emotional equation where the right to an appropriate response (for instance, grief) is predicated upon an amount of time spent with the person. How long that is cannot be easily guessed.
Why we do this, also, cannot be easily guessed. What does it matter if a person knows another person for an hour, a day, a week, a year, or a decade? Grief is grief. Joy is joy. Sadness is sadness. Feelings should not be constrained by time, or viewed as a competition. Material Remains is a gentle reminder that we would all do well to remember this.
If I have any complaints, (and they are minor) it would be some of the jargon, which I knew because I went to St. Andrews but I'm not certain how well it translates beyond the Kingdom of Fife. Rich could have added a few quick comments in dialogue for clarity (for instance, you may never know what the KK club is without doing an internet search). There is a scene where Mike and a couple of friends practice shinty, which is a field hockey sport that makes the violence in Lacrosse look like a game of tag. Unless you've played, it isn't easy to imagine the equipment. The dialogue and syntax carry with them a certain authenticity, but again I'm not sure how effective it is outside of Scotland or the UK.
My other complaint is that I wish there was more from a subplot involving an excavation near the ruins of St. Andrews Cathedral. I suspect that I am in the minority here but it was super cool. A testament to Rich's writing because the dig scenes all felt authentic. Every scene was filled with the possibility of discovery and a clue to the past. I think that this B plot could be a novel on its own! *Hint hint*
However, I cannot stress enough that these are minor issues and are in no way a reason to avoid the book.
Material Remains might make you laugh. It will probably make you cry. And it will definitely make you think.
You should buy a copy today!
Thanks for reading along and have a great day!
Kev
Material Remains is set in St. Andrews Scotland. For some people, St. Andrews is hallowed ground for golf. The Royal and Ancient course is the birthplace of the sport. For others, St. Andrews is home to one of Scotland's most prestigious universities. For still others it is a summer holiday destination on the east coast of Scotland. For the majority of people, though, St. Andrews is a place they've never heard of.
The novel is set in the 90s and follows a university student, Mike MacEwan. He's a history undergraduate with a passion for archeology, pints of Old Peculiar and cups of tea. In that way, he is a perfectly ordinary Scotsman (maybe not his choice in pints but pints nonetheless). He meets a girl, Charlie. They have a moment. Two days later she's found dead at the base of the cliffs that form a part of St. Andrews's rugged coastline.
I kept expecting Material Remains to be one thing when it really is something else. A lot of credit should be given to Mr Bray for constructing a narrative in such a way that allows the reader's expectations to wander a bit. Rich is never coy about his intent, but he is also not quick to point you in the right direction either. Material Remains is heartfelt. It is somber at times and funny in others. It is filled with awkward moments and tender moments. It builds tension and holds your attention simply because the characters and the scenes are all identifiable.
For me, what continues to resonate in my mind is how Material Remains addresses the aftermath of Charlie's death. The protagonist, Mike, struggles with coming to terms with the brevity of their relationship and his feelings for a woman he barely knew. He worries about how her social circle, who are all emotional messes, view him. Gossip in a small, university town can spread like a wildfire. Mike agonizes over how much grief he is allowed to express and if it's even appropriate to feel as bad as he does compared to her other friends and family.
It's this idea that really stuck with me because it is uniquely human. We equate experience (or time spent) with the right to express an emotional response, right? That "How could you be sad? You hardly knew them!" Or, "Why is he/she getting treated so special? They're practically strangers!" The outrage when someone could possibly be as sad as you, or as happy. Grief is more often a selfish affair than it is not.
In that moment when we judge another's right to be sad, we have created a kind of emotional equation where the right to an appropriate response (for instance, grief) is predicated upon an amount of time spent with the person. How long that is cannot be easily guessed.
Why we do this, also, cannot be easily guessed. What does it matter if a person knows another person for an hour, a day, a week, a year, or a decade? Grief is grief. Joy is joy. Sadness is sadness. Feelings should not be constrained by time, or viewed as a competition. Material Remains is a gentle reminder that we would all do well to remember this.
If I have any complaints, (and they are minor) it would be some of the jargon, which I knew because I went to St. Andrews but I'm not certain how well it translates beyond the Kingdom of Fife. Rich could have added a few quick comments in dialogue for clarity (for instance, you may never know what the KK club is without doing an internet search). There is a scene where Mike and a couple of friends practice shinty, which is a field hockey sport that makes the violence in Lacrosse look like a game of tag. Unless you've played, it isn't easy to imagine the equipment. The dialogue and syntax carry with them a certain authenticity, but again I'm not sure how effective it is outside of Scotland or the UK.
My other complaint is that I wish there was more from a subplot involving an excavation near the ruins of St. Andrews Cathedral. I suspect that I am in the minority here but it was super cool. A testament to Rich's writing because the dig scenes all felt authentic. Every scene was filled with the possibility of discovery and a clue to the past. I think that this B plot could be a novel on its own! *Hint hint*
However, I cannot stress enough that these are minor issues and are in no way a reason to avoid the book.
Material Remains might make you laugh. It will probably make you cry. And it will definitely make you think.
You should buy a copy today!
Thanks for reading along and have a great day!
Kev
February 1, 2019
When I saw this, it appealed to me, but then I think that I thought it was something else. I’m not really sure where I stand on this one, so there may be a couple of (slight) spoilers in the review whilst I work out my thoughts….
Michael MacEwan, a mature student at St Andrews University, is out one night with friends and meets a girl called Charlie, whom he had briefly met before. They spend the night together, and then next morning he awakes to find her gone. Her body is later found on the beach, drowned. So far so good (as it were!). By the sounds of I thought this was then going to progress onto a murder mystery type book, with Mike being accused of the murder, us learning more about Charlie’s secrets and the case is solved…. Nope. No such thing. Although the death hangs over the book, and Mike becomes more and more depressed and starts seeing weird visions, the death is not suspicious. We learn very little more about the poor girl, and whilst there are consequences later in the book, the death is not really central to the plot, I found.
The story then develops into Mike getting involved in an archaeological dig which has unearthed a centuries-old burial pit for plague victims. Great, I thought: there will be some more modern bodies found, or at least one, in the remains and then it will turn into something. Nope. No such thing. So, for me, very little happens in the book, and I really wasn’t at all sure what it was supposed to be ‘about’. It ends with some rumination on the past, and ruins, and how somehow, they are still ‘present’, but I just didn’t feel that it all tied together.
The book’s setting is very well described, and the author used the rain and cold weather as decent analogies for the emotions of the characters. Clearly the author knows St Andrews; perhaps too well, as some of the descriptions are so exact and particular (such and such was exactly sixty yards from somewhere else, and so on) that I felt a map would have been handy, even for someone like me who has been there several times. And, for me, the biggest niggle I have was the fact that it was set in 1995. Now, if an author is going to set a story in a particular period of the past there has to be reason, something specific that impacts on the story or has relevance. I just couldn’t find it here, and the setting and references jarred (smoking in pubs, the Pulp Fiction soundtrack…). I get the sense that this probably was a time that the author himself was at St Andrews and it feels genuine enough, but it just felt dated, and the 1995 setting had no particular rationale.
I enjoyed the book well enough, but my main emotions coming away from it are: why? It wasn’t a crime novel, or a mystery, or a particular story from the past relevant to nowadays. It just seemed to stop. I guess it was about death, and the past, and living and moving on, but, hmmm…. It was pretty well written, but the premise offered so much more than I got out of it. For all that, I’ll go with 2.5 stars, being generous rounding up to a 3.
(With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this book
Michael MacEwan, a mature student at St Andrews University, is out one night with friends and meets a girl called Charlie, whom he had briefly met before. They spend the night together, and then next morning he awakes to find her gone. Her body is later found on the beach, drowned. So far so good (as it were!). By the sounds of I thought this was then going to progress onto a murder mystery type book, with Mike being accused of the murder, us learning more about Charlie’s secrets and the case is solved…. Nope. No such thing. Although the death hangs over the book, and Mike becomes more and more depressed and starts seeing weird visions, the death is not suspicious. We learn very little more about the poor girl, and whilst there are consequences later in the book, the death is not really central to the plot, I found.
The story then develops into Mike getting involved in an archaeological dig which has unearthed a centuries-old burial pit for plague victims. Great, I thought: there will be some more modern bodies found, or at least one, in the remains and then it will turn into something. Nope. No such thing. So, for me, very little happens in the book, and I really wasn’t at all sure what it was supposed to be ‘about’. It ends with some rumination on the past, and ruins, and how somehow, they are still ‘present’, but I just didn’t feel that it all tied together.
The book’s setting is very well described, and the author used the rain and cold weather as decent analogies for the emotions of the characters. Clearly the author knows St Andrews; perhaps too well, as some of the descriptions are so exact and particular (such and such was exactly sixty yards from somewhere else, and so on) that I felt a map would have been handy, even for someone like me who has been there several times. And, for me, the biggest niggle I have was the fact that it was set in 1995. Now, if an author is going to set a story in a particular period of the past there has to be reason, something specific that impacts on the story or has relevance. I just couldn’t find it here, and the setting and references jarred (smoking in pubs, the Pulp Fiction soundtrack…). I get the sense that this probably was a time that the author himself was at St Andrews and it feels genuine enough, but it just felt dated, and the 1995 setting had no particular rationale.
I enjoyed the book well enough, but my main emotions coming away from it are: why? It wasn’t a crime novel, or a mystery, or a particular story from the past relevant to nowadays. It just seemed to stop. I guess it was about death, and the past, and living and moving on, but, hmmm…. It was pretty well written, but the premise offered so much more than I got out of it. For all that, I’ll go with 2.5 stars, being generous rounding up to a 3.
(With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this book
February 6, 2019
I’m finding it very hard to come up with the right words for this one, purely because it was not what I expected it to be. What I thought was going to be a run of the mill “whodunnit” was actually something much different. A look at life and death. Love and loss. A brief snapshot of the realities we face. In other words, it was something much better than what I expected.
So no, this is not a thriller. What follows is a brief snapshot in the life of our protagonist Mike, in the aftermath of a life changing incident. How can he and his friends get through this time and move on.
The book, while built on the story of a man going through many problems has some great moments of humour, and shows a snapshot of Scottish student life in Saint Andrews. I admit to googling the often mentioned “Raisin Weekend” just to see if it was a real thing. The images that came up mostly consisted of people partying in foam and snogging the heads off eachother.
So yeah, “Raisin Weekend” is very much real, and sounds like it would have been fantastic 15 years ago when I was a fresher in college :-).
Being that the majority of the characters are students, the majority of the book is spent indoors i.e. in the pub, or talking about the pub, and while this sounds like it could be somewhat derivative the author has somehow written it such a way that I found it charming. Perhaps it showed a more realistic side of characters than would normally be in this style of book.
This book does ask questions of the reader. It most likely isn’t one that you will pick up and breeze through. If you are anything like me it will give you cause to stop and think about what you’ve just read, and take in what the author is getting across. I thought it was brilliant. It’s quite different to the books I would usually pick out but it is one that will stay with me for sure. I definitely recommend that you give it a go.
So no, this is not a thriller. What follows is a brief snapshot in the life of our protagonist Mike, in the aftermath of a life changing incident. How can he and his friends get through this time and move on.
The book, while built on the story of a man going through many problems has some great moments of humour, and shows a snapshot of Scottish student life in Saint Andrews. I admit to googling the often mentioned “Raisin Weekend” just to see if it was a real thing. The images that came up mostly consisted of people partying in foam and snogging the heads off eachother.
So yeah, “Raisin Weekend” is very much real, and sounds like it would have been fantastic 15 years ago when I was a fresher in college :-).
Being that the majority of the characters are students, the majority of the book is spent indoors i.e. in the pub, or talking about the pub, and while this sounds like it could be somewhat derivative the author has somehow written it such a way that I found it charming. Perhaps it showed a more realistic side of characters than would normally be in this style of book.
This book does ask questions of the reader. It most likely isn’t one that you will pick up and breeze through. If you are anything like me it will give you cause to stop and think about what you’ve just read, and take in what the author is getting across. I thought it was brilliant. It’s quite different to the books I would usually pick out but it is one that will stay with me for sure. I definitely recommend that you give it a go.
February 13, 2019
Mike MacEwan is a mature student studying archaeology at St Andrews University in Scotland. He and a group of friends seem to spend most of their evenings in the pub getting drunk and then something happens which turns Mike's world upside down. He sinks into depression, only finding some sort of resolution when he becomes involved in an archaeological dig which is uncovering long buried secrets from the past.
Material Remains is a slow book in many ways and there doesn't seem to be much going on at times but then, I think this is quite deliberate as it gives you the opportunity to understand more about Mike's character and to discover what he is thinking. I must admit that, given the book blurb, I did sort of expect this to be more of a murder mystery, but that wasn't the case at all. There are several layers to the story, one is of the bewilderment when life suddenly takes a different turn, with no clear answer of what to do next. The other is one of involvement, learning to deal with events in a practical sort of way and finding the way forward.
The author writes the story well, and the university town of St Andrew's with its snaking wynds and alleyways are nicely described and together add atmosphere to this interesting story.
Material Remains is a slow book in many ways and there doesn't seem to be much going on at times but then, I think this is quite deliberate as it gives you the opportunity to understand more about Mike's character and to discover what he is thinking. I must admit that, given the book blurb, I did sort of expect this to be more of a murder mystery, but that wasn't the case at all. There are several layers to the story, one is of the bewilderment when life suddenly takes a different turn, with no clear answer of what to do next. The other is one of involvement, learning to deal with events in a practical sort of way and finding the way forward.
The author writes the story well, and the university town of St Andrew's with its snaking wynds and alleyways are nicely described and together add atmosphere to this interesting story.
May 19, 2019
Great book.
Richard Bray is an excellent writer —and this is a remarkable novel.
Everyone needs to read this book.
Richard Bray is an excellent writer —and this is a remarkable novel.
Everyone needs to read this book.
February 11, 2019
Student lives, serious archaeology, and an early death; there is much happening in the University town of St.Andrews as Mike experiences so many emotions in the course of this interesting book. This contemporary novel is not a murder mystery, despite the appearance of a body quite early in the book. It is a novel which also looks carefully at the way that the past can be reconstructed or at least visualised from the remains of the people and buildings that surround the characters. There is a phenomenal amount of alcohol consumed in this book, and much is made of the banter and relationships between students. I found it a fascinating insight into what happens in the case of a death when the emphasis is not on detection and punishment, a subject not covered so much in contemporary fiction. I was grateful for the opportunity to read and review a copy of this impressive novel.
This book takes place in 1995, when students still depended heavily on textbooks and submitting their work on paper. Mike is an older undergraduate who is applying for extra study with the eccentric Dr. Reed, a passionate lecturer keen to take any opportunity to study the local sites of plague burial. The book opens with Mike meeting up with several friends and acquaintances in a local student pub. This book is full of the strange humour and obsessions of students in the 1990s, and there are significant sequences of dialogue which are genuinely funny. It soon emerges that Harry is not only a flatmate of Mike’s but an important friend, together with his girlfriend Fiona. As conversations are continually shaped by the amount of alcohol consumed, there seems little importance to Mike’s encounter with the enigmatic Charlie, or Charlotte. It is only forty eight hours later that the significance of their meeting becomes clear, as Mike realises that things will never be the same again. As he becomes involved in a dig which causes some controversy, Mike is literally surrounded by the evidence of death in many forms. This is in direct contrast with the student parties and gatherings which are dominated by alcohol, even though Mike himself seems to retain a certain innocence. He becomes more confused and bewildered by the priorities of study, making discoveries on the site of a supposed burial, and the continual remembrance of a death without resolution.
This is an intelligent book which deals thoughtfully with the effects of youthful unresolved death. Bray writes convincing dialogue which is consistent with students who are good natured and affected by a young woman’s death at varying levels. I enjoyed the conversations and detail which described the experiences and place so well. I found this a compelling read, not in terms of a whodunnit but the actions of those who are bereaved. The community of St. Andrews is thoughtfully described, and I was especially interested in the idea of reconstructing buildings such as the Cathedral visually. Altogether this is an unusual book which deals closely with a closed community rocked by an event they cannot quite comprehend. It is far from the usual crime novel, and is a convincing portrait of an individual coming to terms with life and death in a setting defined by the past.
This book takes place in 1995, when students still depended heavily on textbooks and submitting their work on paper. Mike is an older undergraduate who is applying for extra study with the eccentric Dr. Reed, a passionate lecturer keen to take any opportunity to study the local sites of plague burial. The book opens with Mike meeting up with several friends and acquaintances in a local student pub. This book is full of the strange humour and obsessions of students in the 1990s, and there are significant sequences of dialogue which are genuinely funny. It soon emerges that Harry is not only a flatmate of Mike’s but an important friend, together with his girlfriend Fiona. As conversations are continually shaped by the amount of alcohol consumed, there seems little importance to Mike’s encounter with the enigmatic Charlie, or Charlotte. It is only forty eight hours later that the significance of their meeting becomes clear, as Mike realises that things will never be the same again. As he becomes involved in a dig which causes some controversy, Mike is literally surrounded by the evidence of death in many forms. This is in direct contrast with the student parties and gatherings which are dominated by alcohol, even though Mike himself seems to retain a certain innocence. He becomes more confused and bewildered by the priorities of study, making discoveries on the site of a supposed burial, and the continual remembrance of a death without resolution.
This is an intelligent book which deals thoughtfully with the effects of youthful unresolved death. Bray writes convincing dialogue which is consistent with students who are good natured and affected by a young woman’s death at varying levels. I enjoyed the conversations and detail which described the experiences and place so well. I found this a compelling read, not in terms of a whodunnit but the actions of those who are bereaved. The community of St. Andrews is thoughtfully described, and I was especially interested in the idea of reconstructing buildings such as the Cathedral visually. Altogether this is an unusual book which deals closely with a closed community rocked by an event they cannot quite comprehend. It is far from the usual crime novel, and is a convincing portrait of an individual coming to terms with life and death in a setting defined by the past.
February 10, 2019
This was a really enjoyable read that surprised me from the first to the last page, in part for the revelations along the way, and in part for the storyline itself and the way it unfolded.
When I first started to read the book, I was expecting it to be a typical Crime or perhaps Thriller story, with a death in suspicious circumstances, and many fun twists trying to figure out who the murderer was before the story would tell me.
This isn’t exactly where this story goes, there are elements involved, but it’s so much more than that. Mike is a central Character that has been through something nobody should have to, and the story follows him in his own considerations and investigations to try and find some sort of closure after the Death of someone he knew.
The story takes a very realistic look at the effects this type of situation can have on a persons mental and emotional health, how the need for answers can effect a person as well as various other considerations, especially when a death is suspicious, but I don’t want to go into those more because of Spoilers.
The Author has taken several concepts and ideas that many avoid or don’t consider, and given them a centre stage. What happens in life when we lose someone? What if there are questions about the how and why?
This story follows Mike and those around him, and takes a close and brilliantly handled look at relationships and the possible effects on both the Person, and those around them.
I really enjoyed the story and found myself loving the difference, eager to see what would happen next, what Mile would do and how situations would turn out.
The story takes a very honest look at how people deal with bereavement, conversations and situations that may arise as people try to come to terms with it. It isn’t a lighthearted read, and certainly encourages the reader to consider questions of how they think they might act.
Overall, a powerful and engaging read that will stay with me a long while! I look forwards to seeing what else this Author brings to the Bookish world.
February 10, 2019
This was a really enjoyable read that surprised me from the first to the last page, in part for the revelations along the way, and in part for the storyline itself and the way it unfolded.
When I first started to read the book, I was expecting it to be a typical Crime or perhaps Thriller story, with a death in suspicious circumstances, and many fun twists trying to figure out who the murderer was before the story would tell me.
This isn’t exactly where this story goes, there are elements involved, but it’s so much more than that. Mike is a central Character that has been through something nobody should have to, and the story follows him in his own considerations and investigations to try and find some sort of closure after the Death of someone he knew.
The story takes a very realistic look at the effects this type of situation can have on a persons mental and emotional health, how the need for answers can effect a person as well as various other considerations, especially when a death is suspicious, but I don’t want to go into those more because of Spoilers.
The Author has taken several concepts and ideas that many avoid or don’t consider, and given them a centre stage. What happens in life when we lose someone? What if there are questions about the how and why?
This story follows Mike and those around him, and takes a close and brilliantly handled look at relationships and the possible effects on both the Person, and those around them.
I really enjoyed the story and found myself loving the difference, eager to see what would happen next, what Mile would do and how situations would turn out.
The story takes a very honest look at how people deal with bereavement, conversations and situations that may arise as people try to come to terms with it. It isn’t a lighthearted read, and certainly encourages the reader to consider questions of how they think they might act.
Overall, a powerful and engaging read that will stay with me a long while! I look forwards to seeing what else this Author brings to the Bookish world.
February 18, 2019
At the centre of this story is how Mike deals with an unexpected traumatic event in his life. It has repercussions for his relationships, his academic career, his psychological well-being and completely changes his outlook on life.
Imagine making a romantic connection with someone, a special moment that could potentially be something more important going forward. Then that person is abruptly ripped from your life. With no explanation, no reason and just empty unknown space instead.
For Mike the event is the catalyst for an internal and external avalanche. He questions and doubts everything in his life and about himself. He is consumed with grief for the stranger he only knew for such a short time and ridden by the guilt, and feeling, that he might have missed some kind of signal or sign.
He has to deal with the suspicion and recriminations of those who find it hard to deal with the loss of a young person with a long life ahead of them, and such promising prospects. It’s easier to blame the living breathing person in front of them when it is impossible to ask the dead for explanations.
In the midst of this chaos Mike finds his true calling. Whilst working through this complicated time with denial, avoidance and plenty of alcohol, he finds something he is truly intrigued by. It’s probably not a coincidence that he is pulled in by the uncovering the mysteries of the long dead and answering the questions surrounding their deaths.
I think it’s important to read what is written between the lines in this story. It is very much a searching of soul, a battle of inner conflicts and ultimately it’s a story about a young man finding a way forward after experiencing a traumatic event.
It’s an emotionally explosive tale, but written in a subtle way. The complicated lives of the young characters and their drama seems to take precedence, as the more poignant emotional aspect takes place in the background, almost like an afterthought. It wasn’t at all what I was expecting.
*I received a courtesy copy*
Imagine making a romantic connection with someone, a special moment that could potentially be something more important going forward. Then that person is abruptly ripped from your life. With no explanation, no reason and just empty unknown space instead.
For Mike the event is the catalyst for an internal and external avalanche. He questions and doubts everything in his life and about himself. He is consumed with grief for the stranger he only knew for such a short time and ridden by the guilt, and feeling, that he might have missed some kind of signal or sign.
He has to deal with the suspicion and recriminations of those who find it hard to deal with the loss of a young person with a long life ahead of them, and such promising prospects. It’s easier to blame the living breathing person in front of them when it is impossible to ask the dead for explanations.
In the midst of this chaos Mike finds his true calling. Whilst working through this complicated time with denial, avoidance and plenty of alcohol, he finds something he is truly intrigued by. It’s probably not a coincidence that he is pulled in by the uncovering the mysteries of the long dead and answering the questions surrounding their deaths.
I think it’s important to read what is written between the lines in this story. It is very much a searching of soul, a battle of inner conflicts and ultimately it’s a story about a young man finding a way forward after experiencing a traumatic event.
It’s an emotionally explosive tale, but written in a subtle way. The complicated lives of the young characters and their drama seems to take precedence, as the more poignant emotional aspect takes place in the background, almost like an afterthought. It wasn’t at all what I was expecting.
*I received a courtesy copy*
April 14, 2020
Plague books, amiright?
But seriously, this was a fun trip down memory lane to a time known now by some as "the early Naughties" when people still DJed with compact discs, blown essay deadlines, Raisin Sunday and having two jackets, your nice going out jacket and your going to the bar jacket that constantly reeked of cigarette smoke. And Rich does a great job of painting our university world in the classic Scottish blacks, greys and greens I remember.
The story though was not at all what I was expecting. I'll admit on re-reading the back cover blurb, I should have been more prepared for what I found, but I just assumed that anything set at my university when I was there would be as silly as I remember things to have been. But this was shortsighted on my part as there were obviously plenty of heavy things that happened to me in university, none quite as what happens herein, but everything ringed true in the book by the end.
I guess it took me some time to get used to the idea of a Scottish protagonist from an American writer and I may have been too hard on the author initially because I do know what he sounds like, but once I was further in I successfully suspended disbelief and things flowed better. The pacing was still a little clunky, but that may have been intentional as the protagonist's life is definitely not in order.
My favorite part was definitely the eponymous material remains of the story and everything about archaeology and the way the protagonist rebuilds it all in his mind. I'm constantly trying to imagine the world that came before.
But seriously, this was a fun trip down memory lane to a time known now by some as "the early Naughties" when people still DJed with compact discs, blown essay deadlines, Raisin Sunday and having two jackets, your nice going out jacket and your going to the bar jacket that constantly reeked of cigarette smoke. And Rich does a great job of painting our university world in the classic Scottish blacks, greys and greens I remember.
The story though was not at all what I was expecting. I'll admit on re-reading the back cover blurb, I should have been more prepared for what I found, but I just assumed that anything set at my university when I was there would be as silly as I remember things to have been. But this was shortsighted on my part as there were obviously plenty of heavy things that happened to me in university, none quite as what happens herein, but everything ringed true in the book by the end.
I guess it took me some time to get used to the idea of a Scottish protagonist from an American writer and I may have been too hard on the author initially because I do know what he sounds like, but once I was further in I successfully suspended disbelief and things flowed better. The pacing was still a little clunky, but that may have been intentional as the protagonist's life is definitely not in order.
My favorite part was definitely the eponymous material remains of the story and everything about archaeology and the way the protagonist rebuilds it all in his mind. I'm constantly trying to imagine the world that came before.
February 16, 2019
Mike MacEwan is plodding through his student life, lots of drinking, a fair amount of socialising and with a small amount of work. This is the story of what happens after he has a one-night encounter with a fellow student, Charlie, whose body is discovered the very next morning. If you’re expecting this to be a crime thriller type of read, it’s not and although that slightly disappointed me initially, I was utterly drawn into Mike’s life and that disappointment faded pretty quickly.
This book looks at the effect we can all have on other people’s lives. Whether our encounters are brief or extend over a vast period of time, we all have some kind of impact on the people we interact with everyday. True, most of them don’t lead to tragedy, but this book does make you think about the mark we leave. Mike’s time with Charlie could have led to something much more, and he becomes haunted by what he could have done differently.
What first attracted me to this book was the archaeological element. I had a childhood dream of being an archaeologist and the fascination of the history we can uncover and dig up from the ground beneath us, has never left me. So it’s fair to say that I am a sucker for a book that has this subject and it’s use in this book made it incredibly enjoyable for me. There is a vast amount of detail on the process of archaeological digs, Richard W H Bray has either a similar passion to me or he has done some very extensive and successful research. I often felt I was sitting in an excavation trench slowly, precisely brushing away at a piece of historical wonderment. Mike uses is love of history to refocus his life and heal his shattered emotions. There are moments where Mike envisions perfectly what the dig site would have looked like, those passages have to be my favourite moments in the book.
I enjoyed this book. I found myself quite gripped by it and entertained by Mike’s student antics (there is a lot of tea and beer drinking!) It’s insightful, full of atmosphere, full of human emotion and absorbing.
This book looks at the effect we can all have on other people’s lives. Whether our encounters are brief or extend over a vast period of time, we all have some kind of impact on the people we interact with everyday. True, most of them don’t lead to tragedy, but this book does make you think about the mark we leave. Mike’s time with Charlie could have led to something much more, and he becomes haunted by what he could have done differently.
What first attracted me to this book was the archaeological element. I had a childhood dream of being an archaeologist and the fascination of the history we can uncover and dig up from the ground beneath us, has never left me. So it’s fair to say that I am a sucker for a book that has this subject and it’s use in this book made it incredibly enjoyable for me. There is a vast amount of detail on the process of archaeological digs, Richard W H Bray has either a similar passion to me or he has done some very extensive and successful research. I often felt I was sitting in an excavation trench slowly, precisely brushing away at a piece of historical wonderment. Mike uses is love of history to refocus his life and heal his shattered emotions. There are moments where Mike envisions perfectly what the dig site would have looked like, those passages have to be my favourite moments in the book.
I enjoyed this book. I found myself quite gripped by it and entertained by Mike’s student antics (there is a lot of tea and beer drinking!) It’s insightful, full of atmosphere, full of human emotion and absorbing.
October 5, 2025
Very different to what I expected when I picked it up, but glad I did as its a great story.
February 7, 2019
As a university student, the details of the life that Mike and his friends lead is very recognisable and notable for its authenticity. They aren’t caricatures of a student, they are totally people that you knew during your time there. My reaction to them was very real in that I found them entitled, annoying and wished they wouldn’t be so flippant in their attitudes, much like the ones I see on a daily basis.
The pains that the author goes to to paint a rich and varied landscape are clear-I have never visited Scotland, or St Andrews in particular, but it feels as though you are walking down the streets , so clearly are the buildings and seascape rendered.
Mike was a hard character to get to know, it is a slowly burning character study of an emerging man who is hit with a tragedy before he really gets time to process it.
His casual attitude towards Charlie, the girl he takes home with him and who is subsequently found , dead, the nex day, and his aggressive language I found alarming-along with Charlie’s willingness to go home with him after he spoke to her that way on the very night they met.
I was unsure if this was a plot device to point out Charlie’s flaws , or to make Mike a suspect in her death but I foudn their entire encounter uncomfortable.
What I found interesting was the study of grief-did Mike actually deserve to be grieving after only knowing Charlie for one night? Was his process authentic? This is a question that only the individual reader can answer. However, I liked the juxtaposition of Mike being involved in an archaeological dig and uncovering the past as he literally buries his feelings in the present.
I did enjoy reading this book and am grateful for the opportunity to read ‘Material Remains’, and would recommend it, however I felt that Charlie was a victim of the story and was sidelined . She is introduced and dispatched very quickly and then a whole situation is created that she is not really a part of. But again, this is authentic as in real life, a death belongs to the people who remember them, rather than the person that it has happened to.
A very intriguing read that you really need to focus on and work at, and gets you thinking, ‘Material Remains’ by Richard W.H Bray is definitely worth investing your time in.
The pains that the author goes to to paint a rich and varied landscape are clear-I have never visited Scotland, or St Andrews in particular, but it feels as though you are walking down the streets , so clearly are the buildings and seascape rendered.
Mike was a hard character to get to know, it is a slowly burning character study of an emerging man who is hit with a tragedy before he really gets time to process it.
His casual attitude towards Charlie, the girl he takes home with him and who is subsequently found , dead, the nex day, and his aggressive language I found alarming-along with Charlie’s willingness to go home with him after he spoke to her that way on the very night they met.
I was unsure if this was a plot device to point out Charlie’s flaws , or to make Mike a suspect in her death but I foudn their entire encounter uncomfortable.
What I found interesting was the study of grief-did Mike actually deserve to be grieving after only knowing Charlie for one night? Was his process authentic? This is a question that only the individual reader can answer. However, I liked the juxtaposition of Mike being involved in an archaeological dig and uncovering the past as he literally buries his feelings in the present.
I did enjoy reading this book and am grateful for the opportunity to read ‘Material Remains’, and would recommend it, however I felt that Charlie was a victim of the story and was sidelined . She is introduced and dispatched very quickly and then a whole situation is created that she is not really a part of. But again, this is authentic as in real life, a death belongs to the people who remember them, rather than the person that it has happened to.
A very intriguing read that you really need to focus on and work at, and gets you thinking, ‘Material Remains’ by Richard W.H Bray is definitely worth investing your time in.
February 12, 2019
Amazing read! The author wrote a story that was interesting and moved at a pace that kept me engaged. The characters were easy to invest in.
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