Fullalove

by Gordon Burn

Norman Miller used to be one of Fleet Street's finest. Now he's a middle-aged, burned-out hack with a gift for the sensational story, the shouting tabloid lead. But as he reports on a series of brutal murders and sex crimes, he's forced to wonder whether he is just a witness - or part of some deeper pattern of cause and effect . . .

'Remarkable . . . Devastating . . . Required reading for anyone interested in what British fiction should be doing today.' Stephen Amidon, Esquire

Genres: Fiction

232 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Gordon Burn was an English writer born in Newcastle upon Tyne and the author of four novels and several works of non-fiction.

Burn's novels deal with issues of modern fame and faded celebrity, as well as life through a media lens. His novel Alma Cogan (1991), which imagined the future life of the British singer Alma Cogan had she not died in the 1960s, won the Whitbread Award for Best First Novel. His other novels Fullalove and The North of England Home Service appeared in 1995 and 2003 respectively. His non-fiction deals primarily with sport and true crime. His first book Somebody's Husband, Somebody's Son was a study of Peter Sutcliffe, 'the Yorkshire Ripper' and his 1998 book Happy Like Murderers: The Story of Fred and Rosemary West, dealt in similar detail with one of Britain's most notorious serial killers.

Burn's interest in such infamous villains extended to his fiction, with Myra Hindley, one of the 'Moors murderers', featuring prominently in the novel Alma Cogan. His sport-based books are Pocket Money: Inside the World of Snooker (1986) and Best and Edwards: Football, Fame and Oblivion (2006), which deals with the twin stories of Manchester United footballers Duncan Edwards and George Best and the "trajectory of two careers unmoored in wildly different ways."

He also wrote a book with British artist Damien Hirst, On the Way to Work, a collection of interviews from various dates between 1992-2001. He contributed to The Guardian regularly, usually writing about contemporary art.

Reviews

[Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Often sublime writing that doesn't quite hang together as a novel, as such. But nothing quite like Burn at his best, as he often is here.

[Stephen Cardie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Burn's second novel (after Alma Cogan) tracks the fag-end of the career of a declining tabloid journalist, as he contrasts the highlights of his past against the bizarre, tawdry and banal stories with which is he now entrusted. There are long running threads about a famous tv personality in a coma, and the protagonist's encounters with woman obsessed with maintaining the memorials to murdered London police officers, but there's no plot as such, and it never really gets us anywhere. Given that, you can't help but admire Burn's writing, and I've not doubt this was as meticulously researched as any of his non-fiction books.

[Verity · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great use of language but nothing happens, so little in fact that I got bored and didn't finish it. A good reference guide to how to use the English language and create settings and characters but the story was minimal.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tabloid reporter's world - very well done but terribly wearing after a while.

[Martha Flanagan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this astonishingly brilliant and still don't know why it isn't generally regarded as great. Helps if one knows things about UK papers in 80s and 90s.

[Steve Platt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Impressed by the writing & ideas but didn't warm to it as a novel, think I would have enjoyed it more if the narrative was less episodic and more coherent as a whole...