Monday 28 September 2015

List of the Lost Review

I’m still coming down from the high of my trip to England to see Morrissey and my friends last week and to be honest it’s quite the plummet. That was one of the happiest weeks of my life… and returning home to reality (whatever that is) is a bit of a slap in the face. However, I was very excited to have the chance to read Morrissey’s novel, List of The Lost, which was released just two days after my return to Canada. I don’t even have my own copy yet, as it isn’t due to arrive until October, but Boozey was nice enough to let me read her online copy.  Safe to say, this is the first time I’ve read a book twice before a copy is even nestled away on my overstuffed bookshelves.



I decided to stop reading the book reviews after I found them to be, predictably, full of personal digs towards Morrissey, with little focus on the work itself.  Because, of course, no reviewer appeared to be able to read the book and take it for what it is…and they seemed far more focused on who wrote it and whatever their personal views were towards the author. The personal jabs by the reviewers, who could barely piece together a 350-word review, just indicated that sadly, the world is indeed full of crashing bores. I will form my own opinions, thank you.

I read List of the Lost the first time so quickly I probably missed a fair bit.  But what struck me immediately was the prose style. I can’t quite compare it to anyone else’s, and that’s a good thing.  Stylistically, Morrissey’s prose is extremely poetic, and internal rhyme, rhythm, and alliteration are weaved intricately throughout his sentences.  As the real and proper poet laureate that he is, I can imagine that read aloud this rhythm and poetry would become even more pronounced and (nudge…ahem…begging) if a certain someone who has a lovely singing voice were to read it aloud for the audiobook format I think it would be quite breathtaking.



The novel is filled with metaphor and simile in its descriptions, which, to some reviewers, was perhaps a little overwhelming. While they found “fun” in nitpicking the metaphors, particularly the ones in the lovemaking scenes, I enjoyed this aspect of the writing.  Ok, the now-famous “bulbous salutation” line did elicit a bit of a chuckle, but then, you know, Mozzer can be quite funny sometimes, and we would be missing out if we didn’t see some humour woven through the text, an example being his inclusion of a valet with the name Chesty Normous.  Another amusing moment of wit-fueled word-play occurs with the line: "I could be at home pulverizing my wife at Scrabble, or scrabbling my pulverized wife."  I can imagine that the usage of metaphors and Morrissey’s vast vocabulary and word play may pose difficulties and subtleties that are harder for the non-native English speaker, but Moz is quite gifted linguistically, which of course we already knew.

The novel has also been critiqued for not being focused. My answer to that is a series of questions: is life itself focused? Is your own mind focused? How do you think?  Do you think entirely in order all of the time? Are your feelings in order, with a beginning, middle, climax, dénouement?  Well, probably not. Furthermore, writing is art – and why should art follow a standard, organized predictable path? I am blah-blah-blahing on here, but you see my point.  List of the Lost is a stream-of-consciousness journey that takes us through a maze of brilliant commentary on the human condition. And this commentary, whether you agree or not, is a bit like getting slammed in the face with brutal honesty about the state of the media, the police, the government, the meat industry, the ‘royals,’ aging, faith, our notions of sexuality. No wonder it made some people uncomfortable, because hearing the truth is uncomfortable; it makes you squirm a bit.  And that’s a good thing. Some reviewers may regard this as tangential to the storyline – BUT – the societal backdrop of life shapes our character for better or for worse, and with compliance or defiance we develop along with our response to that societal backdrop.

I’m not here to give away the plot, and I won’t, because not all of us have been fortunate enough to read it due to international availability (or lack thereof), but after two readings I can honestly say I enjoyed it because it was DIFFERENT to anything else I’ve ever read.  Thank goodness for that.  With all of the bland books we must wade through that are “popular,” like 50 Shades of Grey, predictable political “thrillers” where the president-must-be-saved-within-48-hours, or mind numbing “chick-lit,” it’s refreshing to see an author present something in a unique format and actually have something to say. Did you really expect Moz to do something expected? Like it or leave it, we can likely all agree that it is a unique work.

Some moments that stood out to me included his approach to writing about grief, suicide, and aging.  I found the passage about suicide particularly profound; "he shall travel this path without the strength to cope with anything else, no longer likely to explode from this intensity, yet ready to fuse the physical with the spiritual and to accept that the next moment will be unlike any other...Let the minutes spin as a tankard of vodka is clouded by a heavy overjolt of white and brown powder, both of which submerge like falling snow as they enjoy one another and whisper, I'm the right friend for you." These topics hurt, they torment, and admittedly plague our thoughts at some time or another, and he captures their ugliness with full force, and we see a line where ugly and beauty perhaps blur in his poetic description of the agony of these dark topics that ravage us as humans who are constantly left asking, why, why, why?   Perhaps what makes this ugliness beautiful is that in reading it we feel the anguish of our human condition is understood. I’m not sure.

Moz also holds up a mirror to the media, which includes Eliza’s astute torrent of rage towards TV news: “Have you ever watched the TV news, and listened to all of their scare-tactic propaganda … every story designed to frighten you, scare you off, make you feel small, make you feel alarmed yet hopeless … and then – bam! – ‘and now we have some sports news’, as if this ought to counterbalance all the shit that’s happening in the world.”  And isn’t this exactly how it’s presented to us? I remember the last day I ever watched the TV news, I saw countless minutes of footage of animals being tortured, humans being bombed out or suffering from AIDS in a homeless shelter, followed by a smiling blonde woman sharing her “famous lavender muffin recipe.” No more.

I think what we can surmise from all of this is that the critics don’t get Morrissey, and that’s totally fine.  I haven’t come across many fans who didn’t enjoy the novel, and those that didn’t love it seem more perplexed by it.  Innovation is inherently difficult to grasp, and List of The Lost shows us that yet again, Moz is always at least three steps ahead of the rest of the world, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

20 comments:

  1. Thanks for your very thoughtful review. It makes me look forward to reading the novel more than ever, and it reminded me of this Pessoa quote: "I've always rejected being understood. To be understood is to prostitute oneself." Of course we knew that the novel would be as utterly unique as the great man himself, which can be perplexing to some but delightful to others.

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    1. Thanks Heather, I'm glad you liked it. I look forward to hearing what you think once you've read the novel. Pessoa had a lot of brilliant quotes and I think this one applies wonderfully.

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  2. I enjoyed reading your review. I hear Morrissey's voice when reading the book and there are many subjects
    included which we know are very close to his heart.
    Therefore I enjoy it on another level because the novel is imbued with the essence of Moz.

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    1. Thank you Lizzy; I'm glad you liked it. I hear his voice as I'm reading it as well.

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  3. I haven't read the whole of the LOTL, but do feel obliged to comment.
    Thank you for your review Marianne. It was obvious when penguin released this statement from Morrissey "Beware the novelist... Intimate and indiscreet... Etc etc. That this was not going to be a conventional book, with ordinary characters, and a traditional storyline. I think most of us that read this blog, FTM and of course MW knew this book was going to push boundaries and be far from what todays society calls normal.
    I expected the novel to be almost autobiographical, and I anticipated it to be full of Morrissey's opinions and beliefs. We all knew that this both bewilder and almost puzzle many Morrissey fans, and of course give the press plenty of ammunition to criticise both Morrissey and his fans. How dare we like somebody who is outspoken and has firm beliefs! This just goes to show that this world really is full of crashing bores, and there really is no escape.
    But then a character like Morrissey comes along, and actually offers us some kind of escapism, be it listening to his music/lyrics, watching him appear live, or now reading his novels.
    If there is anything that my short and sweet journey involved in BRS, DDD and MW, has taught me is that no two Morrissey fans are the same. Do not believe everything you are told, find out for yourself and use your own judgment.

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    1. PS. I agree Marianne. I'd love Morrissey to read the audio version of the LOTL. Fingers crossed.

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  4. Great review M, thanks for taking the time. I must say that my opinion on the book has changed drastically over the past few days. I rushed through it the first time, ignoring the countless words I didn't understand (after reading the first 10 pages armed with a dictionary, I got too impatient) and although I loved the language (I had visions of Rapping Moz while reading it), I was slightly disappointed by the plot because I was expecting classic fictional writing. I'm now half-way through the second read, and I see it in a whole different light, but I prefer to finish it before I share my frankly quite dubious theories, which without doubt will be no less idiosyncratic than the book itself.

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    1. I look forward to your idiosyncratic observations, Fruit. I am still so excited to read it a THIRD time. I'm not sure I've ever read a book that many times. Twice, yes, but this will be a new record for me. By the way, have a wonderful time tomorrow (or today for you)!

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  5. Hello, I got to wait until tomorrow morning for my copy and I'm very curious to start a kind of journey in a methaphisical land and in a very pop way. By now my very personal thought about the book are positive and I'm sure I'll not be disappointed. Morrissey wrote something funny and I like to think he started a new kind of literature, maybe post punk literature. Of course I'll be proud to to share my opinion with all of you. Ciao.

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    1. Looking forward to hearing what you think romina! It's like we have our own little book club here!

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  6. Terrier-like and full of truth. Thank you lady M.

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    1. I'm glad you liked it Jinkles. And this is the first time I've ever been referred to as Terrier-like. Thank you!

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  7. I really enjoyed this review,it put into words exactly how I felt and viewed this book, but could never write it down in such a fluent and eloquent way.Thanks.

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    1. Thank you Peter, I'm so glad you enjoyed it. It's nice to see other people view the book the way I do.

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  8. This really is an exceptionally well written review. There are some extremely intelligent people on this site, who also happen to be very good at expressing themselves with the written word, and you are one of them Marianne. Well done.

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    1. Thank you very much Rat. I am so glad I have the blob as an outlet to write down these thoughts.

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  9. I live in Canada and haven't been able to get hold of it. Nice to know someone here will have it on her shelf.

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    1. Thank you M :) It worked. I'm expecting a special paperback soon :)

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  10. Thanks for the review! It's really well written and proficient. It makes me want to read the novel. I hope I'll like it.
    Cheers,
    John Kite

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