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bigcheese's review
4.0
Yes, it was a little disturbing. I stuck through it because I know that this is realistic, this book is political. Like “Help these f*cking kids! Help them. They need it.” And no-one knows the extent of Souse’s pain but himself. He has bottled it up. He is a product of toxic masculinity, and I’ll throw Capitalism in too. If anybody is thinking “f*ck Souse” while reading this you are missing the point. “F*ck society.” This is just one more thing that’s wrong with the world that I’m sure a large chunk of the population have never paid attention too.
This book really does amuse me (first 100 pages). It has a very similar feeling to ‘Trainspotting’ although it is nowhere near as good. I’d put ‘Lazy Boys’ along ‘Here Are the Young Men’ (“Ireland’s ‘Trainspotting’”).
The efforts Shuker put to the crafting of the novel as a whole should be merited. The voice of the MC - Souse - is strong.
I would’ve liked if most of the excerpts from his books were just summarised within a paragraph of the story, the flow is tested. The excerpts only work around page 157 when Souse is skimming it and having us read these smatterings of text.
The book isn’t about much. There is not a strong philosophy behind it, the importance of ‘Lazy Boys’ comes out in the representation of mental illness in youth, particularly testosterone-fuelled youth.
The ending was incredibly disappointing. I needed it to end way worse than it did. The book profiles the lowest point that the character Souse will be at in his life. It doesn’t exactly rise and fall, as it persists with the overwhelming negativity and weakness Souse feels. At first I was like “f*ck this guy” then he was incredibly exposed and weaker than the the opening made him out to be, I empathised with him. That ending is hard to keep up any sympathies but considering his mental space (intoxication+mental illness) these kinds of things are realistic consequences.
One of the side characters heard MC wanking in the other room and there was brilliantly executed joke that ended in the SC saying “we heard some Beat poetry being composed in here” brilliant.
I’m not sure how I found out about this book, but I found out it was about young people and getting drunk and high; I knew I needed it to inform my current project I’m working on - for an NZ perspective. I don’t think I did get too much out of this read, but there’s decent interest still. If I meet Rob Doyle I’ll be gifting him a copy of this, though he might be past ‘Here Are the Young Men’ and others like it.
This book really does amuse me (first 100 pages). It has a very similar feeling to ‘Trainspotting’ although it is nowhere near as good. I’d put ‘Lazy Boys’ along ‘Here Are the Young Men’ (“Ireland’s ‘Trainspotting’”).
The efforts Shuker put to the crafting of the novel as a whole should be merited. The voice of the MC - Souse - is strong.
I would’ve liked if most of the excerpts from his books were just summarised within a paragraph of the story, the flow is tested. The excerpts only work around page 157 when Souse is skimming it and having us read these smatterings of text.
The book isn’t about much. There is not a strong philosophy behind it, the importance of ‘Lazy Boys’ comes out in the representation of mental illness in youth, particularly testosterone-fuelled youth.
The ending was incredibly disappointing. I needed it to end way worse than it did. The book profiles the lowest point that the character Souse will be at in his life. It doesn’t exactly rise and fall, as it persists with the overwhelming negativity and weakness Souse feels. At first I was like “f*ck this guy” then he was incredibly exposed and weaker than the the opening made him out to be, I empathised with him. That ending is hard to keep up any sympathies but considering his mental space (intoxication+mental illness) these kinds of things are realistic consequences.
One of the side characters heard MC wanking in the other room and there was brilliantly executed joke that ended in the SC saying “we heard some Beat poetry being composed in here” brilliant.
I’m not sure how I found out about this book, but I found out it was about young people and getting drunk and high; I knew I needed it to inform my current project I’m working on - for an NZ perspective. I don’t think I did get too much out of this read, but there’s decent interest still. If I meet Rob Doyle I’ll be gifting him a copy of this, though he might be past ‘Here Are the Young Men’ and others like it.
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