Gerard Brennan answers 13 questions in a Booker's Dozen.

TPQ: What are you currently reading? 

GB: 
I just started Espedair Street by Iain Banks today. It’s been sitting in my bookcase for over a decade, but I kept forgetting to give it a go. I’m only a few pages in, but it seems like my kind of book. 

TPQ: Best and worst books you have ever read? 

GB: Ask me this in person and I’ll stare at the sky, or the ceiling, for a good few minutes and make the conversation really awkward. Currently, the best is probably The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett (though I’m tempted to delete that and say The Glass Key by Hammett – I can’t even decide which of his books is his best. Apart from The Thin Man. It’s good, but definitely a country mile from being his best work.) The worst? I think this answer’s long enough already. 

TPQ: Book most cherished as a child?

GB: 
In primary school it was The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien. When I was in first or second year (year 8 or 9 in today’s money) it was IT by Stephen King. 

TPQ: Favourite Childhood author?

GB: 
Roald Dahl. 100%. Even though I said Tolkien above, as a writer I could keep going back to, Dahl was king. I’ve heard he was a nasty piece of work (usually around Roald Dahl day – haters gonna hate), but that doesn’t change my childhood perception of the wee man who wrote in his garden shed using a roll of carpet and a wooden board as a desk. 

TPQ: First book to really own you?

GB 
I’ve never thought about a book owning me before … Maybe IT by Stephen King again? My first reading of it was at too young an age to understand everything going on. I’ve reread it four or five times throughout my teens and twenties. So, it’s possibly my most re-read book, therefore it’s kind of owned me. But I rely on the films now for that nostalgia kick because it takes way too long to read the big brick of a thing. 

A Berlin Book Tower in memory of the Nazi book burning.

TPQ: Favourite male and female author?

GB: 
Hammett and Highsmith. 

TPQ: A Preference for fact or fiction?

GB: I prefer fiction, but I’m happy to dabble in both. 

TPQ: Biography, autobiography or memoir that most impressed you?

GB: 
Most recently it was Acid for the Children by Flea (bass player for Red Hot Chilli Peppers), but the one I think about most when I go over the few I’ve dipped into over the years is T’is by Frank McCourt. Funny enough, I listened to both on audiobook, mostly when driving, so I’m not sure if they count as books or co-pilots.  

TPQ: Any author or book you point blank refuse to read?

GB: 
No, I’ll give anything a try. I read Watermelon by Marian Keyes around the time they did a TV movie version of it (or maybe it was a miniseries?) and I didn’t even hide the bright pink cover from anybody. This was after bringing Irvine Welsh’s Porno to work and getting roasted by anybody in the office who happened to notice the title or the blow-up sex doll on the cover. I didn’t have many friends in the office that year, if I remember right. 

TPQ: A book to share with somebody so that they would more fully understand you?

GB: As mawkish, self-absorbed, and opportunistic as it might sound, I’d say check out Disorder by Gerard Brennan. Honestly, though, there are so many different versions of me inhabiting that book that I’m convinced you would probably worry about me, but also get to know me well enough to make it through a long car journey together. Or we could just listen to music, podcasts or audiobooks, like normal people do. 


TPQ:
 Last book you gave as a present?

GB: If you mean wrapped up in nice paper for an occasion, I bought my wife The Sisters of Auschwitz by Roxane Van Iperen for her birthday this year. She’s read pretty much every ‘…of Auschwitz’ book that’s come out in the last few years, but I think she said this one was really good. Or the cover looked nice. She definitely said something positive about it. Maybe, “Nice try, Gerard.” 

If you mean, a book I brought to a friend’s house because I thought they’d like it, I gave my copy of Fifty Fifty by Steve Cavanagh (a fellow Norn Irish scribbler) to Simon Maltman (a ‘nor Norn Irish scribbler) when I stopped by his native Conlig. And he enjoyed that one as much as I expected him to. 

TPQ: Book you would most like to see turned into a movie?

GB: 
Anything by Stuart Neville. 

TPQ: A "must read" you intend getting to before you die?

GB: 
I’m working really hard to not die any time soon. Exercising, dieting, looking after my mental health – all that not-very-rock-and-roll stuff. If I die before my time (when I turn 120, with luck and advancing technology), I’ll be thinking about my wife and kids as the curtain closes, not books.

Gerard Brennan's most recent novel is titled Disorder, published by No Alibis Press.

Booker's Dozen @ Gerard Brennan

Gerard Brennan answers 13 questions in a Booker's Dozen.

TPQ: What are you currently reading? 

GB: 
I just started Espedair Street by Iain Banks today. It’s been sitting in my bookcase for over a decade, but I kept forgetting to give it a go. I’m only a few pages in, but it seems like my kind of book. 

TPQ: Best and worst books you have ever read? 

GB: Ask me this in person and I’ll stare at the sky, or the ceiling, for a good few minutes and make the conversation really awkward. Currently, the best is probably The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett (though I’m tempted to delete that and say The Glass Key by Hammett – I can’t even decide which of his books is his best. Apart from The Thin Man. It’s good, but definitely a country mile from being his best work.) The worst? I think this answer’s long enough already. 

TPQ: Book most cherished as a child?

GB: 
In primary school it was The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien. When I was in first or second year (year 8 or 9 in today’s money) it was IT by Stephen King. 

TPQ: Favourite Childhood author?

GB: 
Roald Dahl. 100%. Even though I said Tolkien above, as a writer I could keep going back to, Dahl was king. I’ve heard he was a nasty piece of work (usually around Roald Dahl day – haters gonna hate), but that doesn’t change my childhood perception of the wee man who wrote in his garden shed using a roll of carpet and a wooden board as a desk. 

TPQ: First book to really own you?

GB 
I’ve never thought about a book owning me before … Maybe IT by Stephen King again? My first reading of it was at too young an age to understand everything going on. I’ve reread it four or five times throughout my teens and twenties. So, it’s possibly my most re-read book, therefore it’s kind of owned me. But I rely on the films now for that nostalgia kick because it takes way too long to read the big brick of a thing. 

A Berlin Book Tower in memory of the Nazi book burning.

TPQ: Favourite male and female author?

GB: 
Hammett and Highsmith. 

TPQ: A Preference for fact or fiction?

GB: I prefer fiction, but I’m happy to dabble in both. 

TPQ: Biography, autobiography or memoir that most impressed you?

GB: 
Most recently it was Acid for the Children by Flea (bass player for Red Hot Chilli Peppers), but the one I think about most when I go over the few I’ve dipped into over the years is T’is by Frank McCourt. Funny enough, I listened to both on audiobook, mostly when driving, so I’m not sure if they count as books or co-pilots.  

TPQ: Any author or book you point blank refuse to read?

GB: 
No, I’ll give anything a try. I read Watermelon by Marian Keyes around the time they did a TV movie version of it (or maybe it was a miniseries?) and I didn’t even hide the bright pink cover from anybody. This was after bringing Irvine Welsh’s Porno to work and getting roasted by anybody in the office who happened to notice the title or the blow-up sex doll on the cover. I didn’t have many friends in the office that year, if I remember right. 

TPQ: A book to share with somebody so that they would more fully understand you?

GB: As mawkish, self-absorbed, and opportunistic as it might sound, I’d say check out Disorder by Gerard Brennan. Honestly, though, there are so many different versions of me inhabiting that book that I’m convinced you would probably worry about me, but also get to know me well enough to make it through a long car journey together. Or we could just listen to music, podcasts or audiobooks, like normal people do. 


TPQ:
 Last book you gave as a present?

GB: If you mean wrapped up in nice paper for an occasion, I bought my wife The Sisters of Auschwitz by Roxane Van Iperen for her birthday this year. She’s read pretty much every ‘…of Auschwitz’ book that’s come out in the last few years, but I think she said this one was really good. Or the cover looked nice. She definitely said something positive about it. Maybe, “Nice try, Gerard.” 

If you mean, a book I brought to a friend’s house because I thought they’d like it, I gave my copy of Fifty Fifty by Steve Cavanagh (a fellow Norn Irish scribbler) to Simon Maltman (a ‘nor Norn Irish scribbler) when I stopped by his native Conlig. And he enjoyed that one as much as I expected him to. 

TPQ: Book you would most like to see turned into a movie?

GB: 
Anything by Stuart Neville. 

TPQ: A "must read" you intend getting to before you die?

GB: 
I’m working really hard to not die any time soon. Exercising, dieting, looking after my mental health – all that not-very-rock-and-roll stuff. If I die before my time (when I turn 120, with luck and advancing technology), I’ll be thinking about my wife and kids as the curtain closes, not books.

Gerard Brennan's most recent novel is titled Disorder, published by No Alibis Press.

9 comments:

  1. Sean Mallory comments

    Gerard,

    The very last book I ever read by King was IT.....I was an avid reader of his books but his endings were so mediocre to the story itself that it was so disappointing when you got to the end....IT's end was so, so annoying like the endings of so many of his books that I gave up reading him after that.....his endings were as if he his acid trip had worn off just as he was getting to the end and then he couldn't remember what the fuck he had intended for an ending and so just wrote the best he could do while in a come down....or hangover to you and me......still, his stories were a brilliant read.....until the end that is:)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I loved King back in the jail - only read one since I got out. I thought IT was brilliant. Read 100 pages a night right through. I never got that sense of bad endings. The Stand was a brilliant read as well. If I was to pick a favourite for horror value, it would be Pet Sematary

      Delete
    2. Hi, Sean.

      I agree that King's endings weren't always on par with the originality of ideas, but I kept coming back for more. I recently read The Institute, and it had a pretty pleasing ending, in my opinion. I suppose he set too high a bar for himself with those enthusiastic metaphorical acid trips.

      AM: Pet Sematary was definitely one of his darkest and most horrific works. The Stand is also one of my favourites, though I only read it twice.

      Delete
  2. Sean Mallory comments

    Loved Pet Sematary but Needful Things was one of my favourites...always imagined there was a town somewhere with such a shop!!!..I always felt that his endings let the book down....the end to IT is just so bloody ridiculous compared to the story itself.....but still I persevered for quite a while before I decided enough was enough...I haven't really read a horror book in many years....or have I?....can't remember to be honest. Must keep an eye out for something from a modern author.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oooooh, I really enjoyed Needful Things as well.

      If you'd like to try out a new horror writer, see if Adam Neville floats your boat. I loved his novel The Ritual, and by all accounts his other novels are incredible too. I'm definitely going to read more of his stuff.

      Delete
    2. As a one time horror aficionado (Still watch The Walking Dead) I am tempted to try Neville. These days my preferred fiction is crime, usually of the Scandinoir variety.

      Delete
  3. From Wikipedia's summary of the plot: "Old university friends Dom, Phil, Luke, and Hutch have decided to reunite on a hiking trip through the Swedish mountains."

    There's a Scandinavian angle in The Ritual. Could be a sign.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sean Mallory comments

    Thanks Gerard, I'll look out for that author next time I am in town when I always make a point of taking time out to peruse the book shops...those that still exist that is...so many are closing these days due to the likes of Amazon and the web.....love actually holding a book in hand rather than the tablet but use both when the need arises...

    AM - Walking Dead - I have followed it from day one....love it and really like how the story has evolved to where the actual fear of the walkers has been replaced with the greater fear of rival communities...their morals are always being tested....great show to sit back and forget about reality although I have met a few characters in it in reality!!!!!

    ReplyDelete