One thing that my book club has taught me is not to judge a book by its blurb. So many times has the promise of the words failed to deliver in an expected way. Not always badly, mind, but quite often the books have not been what I was expecting. And we always tend to talk about the cover too – whether we like it, whether it suits the book, potentially the different versions for some books. Now both of these things are obvious marketing tools which do have some value and will make me potentially have a look as to whether I want to read it. But of anything that is likely to make me want to read something, a recommendation probably tops the list. This could be from a friend, or, in a less personal way, a quote or recommendation on the book from someone I like and trust.
I'm a big fan of Neil Gaiman and a quote on the back, plus an introduction from the author was enough to make me pick up Martin Millar's The Good Fairies of New York. A quick look read of the blurb and in this case I was instantly sold. And in this case, not mis-sold. A very funny, manic caper throughout New York with a whole bunch of different fairies was exactly what I was after and also what I got. Drug-addled old women who think they're Greek warlords, the New York Dolls, quests for impossibly rare flowers, productions of Shakespeare and mischievous, drunken, sexy Scottish fairies – what's not to like?
Millar is obviously a fine comic writer, devising likeable and amusing characters and knowing how to get the best out of them throughout the romp and numerous farcical situations. Yet more than that were some of the wryly observations, using the fairies poking fun at how humans do things as vehicle to do this. The ethnic and racial harmony elements to it did not exactly say anything new, but did highlight the silliness of such things and set in New York, the melting pot to end all melting pots, it seemed fitting.
Perhaps most surprising of all though was the tender handling of Kerry's Crohn's disease – a horrible, really debliating condition and one close to my heart as a good friend of mine suffers from it. I'm far from an expert on it, but I figure that any methods of informing people about it can only be a good thing. It's not something I'd heard of beforehand and the senstivie handling of it gave the story it's most human aspect. And it had the hard-fought, deserved happy ending that you'd want from such a comic tale. So long as I didn't think about their reputation or the potential for disaster, I'd jump at the chance to spend a night out drinking with Heather and Morag and to wish to spend time with their creations is perhaps as high a compliment as you can pay an author.
Book number: 87
Title: The Good Fairies of New York
Author: Martin Millar
Category: Books by authors I've never heard of
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