Robbed of his ancestral home - a near-derelict hovel in the mountains of west Wales - Ianto pledges revenge not only on the English yuppies who have turned his grandmother's cottage into a weekenders' barbecue party but on all those who have violated him and the land that is his. This latest act of colonial oppression and desecration triggers his lurid and strange imagination into unspeakable savagery - embodying our most primal fears of physical threat, a world beyond our control. (20020220)
Sheepshagger
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Written in rough, tough and fiercely native prose, Sheepshagger is a coming-of-age ensemble novel about a bunch of promiscuous, disenchanted, druggy Welsh youngsters, growing up in a world from which they feel disconnected, surrounded by a beautiful countryside they struggle to understand. In the middle and somehow pivotal to this motley Celtic crew is Ianto: a genetically unfortunate ne'er-do-well who yet possesses the spiritual centredness the others lack. It is Ianto who relates to the rurality around them: "the lightning blasted blackthorn", the "same soil his forefathers dug in". As a result of the strange, totemic figure he cuts, Ianto manages to hang with the others and become something of a mascot to them, even though they tease him mercilessly about his virginity. The dialogue is vivid and believable, in an expletive-rich Irvine Welsh way. The intervening descriptions are spare and impressive, although they sometimes strain too hard towards lyricism: "he is like something dredged from the harbour long sodden in silt and brine, a being discarnate of mud and stagnant water". The book culminates in a rural cop-chase; however the true poetic essence of the book is its very contemporary take on Welshness. Griffiths' second novel is a modern-day elegy to the put-upon man-of-the-woods, the long-oppressed Celt, the deracinated Taff, the Sheepshagger. --Sean Thomas
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"The plotting of the novel is cunning, the performance immaculate... The management and pacing of this material are masterly... He has produced a vital, driven and necessary book" (Iain Sinclair Independent on Sunday )
"Niall Griffiths is in complete command of his material... A hymn both ancient and modern to place and to unsentimental belonging" (Independent )
"A powerful blend of expletive-ridden dialogue and passages of beautiful prose- quite brilliant" (The Times )
"A fabulous piece of writing... One of the new millennium's most striking novels to date" (Time Out )
"The power of Griffiths's language is astounding, steeped in the wild forces of nature that have helped make Ianto what he is, by turns lyrically beautiful and tumultuously violent" (The Times )
"Niall Griffiths is in complete command of his material... A hymn both ancient and modern to place and to unsentimental belonging" (Independent )
"A powerful blend of expletive-ridden dialogue and passages of beautiful prose- quite brilliant" (The Times )
"A fabulous piece of writing... One of the new millennium's most striking novels to date" (Time Out )
"The power of Griffiths's language is astounding, steeped in the wild forces of nature that have helped make Ianto what he is, by turns lyrically beautiful and tumultuously violent" (The Times )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By HuddsOn
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Much has been made of the importance of Ianto as the first memorable Welsh anti-hero, and yet for me it's the supporting characters who reek of authenticity and make this book unforgettable. I once knew a lad who hailed from Caernarvon, and reading this it was almost like meeting him again - the same combination of hedonistic recklessness and morose cynicism. I can well believe that in every small town in the West of Wales, there's a group of friends who would read Sheepshagger and recognise themselves within minutes.
Ianto's toking- and tripping-buddies perceive him as a semi-mute, antisocial moron, and yet their lifestyles aren't so very different, dominated as they are by thrill-seeking, violence and self-degradation. In one of the three intercut narratives, Ianto's erstwhile mates are huddled in a room together perhaps a year or so after the events of the story, trying to fathom out what turned him into a multiple killer. The irony is, it never occurs to them to ask, "How did WE turn out to be such a bunch of losers?" Lack of opportunity can't explain it - Llyr is a property owner and Marc, we learn, comes from a middle-class family. Perhaps the answer is that they are trapped in, and protected by, a self-referential set of social norms of their own - as long as their conduct is "normal" by their own standards, they never feel the need to justify it.
Many people will be put off by the extremity of the violence and human depravity, which although not glamourised, does at times go beyond what's strictly necessary plot-wise. My main criticism would however be the unjustified sexual abuse element, which is hinted at repeatedly throughout but only made explicit in a harrowing childhood flashback scene near the end. This strikes me as a gratuitous and tacked-on element in the story, and if it's a metaphor for the "violation" of Wales by the Saxon, then it's an exceptionally crass and ill-judged one.
This aside, the novel is bleak but not hopeless. It may not offer much hope of creating a better world, but one is left with the feeling that the world would be a better place if more people were like Niall Griffiths.
Ianto's toking- and tripping-buddies perceive him as a semi-mute, antisocial moron, and yet their lifestyles aren't so very different, dominated as they are by thrill-seeking, violence and self-degradation. In one of the three intercut narratives, Ianto's erstwhile mates are huddled in a room together perhaps a year or so after the events of the story, trying to fathom out what turned him into a multiple killer. The irony is, it never occurs to them to ask, "How did WE turn out to be such a bunch of losers?" Lack of opportunity can't explain it - Llyr is a property owner and Marc, we learn, comes from a middle-class family. Perhaps the answer is that they are trapped in, and protected by, a self-referential set of social norms of their own - as long as their conduct is "normal" by their own standards, they never feel the need to justify it.
Many people will be put off by the extremity of the violence and human depravity, which although not glamourised, does at times go beyond what's strictly necessary plot-wise. My main criticism would however be the unjustified sexual abuse element, which is hinted at repeatedly throughout but only made explicit in a harrowing childhood flashback scene near the end. This strikes me as a gratuitous and tacked-on element in the story, and if it's a metaphor for the "violation" of Wales by the Saxon, then it's an exceptionally crass and ill-judged one.
This aside, the novel is bleak but not hopeless. It may not offer much hope of creating a better world, but one is left with the feeling that the world would be a better place if more people were like Niall Griffiths.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Niall does an excellent job of taking us into Welsh youth and the desolation associated with it. Be warned, this book is meant to make an impression on the reader. If you can't take drugs, violence, and real life desperation, then this is not the book for you.
By Llywarch
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
The challenge to bourgeois sensitivities in that title says it all, in a way. There's none of the stroking of the bourgeois sweet spot that's the whole essence of, say, MacEwan's fiction. This is rough and direct and in-your-face and utterly challenging. But don't mistake that for unskilled.This is a work of huge literary ambition. What other modern novelist would dare take the hovel scene from "King Lear" and work it into his own masterpiece? It's just what Niall Griffiths does in this disturbing, harsh, majestic novel. Tune your ear to this jagged, expressive prose and you'll hear a fierce moral vision expressed, a savage critique of contemporary society, that no other living fiction writer comes remotely near. Irvine Welsh is entertainment for schoolkids by comparison. Here's your modern great. Read as much of him as you can - Sheepshagger, Grits, Kelly & Victor - they're all masterpieces. They all ask questions about what it is to be human. And the sensitivity behind them is profoundly creative, becomes in itself the reason for going on - a desolation angel with the life-force flooding through his words. Wonderful! No-one else like him in the whole of modern writing.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sheepshagger revisited
Read this while living in Abersytwyth 10 years ago and enjoyed it so much decided to get a copy for my friend who i knew would appreciate it too
Published 5 months ago by miss f tuffen
4.0 out of 5 stars
Hard Hitting and Lyrical
I read this one when it came out and found it hard hitting and lyrical at the same time. The subject matter is bleak and depressing , but Griffiths successfully manages to pull off... Read more
Published on 6 Mar 2010 by M. D. Pithie
2.0 out of 5 stars
Depressing, but difficult to put down
By the time I had finished this book, I felt that I had witnessed some of the bleakest possible lives. Read more
Published on 27 Jun 2007 by M. Blackburn
3.0 out of 5 stars
disturbing
On the whole i found this book disturbing. Sometimes i couldn't continue reading it and had to have a break. Read more
Published on 22 Oct 2006 by Ms. W. Overton
2.0 out of 5 stars
dull
The trouble with this book is the unremitting unpleasantness of it all. Yes its bleak, dark and violent, but after 260 pages of this, it tends to become out and out boring. Read more
Published on 28 July 2004 by Mr. K. Reid
5.0 out of 5 stars
Particularly Significant in Current Political Climate...
A fantastic novel, even exceeding the feat that was Grits. The novel was even more poignant to read given the current controversy over the release of Jamie Bulger's killers. Read more
Published on 9 July 2001
5.0 out of 5 stars
a masterpeice
This is the most graphic, desolate book I have read. It is a masterpeice of prose by an obviously very gifted writer.
I simply could not put it down. Read more
Published on 28 Feb 2001
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