Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Shatteringly Authentic, 2 Dec 1999
By A Customer
This is a book which I would definitely recommend - If I ever wrote a book, I'd want it to be this good. The setting is a world which I have never even come near, but which I now feel I could have been a part of. The characters are so unlike anyone I know that it would be hard for me to believe in them, if it wasn't for the clear, brutal way in which Nicholas Blincoe creates and describes them. Now I feel like I know them. Some books have characters so strong that no story is needed to keep you interested, and indeed, oftentimes, none is provided. The characters in Manchester Slingback could, I believe, fit easily into such a story, but that is not what happens here - Nicholas Blincoe provides a thrilling, well told story that carries you along, needing to know more. The style of writing, using flashbacks, only serves to help the story flourish, and proves to be a powerful method of exaggerating the different worlds in which the story is set. I won't beg, but I really think you should read this book ....
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Dirty Old Town..., 18 Sep 2002
With this book Nicholas Blincoe cements his position to me as one of those authors whose books sound and look good and then fails to produce the good. Acid Casuals was a total waste of time, and this one is only marginally better. The story is mainly about Jake, a successful London casino manager in his mid-30s. One night, a police inspector from Manchester shows up and coerces him into returning to that city where as a teenager back in 1981 he lived a hedonistic drugs and gay sex life. It seems that back then, Jake's best friend was murdered, and just a few weeks ago, another friend from the past was found dead.The story switches back and forth between Jake's present day (1997ish) trip back to Manchester to dig up the dirt, and flashbacks to the days of seedy gay discos and Bowie clones. Clearly, Blincoe is also trying to contrast the gritty old days of Manchester's gay Village with the posh fin-de-millenium redevelopment of the city. Unfortunately, this never really pops off the page to someone who's never been to Manchester. Blincoe is too interested in the flash and sizzle of the past to keep the contemporary story moving, although at the end, as he slowly reveals the crimes of the past and Jake's role in them, the book gets a bit more interesting. However, if you like this stuff, a book with a similar plot, set in San Francisco's gay community in the early '90s, is Agnes Bushell's The Enumerator.
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3 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
High-powered read with neat twists and turns., 16 Jan 2000
By A Customer
And here we have the author, dolled up as Joan Collins in her young day, and is that meant to be Marc Almond? Just in case you don't notice, it's even on the press release. And the book? Jake Powell fled Manchester in the 80s when his best mate Johnny was murdered. Now somebody else he knew has been killed, and his old pal Det. Inspector Green wants him back to discover the truth. Actually, it's not about this at all, it's a travelogue of the New Manchester, and a memoir, a loving re-creation of the gay old days in the Village, until Crusader Anderson got his knickers in a twist. Now there was a policeman who put the fear of God into everyone, including God, probably. Actually, it's a very good, high-powered read, with some extremely neat twists and turns. Well, for somebody who is so heavily critical of David Bowie, that is.
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