Stump

[dreamer_easy]

Next book off the stack: Stump, by Niall Griffiths, a short novel the narrative of which alternates between the dialogue of two thugs in a Morris Minor, and the stream of consciousness of the one-armed recovered alcoholic they've been sent to bash. Griffiths does this amazing thing where he switches effortlessly between the thugs' less than intellectual conversation, conveyed in dialect, and lush, poetic prose. There's a lot of violence and ugliness, though not as much as in Wreckage, the heartrending sequel, which I read first. Stump is often funny and even optimistic despite everything.