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Fischer was once my
favourite British author. Back in the day when The Collector Collector was better than any other comic novel I’d
read, certainly better than contemporary fiction by people like Jonathan Coe
and less smutty than Tom Sharp, I would rush out to buy his next book, or to
put it on my Amazon wish list or whatever it was that existed back then that
bears comparison. And then, in 2003, it all went to shit. After Voyage To The End Of The Room I lost the
taste for his work, and I actively shunned his new books. It took quite a while
for me to find
my way back again and only then because he was published by Unbound.
Even now I’m not sure it
was worth the effort. This book, a bit of an onanistic rant about the media
industry, the decline in journalistic standards, and an old favourite sacred
cow, the state of the city of London, feels strained. I’m not too proud to
admit I did chuckle out loud at some of Baxter Stone’s acerbic observations,
but the plot lurches around like a drunk trying to stay upright without making
any headway. There are a host of tired types, like the PTSD cameraman, the clueless
exec, the sleazy, pervert film-maker, and the bloated, pompous academic, and the
dark cynicism running through, normally something I appreciate, is overly
brutal in places and for effect without being sincere. Stone’s pursuit of one
last big scoop is another wet fish in the face. In fact, the one interesting plot
idea, that there was a lost story, a killer story, stolen along with the safe
from his late, one-time friend and benefactor, limps along until it has to be
put out of its misery.
In recalling the book I find myself drained of energy and enthusiasm. I don’t
think I felt like that at the time of reading but I may have been overly
optimistic or wilfully naïve, given my nostalgic feelings – I find it hard to
remember grudges and so nearly always fail to keep them – and so now am grumpy
and lacking in generosity. One day I’ll find my copy of Under The Frog and give him another chance but for
now, I don’t think I’ll be throwing any more money his way.
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