Blame Paperback – 15 Apr 2017

Enjoyed every minute of Blame - a worthy successor to The Art Teacher- when can we expect Paul's next book?

Great read, thoroughly recommend

Simply brilliant writing - dark, funny and insightful. A must read, I loved every minute and couldn't put it down.

Blaming a recently deceased father for his personal frailties becomes an emotional reflex for Lucas as the circumstances of the death trigger long dormant memories of a childhood traumatised by infidelities and lies.As a pharmacologist Lucas leads a professionally clinical life analysing the biological building blocks that unlock the potential for longer life yet this scientific exterior masks an addictive personality whose apparent disregard for the dangers of narcotics is more akin to a rock star than an academic.Keith Richards meets Stephen Hawking is a strikingly incongruous image but Lucas exhibits the fatalistic characteristics of both as he tiptoes into a relationship with Mariana; a seductive IT nerd who conceals artistic flair.The discovery of a long forgotten diary, in his father’s belongings, gives us the link to the past and this becomes the page turning stimulant for revealing the cause of both Lucas’s and his father’s emotional free fall and the insurmountable barrier it created in their personal relationship.Paul Read’s skill in delivering a haunting beginning and end gives the plot contextual book-ends as the past is literally and physically consigned to ashes by the present only for the light of hope to potentially be quashed by the serendipity of life.The lure and sensory appeal of drugs seems to underscore the plot. Heroin is the great escape, the great excuse and the creeping temptation but the reality check comes in the shape of Lucas’s brother Ryan who provides the mirror for missed parental experiences and deap-seated regret that youthful betrayal and splintered trust prevented any hopes of reconciliation.The author’s ability to describe the subtle nuances of this recollected relationship with understated precision provides real insight into the emotional fallibility of the lead character. Mariana appears to tease first desire and then nascent commitment out of Lucas but it’s the feeling that it’s almost too good to be true that that taints any optimism.Ultimately it’s the feeling of what could have been that permeates this account of a failed relationship created by the dissolute behaviour of a parent and a child unable to recapture the innocence of childhood in diaries able to tell the truth often missing in old age.

I really enjoyed Paul Read's debut novel The Art Teacher last year, so when I spotted his follow-up, I had to read it. I was surprised how different the two books were. Both very good, but very different. I guess that in itself speaks for the author's skills.Told from the protagonist's first-person point of view, Blame was a story about coming to terms with your past. The main character, Lucas, is successful at his job (he is a bit of a pharmaceutical wizard), but he's a failure when it comes to relationships and he has a definite self-destructive streak. Following his father's sudden, unexpected death, Lucas sets off on a journey of self-discovery that takes him on an impulsive trip to New York but also back to his quaint English seaside hometown. There were lots of layers to this story that were gradually peeled back. It's a family drama and explores issues of guilt and redemption. It raises the question of how much we can trust our childhood memories and the age-old question of how much parents 'damage' their offsprings.I really enjoyed the book within a book set-up. Lucas finds the diary he wrote as a boy in 1989 complete with childlike drawings, and that's how the reader discovers the details of what happened back then.I have to admit I was a bit underwhelmed when all was finally revealed and couldn't quite understand why Lucas had been making such a fuss and had been estranged from his Dad for so long. Perhaps that's because I'm too used to reading deeply disturbing and depressing books or maybe it was the male perspective that made it more difficult for me. The book calls attention to the special relationship between fathers and sons, and Lucas learns that he and his Dad had maybe more in common than he ever wanted to acknowledge.I would rate the story itself 3.5 stars. What undoubtedly elevated this to a strong 4 stars, was the delivery. The writing was mesmerising! Perceptive and eloquent, Mr Read impresses with his smooth and almost poetic style. Can't wait to find out what Mr Read will come up with in his third book!