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Manual

Author: Daren King
Publisher: Faber and Faber
Category: Book

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Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3 reviews
Sales Rank: 256625

Media: Paperback
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7 x 5.4 x 0.9

ISBN: 0571230660
EAN: 9780571230662
ASIN: 0571230660

Publication Date: June 5, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: A BRAND NEW COPY DISPATCHED FROM THE UK WITHIN 48 HOURS BY ROYAL MAIL, OVERSEAS ORDERS SENT BY AIR MAIL.

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Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant book, iconoclastic and lyrical July 17, 2008
Indeed do not listen to the other guy. anyone who gives a book as funny, unique and dementedly beautiful as Manuowl a one star review should head back to the Dan Brown or Jim Timmins or whatever dumbnuts action pulp they're giving away with the Evening Standard this week.

I haven't read any of King's other books but plan to read em all now on the strength of this one.. his writing in Manual is this infectiously strange and disjointed first person narrative that in my mind completely succeeds in putting the reader into the headspace of its damaged main character. I ain't getting paid for this so am not about to slide into penetrating analysis here, but the originality and flawless weird rhythm of King's writing has to be applauded..

5 out of 5 stars

Don't listen to the other fella - Daren King rocks! July 13, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

Strange, perverted, childlike world view? Check. Odd, semi-autonomous animal of some kind? Check. Novel that combines seedy thrills, a sort of virulent prurience (such that you occasionally want to wash your hands as you're mid-flow) and writing akin to an acid-fried David Peace? Check, check check... That's right, ladies and gentlemen: Daren King appears to have done with his sabbatical writing children's books (although what parent is treating his children to bedtime stories featuring Smally's Party, Mouse Noses on Toast & Sensible Hare & The Case of the Carrots - aside from me, that is - bears some consideration) and he's back with his first novel since the Boxy an Star companion piece, Tom Boler.

Manual is both radical departure and more of the same (except, given that Daren King's 'more of the same' is unlike anyone else's 'same' on the planet, it's less begrudging and dismissive than it might otherwise appear). The opening (short) chapters introduce us to Patsy and our narrator Michael who work in the fetish industry - but, again, don't be misled by your own expectations of what that should constitute. Patsy and Michael visit with people, rarely do what they're asked to do and don't do anything much in the way of anything sexual. They dress up. They read The Times. They do nothing. They refuse to offer particular services.They steal perfumes. They hide passport-sized photographs about a client's house. They tie one client to his coffee table and then eat a packed lunch on the client's bed. You maybe (maybe) see by now the kinds of services they do offer... They also have an owl. Owl is a major character in Manual. I think Owl is a stuffed toy. That's certainly how he's introduced to us. But there are times when Owl feels sentient. Or imbued with sentience by Patsy, who obviously loves Owl a great deal.

The main thrust of Manual, however - if you'll forgive the crude pun - centres on the relationship between Edward (who is an older man, shacked up with a woman in her eighties) and Baby Girl (who is a young bit of stuff). Edward hires Patsy and Michael - for a 'job' at some point future hence - and gives them a place to live and responsibilities (primarily looking after Baby Girl) on a day to day basis. Proximity to both Edward (who is a high-flying city type) and Baby Girl (who, even though she's on the young side is obviously 'a bit of stuff') changes Michael somewhat (he develops a hankering for nice suits and tries out working proper jobs, his eyes wander in Baby Girl's direction instead of staying on Patsy) as the novel grinds - sorry - inexorably towards its climax - a climax that is both uncanny (in the Freudian sense) and bewildering (in that I'm not sure I get everything that went on...). Not that that matters overly. Daren King books (like Haruki Murakami books, albeit in extremely different ways) are all about the journey and not the destination. And, with Manual, King has provided another journey I'm thoroughly happy to have taken...

Manual is a novel that is great fun to read. This is a true thing to say about anything Daren King writes. Each of his books (to paraphrase Peely on The Fall) are different and the same. You might suspect you know what to expect but the Daren King book will always surprise and confound you in some way.

1 out of 5 stars

One of the worst books I have read in a long, long time June 25, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful

Simply dreadful. From reading the synopsis the book sounded interesting, but King's style of writing destroys any appeal immediately: "I pick up the pint. I do not drink. I put it down. She walks in. I look at her." etc., repeat for a few hundred pages. Every character is at best two-dimensional, and none of them are appealing in any way. On top of this, nothing happens!

The two main characters (Michael and Patsy) work in the fetish industry, their clients asking them to perform acts such as tie them up or humiliate them in some way, and during these sessions Michael and Patsy tend to steal something belonging to their client. They carry a stuffed owl with them for some reason, and it would appear that they think the owl can talk and fly. Michael and Patsy are hired by a businessman who is besotted with a fifteen year-old girl and after this the book meanders around, the businessman taking Michael to various bars, buying him a suit, getting him a job in IT and so on, until the book eventually just stops with no real conclusion at all.

A complete waste of time and paper, and a very, very poor book indeed.