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Louise Welsh***THE CUTTING ROOM***(Paperback) '...journey of discovery, decadence and deviousness.'
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9 Jun 14 14:34
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Set in contemporary Glasgow, The Cutting Room is narrated by Rilke, one of the most engaging, flawed and hedonistic fictional creation of recent years. When this dissolute and promiscuous auctioneer comes upon a hidden collection of violent, and highly disturbing, erotic photographs, he feels compelled to unearth more about the deceased owner who coveted them. What follows is a compulsive journey of discovery, decadence and deviousness. Prizes:
- Winner of the CWA John Creasey Memorial Award and Shortlisted for the Saltire Society First Book
Review
Louise Welsh's first novel is a compulsive read from the first page, a book whose pages you can't stop turning even when you dread whatever horror may be in store next. The book is narrated by the middle-aged Rilke, who works for a Glasgow auction house. Rilke is invited by a wealthy old woman to catalogue and sell her late brother's effects. While searching through the dead man's possessions, Rilke comes across a set of pornographic black-and-white photographs - including one of a woman who has apparently been murdered. Rather than go to the police, Rilke pockets the photographs and decides to discover the truth behind them. Is the woman really dead or was the picture posed? The quest takes him deeper and deeper into a Glasgow underworld of crime, pornography and prostitution. But Welsh is far too clever to have produced a standard crime novel: this is a subversive book whose surprises are not just in the twists of the plot. Rilke himself is a brilliant creation: a homosexual who solicits casual sexual encounters, he is both already in touch with the seedier side of Glasgow life (one of his acquaintances is the unsavoury Leslie, a drug pusher and transvestite) and repelled by its darker elements. A troubled and lonely past has left him unsentimental and cynical, his views of sex and sexuality decidedly unromantic. 'Personally, I see many reasons youth should be attracted to old age; all of them can be folded and put in your wallet.' Using Rilke as the narrator and protagonist enables Welsh to look at pornography and female prostitution with a detachment that a male heterosexual or a woman wouldn't have. And that detachment enables him finally to see, with enormous clarity, the depth of the depravity at the heart of the sex industry. As he comes to this realization, he discovers more and more unsavoury facts about the people around him, people he likes and trusts: almost every character in this disturbing book is morally compromised in one way or another. Welsh has created not just a gripping plot, not just a memorable set of characters, not just convincing and fast-moving dialogue, though she has done all of these. She has also created a whole world, the frightening world of a Glasgow that most people never see - and above that, imbued it with a moral force that leaves you shaken. This is a debut of startling brilliance. (Kirkus UK)
Prizes:
- Winner of the CWA John Creasey Memorial Award and Shortlisted for the Saltire Society First Book
Review
Louise Welsh's first novel is a compulsive read from the first page, a book whose pages you can't stop turning even when you dread whatever horror may be in store next.
The book is narrated by the middle-aged Rilke, who works for a Glasgow auction house. Rilke is invited by a wealthy old woman to catalogue and sell her late brother's effects. While searching through the dead man's possessions, Rilke comes across a set of pornographic black-and-white photographs - including one of a woman who has apparently been murdered.
Rather than go to the police, Rilke pockets the photographs and decides to discover the truth behind them. Is the woman really dead or was the picture posed? The quest takes him deeper and deeper into a Glasgow underworld of crime, pornography and prostitution.
But Welsh is far too clever to have produced a standard crime novel: this is a subversive book whose surprises are not just in the twists of the plot. Rilke himself is a brilliant creation: a homosexual who solicits casual sexual encounters, he is both already in touch with the seedier side of Glasgow life (one of his acquaintances is the unsavoury Leslie, a drug pusher and transvestite) and repelled by its darker elements.
A troubled and lonely past has left him unsentimental and cynical, his views of sex and sexuality decidedly unromantic. 'Personally, I see many reasons youth should be attracted to old age; all of them can be folded and put in your wallet.'
Using Rilke as the narrator and protagonist enables Welsh to look at pornography and female prostitution with a detachment that a male heterosexual or a woman wouldn't have. And that detachment enables him finally to see, with enormous clarity, the depth of the depravity at the heart of the sex industry. As he comes to this realization, he discovers more and more unsavoury facts about the people around him, people he likes and trusts: almost every character in this disturbing book is morally compromised in one way or another.
Welsh has created not just a gripping plot, not just a memorable set of characters, not just convincing and fast-moving dialogue, though she has done all of these. She has also created a whole world, the frightening world of a Glasgow that most people never see - and above that, imbued it with a moral force that leaves you shaken. This is a debut of startling brilliance. (Kirkus UK)