"List of the Lost" review by Owen Richardson - The Sydney Morning Herald

List of the Lost review: Morrissey's novel succumbs to his sententious side - The Sydney Morning Herald
By Owen Richardson

Excerpt:

Terry Eagleton ended his admiring Guardian review of Morrissey's Autobiography by encouraging him to write fiction. It'd be interesting to know what he makes of List of the Lost.

For all the rancour and pretentiousness, Autobiography was a captivating performance; List of the Lost reads like the outcome of the perversity, or simple lack of self-awareness, that induces a writer to run with his bad qualities. It's terrible, though in such a bizarre way, unique even, that it might have prospects as a cult book, or at any rate an enduring curiosity. But I wouldn't bet on it.
 
I wonder if Morrissey was influenced by H.P. Lovecraft writing this!
 
Some observations here I hadn't seen before in earlier reviews:

* "a past atrocity calling for vengeance and bringing to mind Morrissey's thing about the Moors Murders"
* "plot and characters take second place to narrative voice"

While the second one isn't easily overlooked as the narrator's voice intrudes and fills more than half of the book with its ramblings(*) the first one I hadn't realised earlier.

(*) In a sense, the narrator really is a character in his own right in the novel(la), as in Multatuli's Max Havelaar.
 
Some observations here I hadn't seen before in earlier reviews:

* "a past atrocity calling for vengeance and bringing to mind Morrissey's thing about the Moors Murders"
* "plot and characters take second place to narrative voice"

While the second one isn't easily overlooked as the narrator's voice intrudes and fills more than half of the book with its ramblings(*) the first one I hadn't realised earlier.

(*) In a sense, the narrator really is a character in his own right in the novel(la), as in Multatuli's Max Havelaar.

Good points, I hadn't thought of the moors murders connection.

I have a similar idea about influences. His use of the track and field analogy in the book - a metaphor for life? - also crops up in Forgive Someone. "At track and field, we dreamt of our beds, in the bleatchers, you sit with your legs spread, smiling 'here's one thing you'll never have'". This lyrics really fits with the book, especially since he stresses the masculinity of the runners and their lethargic attitude towards the race after one of the runners dies (was it Justy?).

Autobiography was released 2013 (October ish?) so it had probably been completed, at the very least, four or five months prior, so the song may have been written around this time and just before he started on List of the Lost.

Any thoughts?
 

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