"It came out the same year as Barnes's debut novel proper, Metroland, but where that took seven years to write, this took 10 days. Not that it shows: this refreshingly nasty (as Barnes's friend Martin Amis put it) crime caper is beguilingly well written, with passages that display all of Barnes's perception and wit. The plot of reverse blackmail and the shocking climax only add to the fun."
"The Porcupine (1992) Barnes's shortest novel is a satire of the personalities in a collapsed European communist regime. Former leader Petkanov is to have a televised trial. He believes he did nothing wrong They loved me and despises Gorbachev's western-friendliness, sucking Reagan's dick and then sucking Bush's. His crimes (He corrupted everything he touched He lied all the time, as a reflex) sound ever familiar. This funny, savage novel reminds us that when the old order passes, it doesn't die; it just waits."
"8 The Lemon Table (2004) The second of Barnes's three story collections is infused with ageing, but full of energy. There's a musical comedy spirit to A Short History of Hairdressing, in which a man measures his life in haircuts, from youth through marriage (the only adventure open to the cowardly, he says, quoting Voltaire) to the mattressy eyebrow hairs of old age."
Duffy is the first in a series about a bisexual private eye published under the pseudonym Dan Kavanagh; it was written in ten days and combines a refreshingly nasty tone with beguiling prose, wit and perceptive passages. The plot uses reverse blackmail and ends with a shocking climax. The Porcupine satirizes personalities in a collapsed European communist regime through former leader Petkanov's televised trial, denial, and corrosive self-justifications, portraying the persistence of the old order. The Lemon Table is a story collection infused with ageing, lively energy, musical-comedy elements, and reflections on sex, memory and artistic life.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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