A month of The Bedevilments, Richard Foster’s new book, and the Hackney Indie Press Fair
The Bedevilments by John Gay has been out for a month now, and early reactions have been coming in. One Goodreads reviewer said they picked it up for the cover and the premise, but stayed for the writing, calling it a "surprisingly heartwarming novel of discovery and growth" and told people to "just read it". Another said they read it in "one completely motionless sitting".
The way the book treats addiction has come up a few times in reviews. One reader talks about how Anthony is tangled up in a whole web of dependencies, with alcohol, sex, intimacy and his fixation on Emma all blurring together, and how loneliness feeds the addiction and gets fed by it in turn. Tom’s Bookshelves on Instagram felt that the book presents a way out of addiction without getting preachy or overly wholesome. They called Anthony part hero, part anti-hero.
A reviewer on StoryGraph confessed to loving books with lots of sex, as long as it’s literal and messy, and thinks some readers will struggle with how honest it gets. He found the book made him uncomfortable and got him thinking about his own masculinity.
The brilliant Drew Gummerson (Saltburn and Seven Nights at the Flamingo Hotel) pointed out that for all the sex, none of it is erotic. He compared the tone to Steve McQueen's Shame and Lars von Trier's Nymphomaniac, but found the book more hopeful than either film. He also liked the depiction of Sydney's inner-city suburbs. New bookshop Republic of Words (more on an event with them below), called it “darkly funny, appalling and meaningful”.
More on that event: On the evening of Thursday 29th October there will be an online conversation between John Gay and Josh Holton, hosted by Republic of Words. Republic of Words is a soon-to-open Manchester-based bookshop and you can find out more about the event on their instagram page.
Josh Holton is the author of Fledgling (Conduit Books), a novel about "grief, about masculinity, about the love of a parent and what remains when they're gone". The Bedevilments and Fledgling were part of a brilliant September Debuts event we were part of at Bard Books in East London a few weeks ago (photo below - Henry from Ortac was there on behalf of John Gay).If you want to go deeper into the book, John has been posting some fascinating companion pieces on Substack and Instagram. Recent posts have dug into Stanislavski’s idea of the "Superobjective", Mad Men, the films of Paul Schrader, and how themes of embodiment and globalisation run through The Bedevilments.
Spiders and Flies
by Richard Foster
In other news, we announced a new book last week: The third instalment in Richard Foster's 'Dutch Trilogy' with Flower Factory and The Punk Rock Birdwatching Club.
Where do you find the music that doesn’t fit?
Spiders and Flies is a dream journey through the Dutch underground music scene of the noughties and twenty-tens. Drawing in letter and spirit from the medieval dream poem, Piers Plowman, some unreliable half memories, and a stack of 400-year-old photocopies, Richard Foster resurrects a lost world of drug-fuelled music tourists, disappeared squats and free festivals.
A world preserved in mouldy gig flyers, until now.
‘Dealing in a hyperreality, Richard Foster’s astonishing wordflow finds the truth in the madness, the sense in the nonsense and captures the feel of live music and the mystery and wonder of it all: with life, death, and the scary bits in between.’ — John Robb
‘There is a wild baroque inventiveness to Richard Foster’s writing. Spiders and Flies is wonderfully digressive, witty, and endlessly surprising. There’s something almost Rabelaisian in its capaciousness, its colour, its cast of characters and medley of misadventures.’ — Mark Bowles, Goldsmiths Prize-listed author of All My Precious Madness
‘A tour de force of unrelenting wit and pace. This book is a celebration of the weird and weirdos.’ — Joshua Jones, Dylan Thomas Prize-shortlisted author of Local Fires
Alternative Book Fair, Hackney
This October, the first Hackney Indie Press Fair comes to Meeting House on Newington Green, a free one-day celebration of independent publishing. Run by Indie Novella with support from Arts Council England, it brings together around 30 independent publishers, including Ortac.
Readers, aspiring authors and emerging writers can browse new and innovative books, meet the people behind them, and talk to publishers of Booker Prize, Observer Best Debut Novelists and Women’s Prize-listed authors. There’s also a panel on how publishing works, with time for questions.
Whether you read, write, publish or just love books, it’s a welcoming place to connect with the indie scene.
You can buy The Bedevilments and pre-order Spiders and Flies from your local bookshop or from ortacpress.com.shop
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