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Goodnight Steve McQueen
Flame, London, 2002
dedication:
For Andy
The blurb on the back:
'This is high-class bloke lit written by a woman ... Wener has a lovely way with words' - Daily Telegraph
For those who didn’t keep up with the Britpop revival of the mid-90s, Sleeper were almost the archetypal exponents of the genre, producing three albums’ worth of guitar-based three-minute songs, mostly character studies and vignettes of everyday life, all set to attractive melodies. They weren’t bad at all, even if they lacked the spark of genuine inventiveness that made the Auteurs, Elastica and Blur stand out. The star was the singer and songwriter, Louise Wener, who had a streak of wit and intelligence that guaranteed good copy for interviews. After the group split, she had the foresight to resist a solo career in music and instead move into writing. And here’s her first novel. Unsurprisingly, it’s about the world of rock & roll, specifically the lower reaches of the British indie scene, with a band called Dakota (in a previous incarnation as Agent Orange they almost signed to Polydor, but got passed up in favour of The Wonder Stuff) having one last shot at the big-time before giving it all up to become minicab drivers. Their tale is interleaved with the relationship between their guitarist – the eponymous Steve McQueen – and his increasingly dissatisfied girlfriend. It’s all very endearing and, if the story isn’t breaking any new ground, Wener’s ambition is evident in her decision to use a first-person male narrator; a risky business, doing a sex-change on a first novel, but she just about gets away with it. There are only occasional moments where it feels like a woman’s version of blokedom, rather than the real thing. Equally tricky is the use of the present tense – it can get really intrusive and annoying – but again, she keeps it under control. Ignore the cover quote comparing it to the smug High Fidelity, this is a cut above: much more fun, and with a genuinely warm tone. Easy to read and not very challenging. Still doesn’t capture the spirit of what endeared us to rock & roll though. Bit like Sleeper, then. 
ENTERTAINMENT VALUE: 4/5 HIPNESS QUOTIENT: 2/5 like this? try this...  while My Guitar Gently Weeps rock & roll home |
