Hanging out, deeply • 5 March 2007 • The SnowBlog

Hanging out, deeply

          

Hooray for the Guardian! Hooray for Richard Gwyn! Hooray for springtime Monday mornings! I am suddenly in a very chipper mood because a) I have just finished my 8th coffee of the day - it's like a kind of daytime drunkenness - and b) Richard Gwyn's Top Ten Books in which Things End Badly is up and running on the Guardian website. It's high quality. Also here is a review from the Western Mail by none other than Gareth Davies, our gracious host for DHO's launch in Cardiff last week. What a lovely man. 

"Richard Gwyn
Deep Hanging Out (Snowbooks, £9.99)

The difficult second novel has proven no stumbling block to Richard Gwyn, as his rich, dark and beautiful novel so aptly proves. The preposterously named Cosmo Flute is a painter practising 'deep hanging out' on the isle of Crete, when his foundations are shaken as he and his friend, Argentinean photographer Ruben Fortune, witness cold-war US undercover military shenanigans. Drinking and painting give way to drinking and espionage, and lead Gwyn's eclectic cast to the encierro in Pamplona and a date with an angry bull. Sinister humour and Gwyn's understated prose poetry renders a Crete resplendent in history and mystery." 
Emma