FICTION

Life! Death! Prizes!

by Stephen May
Life! Death! Prizes! Bloomsbury, dist. by Macmillan. Dec. 2012. c.256p. ISBN 9781620400012. pap. $15. F
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After his vivacious mother is killed in a bungled robbery attempt, Billy Smith, an aspiring social historian on a gap year before going to college, finds himself thrust into the role of primary caregiver to his precocious but odd little brother, Oscar. Tortured by memories and obsessed with the disappearance of the street boy who likely murdered his mother, Billy makes an anguished decision to avoid complying with a family court's decree to separate him and Oscar. In a conclusion that ironically reads like the tabloid story from which this novel borrows its title, Billy and Oscar miraculously get a chance to live happily ever after.
VERDICT May's astonishing 2008 debut novel, TAG, distinguished him as a gifted portrayer of modern British life. In this follow-up, May's skills are just as dazzling. Billy's wry narrative juxtaposes commentary on contemporary Britain's consumerist decline in a village south of London with his own timeless aspirations and universal adolescent vanities. Readers who appreciate the fiction of Joe Dunthorne and Ross Raisin will also prize this novel.
Reviewed by J. Greg Matthews, Washington State Univ. Libs., Pullman , Jul 01, 2012
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