Eight Cuts Gallery Review

"Last week saw the paperback release of Richard by Ben Myers (here from Amazon). I rarely talk about books, even more rarely ones with a mainstream publisher (Picador), so this is sort of a special occasion.

"So why break my duck for Richard? Well, both it, and its author, Ben Myers, have been working away at my subconscious for some time now. Pretty much ever since I wrote a bit of a diatribe against Brutalism well over a year back. And against this book. I was very proud of my puffery at the time. Like a poor souffle, I’ve been slowly deflating ever since as I realised first that I’d misread Brutalism (whcih is full not of the slick blankness I’d seen in it but the raw emotional honesty I’ve spent years arguing for), and second that whatever stick I’d latched onto with Myers and Richard, I was holding the wrong end of it...."

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