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    Even the Dogs: A Novel
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    Even the Dogs: A Novel
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    Even the Dogs: A Novel
    Ebook225 pages3 hours

    Even the Dogs: A Novel

    By Jon McGregor

    3/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    On a cold, quiet day between Christmas and the New Year, a man's body is found in an abandoned apartment. His friends look on, but they're dead, too. Their bodies found in squats and sheds and alleyways across the city. Victims of a bad batch of heroin, they're in the shadows, a chorus keeping vigil as the hours pass, paying their own particular homage as their friend's body is taken away, examined, investigated, and cremated.
    All of their stories are laid out piece by broken piece through a series of fractured narratives. We meet Robert, the deceased, the only alcoholic in a sprawling group of junkies; Danny, just back from uncomfortable holidays with family, who discovers the body and futiley searches for his other friends to share the news of Robert's death; Laura, Robert's daughter, who stumbles into the junky's life when she moves in with her father after years apart; Heather, who has her own place for the first time since she was a teenager; Mike, the Falklands War vet; and all the others.
    Theirs are stories of lives fallen through the cracks, hopes flaring and dying, love overwhelmed by a stronger need, and the havoc wrought by drugs, distress, and the disregard of the wider world. These invisible people live in a parallel reality, out of reach of basic creature comforts, like food and shelter. In their sudden deaths, it becomes clear, they are treated with more respect than they ever were in their short lives.
    Intense, exhilarating, and shot through with hope and fury, Even the Dogs is an intimate exploration of life at the edges of society--littered with love, loss, despair, and a half-glimpse of redemption.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury USA
    Release dateApr 22, 2010
    ISBN9781608191253
    Unavailable
    Even the Dogs: A Novel
    Author

    Jon McGregor

    Jon McGregor is the author of five novels and two story collection. He is the winner of the IMPAC Dublin Literature Prize, Betty Trask Prize, and Somerset Maugham Award, and has been longlisted for the Man Booker Prize three times. He is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Nottingham, where he edits The Letters Page, a literary journal in letters. He was born in Bermuda in 1976, grew up in Norfolk, and now lives in Nottingham.

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    Reviews for Even the Dogs

    3/5

    131 ratings33 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Grim subject matter but interesting style of writing. Heavy on observation and description, and somewhere in the middle you realise all the different stories being told, hinted at, solidifying almost. Always a sense of waiting, waiting to find out what will happen, what has happened...
    • 2/5
      Well, this made for somewhat odd Yom Kippur reading. Strong start, strong finish, indifferent middle. Hated, hated, hated the way it was written. I'm all for taking chances with style, but the random sentence fragments were driving me nuts.
    • 1/5
      So this is the first book by Jon Mcgregor that I've attempted to read and I just found it

      This book lacks puntuation and doesn't finish

      I mean try reading it and you will

      If this is his writing syle then I won't
    • 4/5
      I received this book via Goodreads giveaway.

      Not sure what to say. I wouldn't call it an easy or enjoyable reading experience, but I really liked it. Jon McGregor's writing style kept me off-kilter. I was at times disoriented, seemingly lost like the addicts in this book, but an astute reader will eventually be able to sift through all the scattered thoughts and piece together a cohesive story. Well done.

    • 3/5
      Even the Dogs takes us into the grimy subculture of heroin addiction in a British urban centre. The story is rudimentary. The body of Robert Radcliffe is discovered in a squalid, chaotic apartment about a week after his death from the accumulated effects of long-term alcohol abuse and general physical neglect. Prior to this event Robert’s apartment was the nexus for a group of addicts to whom he permitted use the place to get high so long as they contributed to the supply of food and drink. But Robert’s death, which happens between Christmas and New Year’s, sends the group scattering into the streets, and once police and a forensics team move in the apartment is off limits. The remainder of the novel chronicles, often in grisly detail, the fates of the addicts as well as the agonizing journey of Robert’s body from point of discovery through to autopsy and, finally, disposal. Jon McGregor’s fiction is routinely cited for bold departures from conventional storytelling strategies and techniques. In Even the Dogs he utilizes a collective narrative voice to depict events as they happen, writing from the perspective of the group of addicts, who serve as a kind of Greek chorus, observing the proceedings from the shadows as police, medical examiners and others go about their business. The novel is at its best when the narrative zeroes in on the individual addicts—Danny, Mike, Ben, Laura, Ant—and we learn how circumstances conspired to lead them down a tragic and desperate path. The novel is densely written in prose that echoes an urban streetwise vernacular, and McGregor conveys, vividly and dispassionately, the painful craving of drug addiction and the catastrophic decisions it forces on its sufferers. But it’s impossible to ignore the fact that the book also presents a case of technique overwhelming story. After a while the reader longs for a simple, straightforward description or scrap of dialogue that would enable us to connect with a character. The book’s brilliance is that it shows us everything and turns away from nothing. But the tone throughout is clinical, and in the final analysis our response to this novel is blunted by its lack of emotional depth.
    • 3/5
      Some of the descriptions are stomach-churning.
    • 5/5
      Powerful moving book depicting addicts' lives.Begins with the finding of Robert's body in his ruined flat and then recreates his neglected life as those who knew him look on as his body is examined ,investigated and cremated. As they watch their own stories unfurl stories of lives fallen through the cracks.The narrative is cinematic,like a camera sweeping over the horrors.it is non judgemental and compasssionate,structured through unfinished lines and unanswered questions with beautiful prose.I found it powerful and moving and its characters stayed with me long afterwards
    • 3/5
      This experimental novel begins with the death of Richard, an alcoholic middle aged man living in an abandoned flat in an unnamed English town, from unknown causes. A group of people who apprarently know him observe the proceedings, as the police remove his body from the building, and as curious neighbors and onlookers view the spectacle dispassionately.The story of Richard's sordid life is told through the stories of those who know him: homeless drug addicts who he allows to stay at his place in exchange for food and drink, and his daughter, who is also addicted to heroin and cocaine and living on the streets, until she also moves into her father's flat. Alongside these stories are descriptive accounts of Richard's trip from the flat to the morgue, the careful cleansing of his body, a clinically precise account of his autopsy, and the inquest process of the coroner, in which his life is summarized and an attempt to understand the causes of his death are made.In Even the Dogs, McGregor gives us an unblinking account of the lives of homeless drug addicts in contemporary society. The characters stay mainly out of focus even as they speak, and it was difficult for this reader to appreciate or identify with them. The disjointed writing does coincide with their disjointed lives, and McGregor is successful in portraying the day to day sordid existence of hard core drug addicts and the homeless. This was a tough book to read, and is a difficult one to rate, but I'll settle on a three star rating, and applaud Mr McGregor for this courageous novel.
    • 5/5
      This is a stunning book. It is not an easy read, by any means, because of the subject matter alone. The writing is disjointed and chaotic at times, but this mirrors the events that take shape throughout the story. I can understand why some readers would find this off putting, but I found it totally in keeping.It begins with the demise of Robert in a squalid flat. His obese and alcohol ridden body has been there for nearly a week. The narrative belongs to his "friends" who are "watching" the recovery of his body, the journey to the mortuary and a subsequent post mortem. They also keep vigil as his body is transported to the funeral home and is subsequently cremated. Throughout, we are given snippets of how Robert's life used to be and how he descended into alcohol addiction,agorophobia and hopelessness. Where were these friends when Robert died alone? Why was his body not found sooner? These "friends"were the ones who brought him food and alcohol every day in return for a place to doss down and feed their habit. Sounds pretty depressing and it certainly is, but that doesn't mean it is any less realistic. This scene is played out every day throughout the world, where people living on the fringes of society, live from one fix or score to another. Jon McGregor has given these people a voice and it is down to us whether we want to listen and comprehend. Are we disgusted by the behaviour of Robert and his addict companions or do we feel compassion for the situations they are in?Robert Radcliffe's story will stay with me for a long time and, if nothing else, I will try to remember that addicts are still someone's son or daughter and it may well be the way the world has treated them which led them to exist as they do.
    • 4/5
      I was leary of reading this book after reading so many reviewers who hated the disjointed writing style. The grim subject matter didn't concern me as much. I should have had my thinking reversed. The writing style was actually beautifuly crafted, well suited to the subject matter of the story. But grim is an understatement. I wasn't expecting how raw this book would leave me feeling. I'm not complaining at all though, in my opinion any book that can give me such an emotional response-even if it's not a happy one- is a rarity any more and much appreciated.
    • 3/5
      My review of Even The Dogs was one that I took under careful consideration. This was an unusual book which, it was clear, would shock some readers, while hitting home with others. In a technical sense, the author shows his mastery of the craft of writing, and his deep understanding of the human condition as it applies to those who frequent the underbelly of society. Is this through a personal acquaintance with a seamy, dark life among the scavengers of a middle class existence, of those who do not "succeed" but chase after the crumbs and detritus of the lives they never quite "managed"? Or does McGregor have the gift of placing himself in the skin of his characters so completely that his stream-of-consciousness dialogue becomes disturbing to the reader? This dialogue, often trailing off mid-sentence, or seeming to lose its focus as it begins another story within a story, is often an indictment of those of us who can observe the "low crawlers" of this society and feel nothing but contempt for their apparent weakness in the face of temptation. In fact, the dialogue is a tool McGregor employs that carries the reader from the scene at hand to events that led to the present catastrophe or dilemma, or has the potential to suggest redemption, just out of reach of the speaker. Some readers may feel only compassion for the ruined lives before them, the bad choices, the potential unrecognized, the humanity withheld, while other readers wonder how to feel pity for these people who choose to live their lives in dirty holes, apartments full of used needles and the vomit of past trips into an ecstasy only felt, never realized in any concrete world? Either way, McGregor has accomplished his task of placing before his readers a world of dark and light, depending from where the reader views it. It is a book filled with only a few days, but days jammed full of the existence of people who fill every minute with a desperation that makes the time seem longer, the end seem closer, the parallels more distant. I think the novel is a success. Its success makes it neither easier to read nor more pleasant for the reader. It makes Jon McGregor a master at manipulating dialogue and characterization into a world clamoring to be remembered, a literary device that allows each reader to carry away from "Even The Dogs" what they will, be it positive or negative. It seems a given that it will not be forgotten easily.
    • 4/5
      I expected this book to be depressing and it was, but also beautifully written. A ghostly group of dead heroin addicts who used to congregate at the shabby apartment of an alcoholic man (Robert) hover above him as his body is found by police. The story moves back and forth in time as Robert's death is investigated and his former companions and addicted daughter tell their stories. The descriptions of their painful, dirty lives punctuated by moments of kindness and compassion and the constant search for more heroin felt real and wretched. They live in a different world, intersecting occasionally with the other world most of us inhabit. Well done, but I had to wait until March to read it.
    • 5/5
      I was fully prepared to dislike this book, or at best, find it satisfactory after skimming reviews on LibraryThing. Having never been exposed to Jon McGregor before, I didn't know what to expect. I knew that the novel would be grim based on the description alone, but I don't mind grim. However, based on other reviews, I thought that I might be frustrated by McGregor's writing style or bored with a plot that was described by others as not really being a plot. Instead I was mesmerized by this novel about those on the fringe of society and I don't hesitate to say, as others have speculated, that this novel will be a strong contender for the Man Booker Prize.Where to begin?First, the writing is outstanding. McGregor's technique of using disjointed sentences succeeds in not only mirroring the broken lives of the characters, but also in inviting the reader into the minds of the addicts. I literally felt drugged reading some passages - a thought would be severed and the next thing I knew I'd be deeply immersed in another thought - the connection to the previous one like a dream. Some reviewers have stated that Even the Dogs has no plot - but I disagree. The discovery, dissection and cremation of Robert's body and the subsequent inquiry is the action that magnifies the lives of his fellow addicts.McGregor describes the characters' psychologies so well that it's easy to emphasize with their pain, regret, and desperation. I don't think that I'll ever pass by a homeless person without thinking of this passage:Which is something else we know about. Lying on the ground and looking up and waiting for someone to come along and help. In some kind of trouble. A turned ankle or a cracked skull or a diabetic epileptic fit or just too drunk to stand up again without some kind of a helping hand.Which is when you're most invisible of all. Get a good look at people's shoes while they're stepping around you. Like they'll leave you there for days. Like they'll leave you there as long as it takes. (pg 58)With Even the Dogs McGregor has made the invisible achingly visible. I highly recommed this novel.
    • 2/5
      I found Jon McGregor's new novel dull, dull, dull. It's a stream of consciousness story about drug addicts and it's just as unappealing as that sounds. I found it to be a quick read and thank goodness for that, because I don't know how much longer I could have read it if it had been any longer.
    • 3/5
      McGregor plays with the structure of language in his novel "Even The Dogs." This broken structure mirrors the lives of the addicts he portrays. They are without an end, without a resolution.The quietly broken lives depicted here do not tell a thrilling, page-turning story. But their determination, desperation, and brittle sense of family stay with the reader long after the reading has ended.
    • 3/5
      This was a difficult read; both in its subject and in its style. Usually, I tend to dismiss the disjointed narrative - stream of consciousness, no punctuation, back and forth in time - as a gimmick, and wish the writer would use his words to capture his audience. It's easier, imo to get and keep them that way. But in the case of Even the Dogs, the disjointed narrative dovetails perfectly with the disjointed lives of its subjects.The story begins as a group of people - ghosts, as the cover tells us - are watching as a dead man is removed from his home. We find out quickly that it is not really his home any more; but he remains there after his eviction as it's where he lived with his wife and child before they left him. A hopeless alcoholic, he allows the space to be used by various junkies as a shooting den, as long as they keep him in food (rarely) and booze (often). The cast of characters includes his daughter, Laura, who returned to him as a young teen and promptly became a junkie herself.Interspersed through the official dealings of Robert's death - investigation, autopsy, cremation - we see his present and his past, as told by those who are watching. We hear graphic descriptions of addiction, scoring, and withdrawal. In a scene near the end, we are swept briefly through the circumstances of each person's death. Laura, who has survived, has to be fetched from rehab to identify her father and receive the inquest's report of his cause of death.Though it was a difficult read - first to adjust to and understand the style, and then to read the subject - ultimately I am glad I read it. I likely won't seek out similar works, but it's a story that can grab at the imagination and the conscience of its readers.
    • 2/5
      Depressing, bleak, disturbing, despairing - just a few adjectives that fail to do justice to this spare, grim book - just reading a few pages set me on edge. I have to ask myself - why did I request this from the Early Reviewers program? It must have been that Jon McGregor is a Booker nominated author? After reading about a third of it I had to stop.
    • 1/5
      I’m one of many LT members that feel they don’t want to know too much about a book before I read it, so when I opted to receive Even the Dogs by Jon McGregor as an ER book, I didn’t know anything about the book. I did know that the author was long listed for the Booker Prize for a previous novel he had written. Let me save all of you who are now reading this review from the torture that is included within the pages of this novel, and I use that term very loosely, for, to call it a novel, is to assume it has a plot. It doesn’t.I’ll tell you what it is and then you can decide if you want to expose yourself to this bunch of words on paper pages. Can you say “stream of consciousness”? In dialect??? Grammar and punctuation are foreign to this author for most of the book. Here’s the gist of what goes on: the dead body of an alcoholic is discovered by his friend, a drug addict (Danny). For most of the book he rants about trying to find the alcoholic’s daughter Laura, who is also a drug addict. Interlaced throughout is a great deal of profanity. Oh yeah, also looking on as Danny goes on and on all over the place looking for Laura, from one street corner and run down building to another, are all his friends. And they add to the stream of consciousness too. However, they are all also dead. Finally, there is a coroner’s inquest and for this McGregor reverts to a script like dialogue such as:Coroner: He hadn’t said anything about wanting to stop drinking?Laura: No, only (inaudible).Coroner: Only what?Laura: Only, I mean, he knew about me going to rehab, he found out about it like. I told him, I mean. He might have thought, after that, you know.You get the idea. Unless you prefer the stream of consciousness:“So that’s all it was I wasn’t trying to shaft you, you know that la, you know I wouldn’t do that, it was just, it was just a pure out-of-necessity thing you know what I’m saying it was just, only it turned Benny boy was wrong and them blokes didn’t turn up neither, but still like it was I had the best of intentions it was out of necessity it was the mother of what is it like you know what I’m saying la”Right.Mercifully the book is short (less than 200 pages). That is it’s only redeeming quality. So be my guest; maybe this is your cup of tea. For me it was like bamboo under the fingernails.
    • 3/5
      McGregor's 'Even the dogs' centers around a group of heroin addicted derelicts. Written in short snippets McGregor jumps from character to character but the plot mainly centers around Robert who the police have found dead in his squat and it seems that Robert is more an alcoholic who allows junkies (one of whom is his daughter Laura) to use his apartment at the price of keeping him in booze and food. More or less the book describes the kind of lifestyle--of begging, violence and stealing that becomes an everyday price of (short term) survival. You could say it's a very loosely confederated subculture of hustlers and victims. There's an almost terse quality to his descriptions which reminds me of the aftermath of a hangover. Like maybe you're up and about but really need another hour or two of sleep. At times McGregor's prose has a flow but it never really sustains itself. There is enough insight though to keep things moving along towards the something that is the end--more or less an autopsy hearing in which Laura is questioned about her father's last moments. Did I like it? Not particularly. I've read other works about junkies and more often than not they have a tendency to peter out like this one. It's a hard thing to sell and whether I liked it or not I would still have to say that McGregor is a talented writer--but maybe he needs a different subject matter.
    • 3/5
      Like many other reviewers, I found the stream-of-consciousness style interesting but ultimately distracting and difficult, making the novel surprisingly challenging to finish. The multiple points of view were confusing. I did enjoy the way the narrative was pieced together from many images and incidents, but would have enjoyed the book more if the writing felt less gimmicky.
    • 2/5
      This was a story of hopeless struggle with addiction and loss. I found this to be a difficult read. I had to force myself to continue. The multiple character points of view were interesting, but at times confusing. I was unable to really connect with any of these characters and the lack of dialogue made reading tedious. The novel was well written and gave great imagery, but overall an unimpressive read.
    • 3/5
      This was a hard one for me to read, so graphic in its detail that I found it spilling over into my dream life. I guess that says a lot for the authors ability to make his language come alive and form pictures. Only his characters were not so much about life, as about life lost. And lost. And lost.I liked the style of writing very much and found it to be as different as Frey's "Million Little Pieces", also coincidentally about addiction. This is not a book I would go out of my way to recommend because of its intensity; but I think the author is brilliant.
    • 2/5
      It is rare that I don't finish a book. I couldn't finish this one.I think it’s well written, but it’s not a story I connected with. I could not relate to the characters or situations, and I found myself dreading each new page as I read. I did not want to delve deeper into this world.I don’t often choose books about addiction, pain, or death; I don’t choose books that are gritty or disjointed. This book was not for me.
    • 3/5
      This was a very difficult book to read. McGregor is raw, graphic, and unrelenting in his portrayal of the horrors of drug addiction. The story follows a group of heroin addicts in an unnamed English town. In the days following Christmas each of them dies from drug-related causes, and the book follows in particular the authorities' investigation of the death of one of them, a man named Robert, who lost all of the normalcy in his life, including his wife and daughter, as he fell into the arms of addiction. The story is narrated by the various characters, some during their lives, and others in death. They follow the investigation of Robert's death in all of its horrors. As the book unfolds we learn how Robert and his friends became drug addicts, and how each met their end. This book is nothing, if not hard-hitting. McGregor writes in the voice of drug addicts in a stream-of-consciousness style. The prose is sometimes difficult to get through: there's plenty of slang and jargon. Even more so, the book itself is hard to get through because it is so graphic and so tragic. Certainly McGregor captures the incessant search for drugs that defines the addict's life. Indeed, the book is itself is unrelenting in illustrating this, as the characters' lives have become entirely defined by the search for the next hit. For all that is remarkable about this book, I was left with little at the end aside from a sense of depression. Many of the finest works of literature are written about extreme human misery, but they leave the reader with larger lessons, things to consider, and that was missing here. At the end there was little left but sadness.
    • 3/5
      I thought the author did a good job of depicting the junkie, addicted life. I did not like the style but it did fit the subject manner. I admire the author's creativity but I don't think you needed 195 pages to tell this story. The emotional tone was set in the beginning and never changed. I think the depiction would have worked better as part of a larger more varied story. Not sure if I would read anything else by this author.
    • 2/5
      "Even the Dogs" chronicles the lives (and after-lives, in some cases) of a group of homeless heroin addicts. I am torn on how to review this very dark and depressing book. On the one hand, the story, told from the perspective of the addicts, is extremely disjointed and difficult to follow. The descriptions of heroin use, the early symptoms of withdrawal, and the struggle to survive long enough to find the next fix are vivid and disturbing. On the other hand, the manner in which Jon McGregor captures the voice of the characters is nothing short of genius. In short, not my cup of tea, but this book and its author definitely deserve kudos.
    • 4/5
      I'm not even sure what to say ... the writing is grim and disjointed, and there is no happy ending, but something about Even The Dogs kept me reading. This was not something I would have necessarily picked up on my own, but it did get my curious about Jon McGregor's other works.
    • 3/5
      Grim. Depressing. The story of a group of heroin addicts, alcoholics, psychopaths, and street people. The injection of heroin is described in disturbing detail. Not exactly Dickens’ Drood in the opium den. Dickens softened the impact of Drood’s drug use by including his characteristic virgin female and comic relief. There is no softening of anything in “Even the Dogs”. Don’t even wish for a happy ending. Nobody gets out of this one alive or recovered or even with any hope.Which is not to say that the writing is not good. I think it is. The author does an excellent job of portraying the single-minded obsession of the addicts with acquiring their next fix, at whatever cost. I question the decision to turn this into a novel. There is quite a bit of repetition. Considering the distasteful subject matter I wonder why it wasn’t shortened and presented as, for instance, the centerpiece of a short story collection, including other stories that could have buffered the hopelessness of “Even the Dogs”. I can’t see this selling many copies or being commercially successful as a novel.One thing that the author does which is interesting is the inclusion of a “Greek Chorus” of dead addicts that comment on the action and scenes. That is the basic structure of the novel. One of the group has died alone in what we in the US would call a “crack house” and a small amount of backstory is woven into the narrative and commented on by the chorus as the body is discovered and autopsied.So, I have to give it a good rating because of the fine writing, but I would not recommend this to any but the most hardened of readers.
    • 4/5
      Wow this book knocked me for a loop! After reading the first couple of pages I kept thinking - ok, when is the description going to end and the story start. I even looked ahead to see if it was still the same type of writing throughout the book. It was really hard to get into at first but let me say that it totally captured me! The horror of these characters lives was so gut wrenchingly honest that it was almost painful to read. I actually couldn't put it down once my brain could get used to the writing style. I kept thinking "this is what a screenplay must sound like"This book should almost be required reading for teenagers in high risk situations. I felt like I was going through the streets with Danny trying to get the gear! If only everyone could read this book and realize what a nightmare addiction is. I would really like to seek out Jon McGregor's other novels because he is brilliant.
    • 4/5
      Even The Dogs (Jon McGregor) is like. What. Nelson Algren. William Burroughs. This is the end of the alley. The bottom of the dumpster. Most everyone will be, like Robert, going out feet first. Maybe we all will. At any rate it's rough, with a four-day stubble. The Greek chorus of addicts and damaged children, will tug at you. These are lost souls. Souls lost in the shadows. Yet, McGregor makes them human. No small task. They bleed. They yearn.Years after his wife had left him because of his excessive drinking (taking the child), Robert was evicted from his apartment. He still lives there. He doesn't get out much. At least he lived there until the smell got too bad. For the neighbors that is. Dead and decomposing sometime over Christmas, the police finally break down the door and discover the sad end of Robert John Radcliffe.Robert wasn't a druggie, but he surrounded himself with them, using his place as a shooting gallery and crash pad. The cast of characters includes many who have been physically and psychologically damaged in wars: Bosnia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Ireland.Purposefully disjointed and choppy (it's particularly jarring when sentences atop...mid-sentence), scenes fade into and out of one another, through time, through space. The soundtrack for this novel would be Lou Reed. Think Street Hassle or Heroin. There's a particularly lovely riff a little over mid-way through. Ant has a damaged limb (courtesy of Helmand province, Afghanistan). Steve had once found himself on a particularly dangerous mission to Bosnia. Headed for a particular town, he's stopped by the police and told he can't go there: Even the dogs are dead. Even the bloody dogs. Steve's telling Ant his story, as Ant plunges the needle into Steve's vein. Ant remembers the Land Rover he'd been in being blown into the sky, and he remembers himself "lying in a field beside a road with the plants flattened beneath him as if he'd fallen from the sky. None of the pain he would have expected. Not yet.....only this whispering numbness, this stunned state in which it takes him a moment to understand where he is...[a roadside bomb has] lifted him from the surface of the earth and hurled him down into this field of waist-high stalks. The flower heads looking down at him where he lies, waiting. For someone to come...the blue sky. The poppies. The nodding poppy heads..."The images of the poppies and the heroin fix cannot be lost on anyone. Besides the grit and grime and despair of the drug scene, the novel gives us a bit of procedural. There's an autopsy that may well be too graphic for many readers, but it has a rigorous sense of propriety and order. This is followed by the Coroner's inquest.For the denizens of Robert's place, days are planned with an eye toward getting enough money for the next score. Panhandle, score, lift a little, score, One day bleeds into another. There's only one reason for living. The next score, the next high. Which necessitates the next score, the next high. Yet, as McGregor writes, "time seems to pass."As I mentioned to a friend of mine, McGregor's novel is just about the perfect length. You can give it a go in one sitting. But really, you wouldn't want to spend more time with these people than that.