Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Eric Is Awake: Harringay author's new novel sees Orwell alive and well and writing for a Haringey newspaper
Eric Blair lies dying in a London hospital in 1950. On the London streets, in a not too distant future, H Lewis Allways lies down in an alley to sleep, his friend Pedro beside him. Eric wakes but not in his hospital bed. Beside him is a large black dog and the anxious face of Pedro. Eric is awake. But where?
Harringay author Dom Shaw’s first novel Eric is Awake weaves the biography of George Orwell in the last 5 years of his life, as he battles with illness, the loss of his wife and his own demons and the future in which Eric Blair, now a homeless man with no valid ID is quickly arrested, sectioned and then finds himself living on JSA in a hostel in Hackney.
As the issue of his true identity starts to attract unwelcome attention, he heads off on a road trip, becoming an integral part of a movement intent on resisting a future State that watches and collects data on its people; a people who appear to have fallen asleep over their mobile devices and TVs. Told from various viewpoints in the form of diaries,blog posts and a column in the Haringey and Hackney Advertiser, Eric tries to come to terms with both his past and ask questions of this alien new world.
Shaw’s novel is also a passionate political wake up call as he portrays a UK forged from the policies and actions of the British governments of the early 21st century. A world of cameras and armed border control and state controlled media.
Although the book explores some profound ideas about the citizen’s relationship with the State, it is an exciting and quick moving read with lots of comic moments and wit. Shaw is an experienced television writer and filmmaker and this first novel is full of energy. Orwell fans will enjoy the many references to his works but it isn’t necessary to be familiar with them (there’s even an aside in the book to the effect that everyone *thinks* they know Orwell’s work but few people actually do) to enjoy the book.
Dom’s book, Eric is Awake, is out now, published by Anonymous Press, and available in print from your local bookseller. There is a also a Kindle edition.
Tags for Forum Posts: books
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on
-
Harringay author's new novel sees Orwell alive and well
Surely that should be "Orwell alive or well". You can't be both as Sam Beckett made clear long ago on his way to a Lords Cricket match on a beautiful summer day: "Mr Beckett, wonderful morning. Makes you glad to be alive?" / "Steady on, I wouldn't go that far."
Eric Blair lays dying in a London hospital in 1950.
H Lewis Allways lays down in an alley to sleep
The Blogosphere or The Haringey & Hackney Advertiser or their common readership may not have the common gumption to reject this doubly transitive transatlanticisation of an everyday intransitive action, but by Orwell, by Beckett, by the original one and only SHAW, I fuckingwell do. Any wonder these publishers hide under the name of Anonymous Press ?
-
Permalink Reply by Richard Woods on
-
You cannot even lay dying unless you get around to doing the actual dying....
-
Permalink Reply by Liz on
-
Oh bloody hell my English and classics teacher is back from the Emerald Isle and taking exception to my lazy book report. Although maybe I should be flattered that you think my review was knocked out by a PR hack, maybe I'm getting better at this copywriting stuff after 6 years at the HOLface.
I've read the book and enjoyed it so as Dom is a much better writer than I am just get yourself a copy for your ole Kindle, OAE, and remember Big Brother is not only watching you, he's gathering information on what you buy in Iceland.
-
-
I had to get that off my chest. But truly I do prefer the wonderfully tweeted found short story / film script, My Beautiful Ixer Laundrette Washing Machine. Now that was good.
-
-
Are you referring to my Laundry Noir sequence? Sometimes one's frustrations with family idiocy can only be relieved by turning it into comedy.
Anyway now the Grammar Ninjas have beaten me up, I've corrected my faux pas above. Everyone needs an editor.
-
-
Blimey. The Pedants Society are out in force tonight. Heat keeping you all awake. Or dare you not switch on the TV lest the media coverage and transatlanticisms of the royal baby watchers make you spontanously combust?
-
-
You're only LOLing because you know I'll quietly edit it when no one's looking.
-
-
Orwell is my hero i've read every word that he's written
-
-
Only in the astonishing pages of HoL could one find this. Ruddy brilliant everyone!
© 2024 Created by Hugh.
Powered by
