HEARTFELT, MOVING AND BEAUTIFULLY INTENSE
I like male authors to combine a kind of bleakness with stark poetic imagery that then gives their work a transcendent quality that takes reading to a whole different level. Writers like Cormac McCarthy, Michel Houellebecq or even Charles Bukowski. Clinton Caward is definitely heading in that direction. Love Machine is, as the slightly misleading cover blurb says, candid, confronting and funny, but I also found it to be quite a harrowing portrayal of a society that has lost its ability to connect. Although some of the scenes, set in a sex shop, could have come off as just tawdry, the stark power of this book lies in the compassion the author has showed the characters, and also the compressed energy in the imagery, which lets the book transcend the surroundings and tell us, really, something weighty about what it is to be human. The hyper reality of the imagery has a kind of Nan Goldin feel to it. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It moves well and it's hard to put down and I can't wait to see what this guy does next.
Guest, 25/02/2010
