For the couple of days I spent at the beach this summer I was given the perfect book to review. For anyone with their holidays still ahead of them, you might want to add Stairway to Hell by Charlie Williams to your packing list. If you’d planned to stay home and work on your witchcraft skills this summer, you also might learn a thing or two from Jimmy Page’s lessons on soul shifting interspersed throughout this book.
Charlie Williams’ blogged a ‘factoid’ about Stairway to Hell: despite the outlandish premise it is based on true events. I guess sometimes truth is stranger than fiction: when I googled Jimmy Page’s involvement with the occult, I found out that Led Zeppelin had indeed included many references to the occult in their albums – with guitarist Jimmy Page as the main culprit – and is in fact ‘Satanic to the core’. At least if you are to believe somewhat hilarious (or intensely disturbing) websites such as www.jesus-is-savior.com.
Sometimes fiction is still stranger than truth though and if you’re intrigued by the above there’s much fun to be had in reading Stairway to Hell.
Stairway tells the story of Rik Sutton – better known as Rik Suntan – a well-known pub singer on his way to make it big. Or so he believes. Never mind the Magnum P.I. moustache, the hare lip, the fact that his material consists mainly of Cliff Richard cover songs and a complete lack of self reflection. These qualities combined make for the ultimate anti hero. After Rik’s won the local pub-idol singing contest he’s stuck on establishing his name in music. The platform he has to launch his career is his Friday night spot on stage in nightclub ‘the Blue Cairo’ in his town of Warchester.
His big break announces itself when two guys from ‘the Miramar’ – arguably the biggest venue in the city of Burninghouse – come in one night and seem interested in contracting him as a regular performer. This might very well turn out to be his breakthrough if it weren’t for the bottle hitting him in the face whilst on stage that night, afterwards getting fired and then getting shot.
This starts off a chain of events that reveals to Rik that he is actually David Bowie. At least, he’s the soul of David Bowie, which was trapped in the body of a hare-lipped baby boy in the Warchester maternity ward by the warlock Jimmy Page quite a few years ago.
As it turns out he is not the only local misfit to unknowingly house a celebrity soul as well. As events unfold Rik is dragged into a scheme to return these souls to their rightful owners. Either that or the local fruitcakes that drag him into this have completely lost the plot and are taking Rik down with them in this insane but very funny story. To tell too much of the story here would take away from the fun of actually reading it, so I’ll stop here. I will say that you’ll be a lot more careful about whom you give a urine sample to in the future!
Charlie Williams brings to life a strange tale that shows how a local misfit, with a narcissistic personality disorder to make up for his inferiority complex, are sucked up in either a conspiracy of immense implications, or the collective mental break down of a group of social oddballs. Either way, that’s for you to find out. Progressing through the book Williams cleverly builds the story and interconnects the story lines, successfully and repeatedly spinning the story so that things are just not quite what they seem.
Stairway to Hell is an exciting and very funny read. I kept picking up the book whenever I’d have a few minutes to spare to find out what strange twist might be up ahead. The atmosphere and humour of the book reminded me quite a bit of Shaun of the Dead, and I think Nick Frost would make a pretty good Rik Suntan if they’d decide to turn this into a movie! Also if you liked the absurdity and humour of Vernon God Little, the 2003 Booker Prize winner by DBC Pierre, you might want to pick up a copy of Stairway to Hell.
Any Cop?: While it might not become an instant literary classic, it sure is a satisfying read on a sunny beach and it has a very contemporary climax that’s sure to please many Pop Idol viewers!
Marcel Scholten
Bookmunch 