When I first started reading Sports and Social, the new collection of short stories by Kevin Boniface, I found I kept playing a little game with myself. Oh, this story is a bit like something Peter Kay might write (if he wrote short stories). Oh, this story is a bit like John Cooper Clarke (if John Cooper Clarke wrote short stories). This story is a bit like Magnus Mills, this story is a bit like Tim Key. This story has the same dour charm as a Fall song. This story… On and on I went until it struck me (and apologies for the fact that it sometimes takes me a while for the penny to drop) this trenchcoat of mirrors I’m busy constructing is evidence of one thing and one thing only: this is a bloody great collection of short stories.
What you have here are a baker’s dozen of stories that are by turns funny, puzzling, intriguing and entertaining, shot through with the kind of Northern wit and specificity that earns some people (see Peter Kay above) a great deal of money. Some of the stories (like opener ‘World of Interiors’) feel like conundrums that you’ll want to puzzle over; some of the stories will delight you in their neatness (see ‘Confusion’ which tells a story about a person whose life is largely built on daydreams and lies); and some stories (‘Charisma Club’ we’re looking at you) have the William Trevor factor – by which we mean to say there’s enough in there to warrant a novel and you’ll feel satisfied and full up after you’ve read them, as if you’ve consumed the short story equivalent of a big roast dinner.
Any Cop?: We’re very grateful to the good people of Bluemoose Books for putting this collection out into the world and we hope it’s the first of many more.
Bookmunch 