A Welsh Welsh? (Grits - Niall Griffiths)

Member Name: Daisybelle

Product:	Grits - Niall Griffiths
Date:	28/07/01 (164 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Immensely talented

Disadvantages: Writes in dialects

Anyone picking up a book by Niall Griffiths will immediately notice the comparisons by so-called broadsheets to the talented Irvine Welsh. This is somewhat unfair on both of them, and the prospective reader, in my opinion, and I would venture as far as to say these claims are basically lazy, journalistic soundbites.

Yes, both writers concentrate on people who use drugs against a contemporary background, but that’s as far as it goes. Whilst Welsh has a zest for life, always gets the craic in and writes in simple terms about ordinary people, Griffiths is a much darker writer, who looks at the reasons his complicated characters are so self-destructive. He also has a big talent for subtly blending in politics, social commentary and a love of the land. Oh, and he was born in Liverpool BTW, so isn't technically Welsh - my title was a bit of a liberty.

Great, you might be thinking, lets log onto Amazon, sounds like a must read. Well hold your horse’s dearies, there is a caveat here.

Like Welsh, Griffiths writes in dialect. However, Griffiths’ characters come from all over the UK. Trying to manage this in your head is wearing. There are Irish, Scouse, Cockney, Welsh and Yorkshire accents to interpret, and leaping from one to the other makes for very slow reading. It took me over 2 weeks to plough through the 482 pages, and I’m usually a very fast reader.

Having mastered all the accents I came to a conclusion though, they didn’t really matter. I’m the type of person who doesn’t grasp subtlety and innuendo too quickly, having been described as transparent by those that are. For me to make the leap of deciding that Griffiths is saying look, we’re all just people behind our differences, we’ve all got horrible things going on in our lives and helping each other through them is more important, it can’t be that much of a hidden message. There are one or two characters it’
;s worth sticking with the accents of though, as they flavour their personalities, but I’ll go into that later.

A word of warning - If you don't like swearing, the books full of graphic profanities, so I wouldn’t bother putting it on your list if that’s a problem.

Grits is set in Aberystwyth and the surrounding area. The title itself is multi-layered and ambiguous. Griffiths goes off on lengthy sidetracks about various things and this is one of them. Grits, we are told initially, are a rough type of stones found only in the Aberystwyth area – obviously a reference to his characters. Later in the book there is discussion about the general dislike of an ‘orrible sounding pancake – called Grits. The characters self-loathing and lack of self-worth? I have my own theory on the real origin of the title.

Without doubt, this book is to a degree biographic, no one can write about this sort of life so well without having lived it. I think Grits is either a nickname Mr Griffiths has had bestowed on him at some point, or a self-chosen abbreviation of his name. Speculative, but the more I look back at the book the more convinced I am.

Griffiths’ use of adjectives is wonderful throughout. He is a verbal painter in this respect so if you like creative writing there is plenty to offer. This comes in many forms though, from crude sexual imagery to sparkling descriptions of the stark, open beauty of the North Wales countryside.

The book is written in a clever way that I certainly haven’t experienced before, but liked immensely. In the main it’s a series of narratives by the various characters. Griffiths writes equally well from a male or female perspective, which is a true measure of his talent. When he was writing as one of the girls I quickly felt that I was reading a female writer.

The strange thing is that all of the narratives cover roughly the same time p
eriod and events, so you are repeatedly going over the same stories. This might sound boring - it’s anything but. Seeing the events from completely different perspectives is fascinating, I kept rewinding to check how the different people had viewed this or that, and was itching to get onto so-and-so to see what they thought. Griffiths has an important reason for using this method, in my opinion. It’s to convey the tedium and finite appeal of a life-style based upon being stoned, pissed or wasted 90% of the time.

Some of the characters think they are way cool, and I have to confess to being sucked into feeling a spark of envy for the odd moment, until seeing how they are perceived by their peers. Griffiths puts across very well that a line has to be drawn if you’re going to live the life and come through happy at the other end. In this respect he is more realistic about over-indulgence than Welsh. Malcolm coming off a speed binge is both painful and spot on to read. Having worn that T-shirt it just brings back how truly awful it can feel. On the other hand he writes about how wonderful being E’d is, so it’s not all “Just Say No”.

A number of them live in a large house together, but he certainly isn’t drawing any allusions to Big Brother or Friends with this device. It’s a mouldy refuse tip for the dregs of humanity, and they know it. Unhappiness Lives Here would be on the welcome mat if they had one, but it was sold to sort out a fix last year – Get the picture?

Here’s a rundown on a few of the characters. If you do decide to buy the book it’ll be helpful, as the number of people, accents and repetitions can be bloody confusing at times. Don’t be put off by that though, this novel is well worth the effort.

SIONED and PAUL are a couple. She is a 5 ft tall fiery blonde from Aberystwyth. A likeable character and it’s worth making the effort to appl
y her strong Welsh accent. Paul is London-Irish and I really struggled to stay with the accent. He’s deeply caring towards his friends and will take up strays. Oh, and he punches Sioned when he’s drunk.

COLM and MAIREAD are lovers, partly due to the inheritance she possesses . Colm is an intelligent Scouse rogue who can’t return home due to past misdemeanours. His accent is important and easy to stay with. A real charmer when he’s compos, he is afflicted by a complete inability to ever say no, so his affairs are not only with other women, but also with the needle. Mairead is a Yorkshire lass who has her head in the bottle as far as you can go. She knows it and doesn’t care.

ROGER is a psychopathic former squaddie who served in the Falklands and N Ireland. He is a Welsh schemie who believes anyone not using needles is Straight. A nightmarish character who eclipses Irvine Welsh’s Begbie.

MALCOLM is a Cockney with a realistic grip on what’s happening to them all. A passive character, he’s easy to read in his native twang.

LIAM is a troubled Irish lad who lives with girlfriend Laura, who is none too tolerant of the scene going on round her.

MARGARET is a young girl from the Welsh borders who, unfortunately for her, shares the same tastes as Colm as well as his bed/alleyway/toilet cubicle when frenzied sex is on the menu.

There are a lot more characters than this but I haven’t got all day - it’s a start though. If challenging reading isn’t your thing then I wouldn’t recommend buying this, as it requires effort. Even then, you could see if the local library has it just to get a taster. Personally I thought it was a brilliant book. I mentioned cover quotes at the beginning. There was one I agreed with entirely.

“An astonishing feat – pulsing on every page…a magnificently gifted writer” – Irvine Wels
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