The Myth of Brilliant Summers by Austin Collings

Book Review by Holly Rimmer-Tagoe | 10 Feb 2015
Book title: The Myth of Brilliant Summers
Author: Austin Collings

Austin Collings’s collection of short stories spans imaginary child murders, the inertia of hopeless job seeking and the mundaneness of teenage boyhood. Desolation and a chilling sense of despondency creep into the corners of every page. The urban landscape is haunted and scarred; trees stand ‘like malevolent pitchforks’ and the bus station becomes overwrought with ‘wild imaginings’ and ‘vivid projections.’

While this might sound like some sort of dystopian, post-apocalyptic tale, Collings’s world is always recognisable and real. The protagonist becomes a ghostly, detached outsider looking in on scenes of destruction, decay and absence which characterise the unwanted and unknowable elements of our city communities. It is impossible to escape a comparison with Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting, which also originated as a number of short stories, in which the characters defy all social mores and moral obligations, but also reserve the right to empathy and observation.

Many of the stories force you to flinch and make you want to look away, particularly a brutal story about pig slaughter, Carpeted with Feathers. However, what could be an overly dark and oppressive read never is. Collings’s prose avoids any sense of being reductive or dogmatic and, instead, compels the reader to imagine an alternative. A strong debut by Mancunian publishing newcomers Pariah Press.

Out now, published by Pariah Press, RRP £9.99