Simon Crump & Ewan Morrison @ EIBF

 

When the chair, Aly Barr, tells you that he has been given the ‘young bloke’ strand of events and you sit in a room disturbingly close to being empty you know this is going to be a slightly different kind of event; formality tends to fall away when one of the authors (Crump) is berating his own reading in front of you. Morrison has been compiling stories of shopping malls throughout the country, fulfilling the adage that truth is stranger than fiction. The many stories of excretion make an interesting comment about the effects of capitalism, and Morrison’s reading of his story about an excluded cleaner is one such story. It’s almost satisfying that a downtrodden member of society could shut down entire parts of the mall that oppressed him with his own urine. Crump has written a book of fictional short stories about Michael Jackson, including one where Michael goes to live with the three bears. A particular highlight, and a good link with Morrison’s reading, is one where Michael and his friend Uri go to a mall. It turns out his friend is 'Uri Gagarin' who bends spoons with a space wrench. Amusing, if somewhat surreal. [Libby Cooklin]