Our book of the month is Diary of a Somebody by Brian Bilston. Offering up poetry alongside fiction it’s a little bit different to our norm. We give you our Big Review below.
***Our Big Reviews are written from the point of view that you have read the book. If this is not yet you, bookmark the page and come back once you have***
Diary of a Somebody – the blurb
It’s January 1st and Brian Bilston’s life needs to change. His ex-wife has taken up with a new man, a motivational speaker and marketing guru to boot; he seems to constantly disappoint his long-suffering son; and at work he is drowning in a sea of spreadsheets and management jargon.
Brian’s resolution is to write a poem every day; poetry will be his salvation. But there is an obstacle to his happiness in the form of Toby Salt, his arch nemesis in the Poetry Group and rival suitor to Liz, Brian’s new poetic inspiration. When Toby goes missing, Brian is the number one suspect.
Part tender love story, part murder mystery, part coruscating description of a wasted life, and interspersed with some of the funniest poems about the mundane and the profound, Diary of a Somebody is a unique, original and hilarious novel.
What’s in a name?
I initially found Diary a trifle confusing. The book is written by Brian Bilston a non de plume for the book’s author. The main character is called Brian Bilston and was written in the first person. Was I reading a work of fiction? I checked and then checked again. Apparently I was, I just had to go with it.
A poem a day
I loved the concept – a man makes a New Year’s resolution to write a poem a day. The poems are then included in the book alongside diary entries by said man, all in a very readable format. I’ve picked up poetry anthologies before and put them back down finding their weight and similarity to a thesaurus daunting, so it was refreshing to read poems about bin day (very important in January) and familiar words such as scoffing custard creams. The books was immediately accessible, even if there wasn’t quite a poem a day. Well who doesn’t fail at New Year’s resolutions?
Cosy crime
Don’t be fooled though, amongst references to Pepsi and Kiss Me Quicks there was a large amount of ‘proper’ poetry to get your teeth into. I really liked Anthem for Doomed Christmas Trees, ‘In Winter They Adjust the Thermostat and I folded up my Grief‘. There is also genuine learning to be done – I now know that the above poem is what’s known as a ‘found poem’.
On top of all the poetry there is also humour, a somewhat unconventional love story and a missing poet presumed murdered! It all had a touch of cosy crime about it which I quite enjoyed. They all end up happily getting on without it quite being fairy tale-esque.
Refreshingly different
What I liked the most was the fact Diary wasn’t cliched, when it so easily could have been. The woman was doing most of the chasing and being turned down by the man. The son was the sensible one and genuinely seemed to care about his dad. And there was poetry. Something I now want to read more of. I also want to be part of a 27th Club. Anybody?
I couldn’t however be part of Brian’s first book club – the reading list is far too heavy for me. Whatever you think of this refreshingly different book check out Brian on Twitter, he is after all the unofficial Twitter Poet Laureate (and maybe even a Mills and Boon writer!) Now pass me a custard cream…
Get Involved
If you would like to get involved with our book of the month try answering our book club questions published every month. Just search in our footnotes section for the ‘Get Involved’ articles. We review a new book every month so keep your eyes peeled for the Lowdown on July’s book of the month soon.
