Reviews for Celtic Fairy Tales

The average rating for Celtic Fairy Tales based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2009-12-14 00:00:00 Jerry Gragnani When down-at-heel conjurer William Wilson gets booked for a string of cabaret gigs in Berlin, he is hoping his luck is on the turn. There were certain spectators from his last show he'd rather forget. Amongst the showgirls and tricksters of Berlin's scandalous underground William can abandon his heart, his head and, more importantly, his past. But secrets have a habit of catching up with him, and the line between the act and reality starts to blur. Bringing the seedy glamour of the burlesque scene magnificantly to life, Louise Welsh's deft contemporary tale is her richest and most macabre yet. The Bullet Trick is also an unputdownable thriller that will keep you guessing till its final explosive flourish. This book did not live up to the hype. At all. And, in addition to the last sentence of the blurb there, there are also five very effusive endorsements from other authors, all of which make me very dubious about the quality of their writing, if they're so impressed by Welsh's. Because really, it was not only not as exciting as they all promised, but it was actually quite dull. For one thing, the blurb kind of implies that the really horrible thing happened before he went to Berlin, and that he went to Berlin to escape it, only to have it catch up to him there. But the really horrible thing happened in Berlin, and he went back to Scotland to try and drown his sorrows about it. In basically an entirely separate and unrelated story, there's the thing he was actually trying to escape in Berlin. Which didn't even have anything to do with him. Now, people frequently get embroiled in things that have nothing to do with them in books, but when that happens, usually whatever the thing was will somehow became entwined in whatever the character's current situation is, and it will end up having to do with the character in question. This one didn't. There was this secret about the disappearance of the mother of the boyfriend of an old friend of the narrator's. And that's as close as it ever gets, except for the fact that William does end up in possession of a piece of evidence in the matter, and thus finds himself marginally involved. But never in a thrilling sort of way or anything. It's just there, and he's a practically disinterested bystander. The other thing, the one that happens in Berlin, barely really fits into the story at all, except that it's the reason he's back in Glasgow, drinking himself into oblivion. Then the twist at the end happens, and it's not quite "and then he woke up," but it has almost that kind of feel to it. It certainly wouldn't qualify as an "explosive flourish." All of which led to the book feeling very aimless for at least half the duration. We didn't know anything about the horrible thing that was going to happen in Berlin (although I did start to guess), and not much about the other thing, either. And it alternated most of the way between chapters in Berlin, in the past, and chapters in Glasgow, in the present. With a few chapters of even older past thrown in to help confuse matters further, so the first part of the book was not only a little dull, but a touch confusing and disorienting, too. So all in all, not one I was fond of, and one that falls pretty firmly on the "Don't bother" list.

Review # 2 was written on 2009-04-13 00:00:00 Daniel Sable The Bullet Trick is Louise Welsh's second novel, which deftly follows up on her first The Cutting Room. Like her first book, this is a story that shoots for the gothic and carnivalesque, but it doesn't quite hit the mark. William Wilson is a magician on the last leg of a faltering career when an old friend asks him to do a second-rate show in a London strip club. What happens during the show drags Wilson into the violent aftermath of a dusty missing person's case. The story is set in three cities - Glasgow, London and Berlin - and Welsh effortlessly shifts between locations without losing the reader. Her depiction of these places and Wilson's burlesque underground world is commendable, while the quirky showmen and grifters he meets along the way are appealing, if not memorable. Louise Welsh's writing is concise, and her style is playful in a way that makes the language itself alluring. In places the novel drags a bit, but the only real disappointment is William Wilson's eventual show-down with the killer hunting him. One is left with a sense that the back story was more powerful than William Wilson's awakening as an unlikely hero. Taken as a whole, it's a fine read to pass the time, but chances are you won't remember the details a week from now.