Michael Bracewell - An Aside
I recently finished a splendidly batty book in Michael Bracewell’s England Is Mine. This is a work which seeks to capture the spirit of an Arcadian Albion in hailing Evelyn Waugh, Gilbert and George, Jimmy Pursey and the Carry On films on equal terms, and isn’t trying to be funny about it. It doesn’t mention Ray Davies or The Jam, but manages to stretch several pages out of the intricacies of the Sham 69 album That’s Life . Such idiosyncrasies are also what makes it great too though, its lyrical zealousness is contagious, and once Bracewell latches onto a subject which interests him he makes you just as interested yourself, even if you don’t always agree with his conclusions. Its wonderful to see John Cooper Clarke confirmed as “one of the strongest voices and most accomplished narrators in post-war British poetry” too. “In Cooper Clarke… we can find the bitter visions of the early Eliot, redefined in the potent language of a working-mans club, subverted by the sensual melancholy of the late Keats.” The Cure get a much deserved kicking too. Fantastic stuff. What’s Michael up to these days anyways?
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8 Responses to “Michael Bracewell - An Aside”
3:AM
November 23rd, 2006
Yes, England is Mine is a great book. But his fiction’s pretty good as well: the Conclave is a great state-of-the-nation book, an overlooked classic.
Bournemouth Runner
November 23rd, 2006
3:AM :- ha ha! yes, I believe MES pissed in a bucket in front of Mr Bracewell? The good thing about Mr Bracewell is his stuff could very often belong in Pseuds Corner but that is not ALWAYS a bad thing either…..
B. Runner :- the only fiction I’ve read by Bracewell was a short story in the “City Life Manchester Book of Short Stories” in 2000 called “Blackley, Crumpsall, Harpurhey”. I really liked that as it it goes, so perhaps I will have a read of Conclave; life and time permitting…..
Ben G
November 24th, 2006
Ah, my past comments come to haunt me. There’s a few cryptic Fall references in the Conclave, “living too late” if I remember rightly? And I think he’s still a fan, I’m pretty sure I saw him the last time I did.
Bournemouth Runner
November 26th, 2006
Oh, sorry, now I get it, you were replying to me! Duh. Sorry. Yes, I picked it up cheap somewhere, but its a good novel. A little glacial, perhaps. I think Gwendoline Riley recommended his fiction in an interview she did some time back.
Bournemouth Runner
November 26th, 2006
I will try and read it. I think I read once that Bracewell was the “squeeze” of Miss Linder Sterling, Steve Morrissey’s one life-long friend in the whole world, though that may have been a lie.
Ben G
November 28th, 2006
Granger you slag, I just realised you didn’t mention Jason’s review of England Is Mine in this very organ back in 1997 - here’s the link. I know, two weeks too late, but even so…
Chris
December 15th, 2006
Gah! Utterly bizarre, but when I first wrote this post I not only linked to the review but wrote about three lines about it (good review but doesn’t quite do justice to the books weirdness was my summation.) Anyway, the post got lost and I had to re-write…. Looking I’m genuinely surprised its not there. I seem to be going the way of Ernest Saunders, though of course he was the first and so far only man in history to fully recover from dementia.
Ben G
December 16th, 2006
Apparently the question posed by Mick Middles in his Fall book a couple of years back (meditating on the bizarre on-stage interview between MB and MES at the ICA).
MB is currently finishing a book on Roxy Music and writing occasional art essays (which often earn him a place in ‘Pseuds Corner’).