|
 Pixel Juice by Jeff Noon
reviewed by David Murphy
Original appearance: Albedo one issue 23, August 2001
First published by Doubleday in the UK in 1998, this paperback edition published in 2000 by Anchor contains fifty pieces varying in length from single pages of dance lyrics to full-blown short stories. As the contents fluctuate wildly in length, so does the quality of the writing, though it has to be said that overall this is an excellent collection containing much work by an author in top form. As expected, almost everything is set in Manchester, and written in the language of the rave generation, which will come as no surprise to followers of Noon.
He is not a writer given to surprise endings, which leads to an overdose of predictability at times. This is more than compensated for by many passages of brilliance, as in the opening paragraph of Crawl Town. When he sets his mind to it, Noon is very capable at writing the traditional short story. There is a genteel, almost archaic, style surrounding The Charisma Engine. This contrasts sharply with the frenetic dance culture rhythms of most of his writing, such as the superb Metaphorazine or Homo Karaoke. Some pieces did not work for this reviewer, leading to the opinion that Mr Noon's shopping list would have been included in this collection, had he submitted it. However, of the fifty pieces herein, at least a dozen can only be described as excellent - not bad for a book of 350 pages. Recommended.
|
