Often times, when current literature attempts to inspect culture, generational difference, and urban decay, the results are tedious or incongruent with reality. Many authors lack the skill or attention to detail to adequately blend the subject matters together in an appealing or authentic manner, or simply neglect one of the issues in favour of a personal diatribe. In the case of Modern Man is Ultra Quick, the reader can rest assured that neither instance is remotely close to happening.
In this work, Gavin William Wright triumphs over the underwhelming existence of the novel's English Midlands setting while engaging even the most cynical or dissonant reader.
We, the audience, are privy to a whirlwind tour through the crumbling streets of Leicester, and its surrounding suburbs. We meet a host of friends, siblings, acquaintances, lovers, and, like in life, people who fall somewhere in between these roles. In the course of the story, Wright provides unique insight into the diverse lives, thoughts, and feelings of these characters who act as avatars for the community as a whole. It's not just the "football mates" who struggle with the changing landscape and adulthood, but the shire as a whole, with the loss of industry and relative prosperity.
Modern Man is Ultra Quick bills itself as a book about "how to f*** things up with women," but, in truth, it's a book about the contradictions, the truth, the awfulness, the fears, and the inevitability that happens to all of us. A thrilling ride, and read, in all.
About the reviewer
Anthony Durham is an American expat living on the west coast of Norway. He has an avid interest in literature and journalism and is a member of the International English Honors Society. Unfortunately, he is also an Evertonian.
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