In terms of sheer invention, this might be one of the most creative books I have ever read. Saltburn is a set of six overlapping stories in which the weird and wonderful is everyday. Except for Stick of Rock, each story is a surreal bildungsroman of a young boy (at least to start with) involving poverty, parental loss and sexual awakening amid a series of ever more extraordinary adventures.
There are some links between the stories, such as that the medical services in Saltburn are short of money so that the doctors and nurses have musical instruments attached to their clothing which they are always trying to sell to raise cash. The fishermen are a randy and promiscuous lot. There is a nuclear power station - or is it? - across the bay, a card sharp school based in a former prison, aquaria, a monopolistically-minded local businessman called Evans, a gift shop that sells an almost endless selection of tat, mermaids and amusement arcades and a terrific amount of anal sex.
There are a lot of lists, such as when the owner of Delicious Gifts remembers what he has to sell, with prices. That list extends for nearly two pages. Others are shorter. The lists lend the narrative a breathless quality as well as anchoring what would otherwise be a bizarre set of fantasies in some sort of verisimilitude.
A Piece of Ass has a clever frame in which the narrator intrudes, starting with: “Back then, this time I’m thinking of, Corey’s mum ...”
I struggled to think of other narratives I have read with which to compare Saltburn. The blurb suggests the books of Charles Bukowski but I haven’t explored his work. Seagulls and Seances by Robin Drown paints a picture of a similar seaside world with oddball elements but it doesn’t have the sustained jet-flights of fantasy of Saltburn. Don Quixote? But there the madness is firmly within the mind of the protagonist and here it resides in the external world. The books of William Burroughs (eg The Wild Boys) with their science fiction elements and the recurring themes of gay sex? But Saltburn is far more extravagantly surreal. It’s much more bonkers than Voltaire’s Candide. The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again by M John Harrison is another weird landscape but more controlled. Road Kill - The Duchess of Frisian Tun by Pete Adams relies more on word-play. The maniacal The Unlimited Dream Company by J G Ballard is tame by comparison with this. Hints of Alasdair Gray’s Lanark? But that has real world components. At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O’Brien? Angela Carter’s works such as The Magic Toyshop and The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffmann? Alice in Wonderland on speed?
Saltburn is endlessly entertaining, sometimes exhaustingly so. I look forward to a period of recuperation but I hope I will soon be ready for another encounter with Drew Gummerson’s feverish imagination.
Selected quotes:
- “In the distance, out at sea, the seals churned, joyous for the spring tide, tossing their heads both in and out of the waves. And it was beautiful, but sad, because, as with all beautiful things, they hold within their hearts a notion of their own transience.” (Meltdown - The Spectacular Death of a Bearded Socialist)
- “The hotel seemed to let bedbugs stay for free.” (The Aquarium - Trouble)
- “Corey’s feet took him inside, whatever his mind may have wanted.” (A Piece of Ass - All the French Singers Have Bum Postcards)
April 2025; 249 pages
Published by Haywood Books, a Renard Press imprint, in 2025
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