Aberystwyth Mon Amour [Paperback]

Malcolm Pryce (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 6, 2002

Schoolboys are disappearing all over Aberystwyth and nobody knows why. Louie Knight, the town's private investigator, soon realizes that it is going to take more than a double ripple from Sospan, the philosopher cum ice-cream seller, to help find out what is happening to these boys and whether or not Lovespoon, the Welsh teacher, Grand Wizard of the Druids and controller of the town, is more than just a sinister bully. And just who was Gwenno Guevara?

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Spot on. This rollicking black comedy should be ludicrous but isn't. Huge fun' ARENA

About the Author

After a brief career as the world's worst aluminium salesman, Malcolm Pryce worked as an advertising copywriter, in London and later Singapore. ABERYSTWYTH MON AMOUR was written somewhere off the coast Guyana, on a cargo ship bound for South America. Malcolm now lives in Bangkok.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Paperbacks (May 6, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0747557861
• ISBN-13: 978-0747557869
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #827,784 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Amusing dark humour, October 22, 2002

By 

K Mac (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Aberwystwyth Mon Amour (Paperback)

Malcolm Pryce has mastered understated humour with this book. There is a slightly dark edge to the whole book. The visual style of the book comes off the page very clearly as it captures the slightly seedy underside of a family seaside resort in Wales.
We follow the bizarre lives of a Dick Tracey-esque Private investigator, Aber's answer to Quasimodo and the Druid organisation represented as a cross between the Freemasons and the Cosa Nostra.
The killer joke would be spoiled if I told you, but the truth about Mr Lovespoon is truly shocking!!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Strange and delightful, November 13, 2002

By 

Leslie E. Jones (la, ca) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Aberwystwyth Mon Amour (Paperback)

The more you know about Welsh culture and folklore, the funnier this book is. The sultry chanteuse sings peppy Welsh folksongs, the hooker with a heart of gold wears a basque and the stovepipe hat of female folk costume, and the evil Welsh teacher wants to repopulate Cantref-y-Gwaelod, the sunken land said to lie under Cardigan Bay just north of town. Pryce knows the geography of Aberystwyth and the surrounding area like the back of his hand--having lived in Aber in the early '90s, I could see exactly where events were taking place--yet it's all slightly twisted, like the addition of a Welsh war in Patagonia sometime in the 1950's. The very idea of a Chandleresque noir mystery set in Aber, of all places, is so absurdly wonderful... I hope there will be a follow-up, and soon!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Raymond Chandler meets Dr. Who and Ford Prefect, August 17, 2007

By 

G. Stephen Decherney (Chapel Hill, NC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Aberystwyth Mon Amour (Paperback)

While in one of my frequent trips to England, I chanced upon this series of books set in Aberystwyth, my family's ancestral home; hence a read was irresistable.

There are four of them published to date (more please), and you should read them in order as the characters recur in each book and are introduced sequentially. Although the characterization is best in the later books as Pryce gets going.

Simply put, they are zany. Pryce not only weaves fantasy into Wales (but remember that Arthurian tales emanate from nearby), but throws in Wittgensteinian metaphysics. As an aside, Druids control the Aberystwyth mafia. I certainly have no idea if his geography is accurate (see other reviews on this page), and I know that I did not recognize all the allusions, but he a much more profound writer than would be suggested. He provokes some pretty good questions about how we perceive one another and the extent to which fraternal love and ordinary (perhaps extraordinary love) happen day-to-day.

As other reviewers have noted, you have to read awhile before you catch on. A Hasidic-murdered Santa Claus working for the Mossad mixed with a Welsh invasion of Argentina are hard to follow, but the stories do weave together if you are patient. While you are waiting for the mystery to unravel, you are well entertained by the Dr. Who-like silliness described in Aberystwyth.

Even the movie title book titles are a little abstract. Are they gimics or do they allude to the content? Even after reading all four I am still not sure.

In a literary world drab with overwraught themes, these books stand far apart for entertainment value, provocative thought, and tortuous plot evolution.