Fresh [Paperback]

Mark Mcnay (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 18, 2007

The clock is ticking for Sean O Grady. Today, his psychotic brother has been granted an early release from prison. By tonight, he will come to collect the money Sean is holding. The problem...all the money s been spent. Welcome to a day in the life of Sean O Grady husband, father, and worker in a chicken-processing factory on the outskirts of Glasgow. As the novel opens on another seemingly typical day, Sean s world comes crashing down when he hears the news that his brother Archie has unexpectedly been released from prison. A terrifyingly violent career criminal, Archie is coming home to collect the money Sean was holding for him. But there s a problem: Sean has spent the money, assuming he would have plenty of time to replenish Archie s stash. As the day progresses and tensions escalate, Sean explores increasingly desperate ways of getting back the money. With a tight time frame, shaped by Archie s looming return, Fresh offers the reader a charged narrative full of grim comedy and foreboding, leavened by Sean s natural optimism, resilience, and his habit of slipping into fantasies of a more dashing and glamorous existence.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Winner of the 2007 Arts Foundation Fellowship for New Fiction, McNay's uneven debut offers a glimpse into the life of Sean O'Grady, a chicken-processing–plant worker from the downtrodden outskirts of Glasgow, Scotland. When Sean learns that his brother, Archie, is being released from prison early, Sean, between Walter Mittyesque daydreams, scrambles to come up with the £700 of Archie's money he spent while his brother was locked up. After a bank refuses Sean a loan (he applies for it dressed in "fat-splattered overalls"), Sean turns to Albert, his uncle and co-worker, for help. Together, they formulate a plan, but it fails. The money problem is soon easily dispatched, but bigger trouble comes when Archie bullies Sean into taking part in a drug deal. Interspersed are stomach-churning tidbits about the food industry and Sean's recollections of his and Archie's childhood, in which Archie's rapid descent into a life of crime is revealed. Using a mix of street slang and Scottish burr (and third- and first-person narration), McNay convincingly portrays life in a small industrial town, though the phonetically rendered Scots dialogue can be tough going, and the plot doesn't truly take off until about halfway into the novel. Comparisons to early Irvine Welsh aren't unwarranted. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Review

“Menacing, witty, with snappy no-nonsense dialogue and an unambiguous shocking ending, McNay’s debut is every bit as fresh as its title.”
—Guardian (UK)

“McNay’s portrayal of factory life is richly convincing. . . . His language–especially the dialogue–is exact, brimming with life and never strained. . . . The result is a novel whose edgy energy carries you forward . . . a hugely entertaining, sometimes disturbing, fiction debut.”
—The Scotsman (UK)

“McNay’s novel is something of a paradox because its apparently small scale belies its richness in detail. His craftsmanship is not only evident in the dovetailing of scenes and carefully-constructed suspense but in his evocation of Glasgow dialect.”
—The Times (UK) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: MacAdam/Cage (May 18, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596922338
• ISBN-13: 978-1596922334
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,572,801 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fresh is a fun read!, July 13, 2007

By 

READ&LISTEN "SKI BUM" (ASPEN, CO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fresh (Paperback)

Author's background: McNay was brought up in a mining village in central Scotland. After a failed electrical engineering course and 15 years doing odd jobs, McNay graduated from a creative writing course at a Scottish university and began his writing career. He lives in Norwich.

Plot in a nutshell: Sean works in a chicken factory, waiting for the birds to come down his line where he will hoist them high into the sky and send them off. The story takes place in one day, with plenty of flashbacks, dreams and fantastical imaginings.

Sean has a big problem to solve. His brother Archie, a hardened, drug-dealing criminal, is coming home from jail early. Prior to jail, Archie left a large amount of money with his little brother for safekeeping, and Sean, expecting Archie to be in for awhile, spent a good bit of it. Archie is the violent sort and is expecting the total when he gets home.

Sean desperately begins a search to get the money together and runs into some hooligans and the like in doing so. But nothing compares to the violence or fear that Archie is about to bring down on his little brother's household.

Sample of prose: "It was scary waitin in the car. Ah heard a window breakin and things crashin and every time a car passed on the main road Ah thought is was the polis. Eventually Archie and Sammy appeared from the side of the house carryin a bed sheet between them. They ran to the back of the car and Ah felt the suspension go down with the weight of it. The boot slammed and they were in the car. They were giggling like wee lasies. Archie drove with no lights till we got on the main road. Then he was off like Jackie Stewart again... Everybody was smoking and drinkin and talking. Ah couldnay understand them coz of their accents."

Author reminds me of: Nick Hornby, for his original Scottish sense of voice and language, and his mix of the macabre with humor.

Best reason to read: The story is told in first person, alternating with third person, somewhat in the vein of the popular television show The Office. The language difference from the UK makes it even more enjoyable. As the author uses local dialect, we recognize the word, but realize that McNay has given it multiple meanings. While the language can be rough and there are a few R-rated scenes, this is a compelling, fun read.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The characters and setting are interesting but there just isn't enough of a story here to carry a novel., July 19, 2010

By 

J. Norburn (Quesnel, BC, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fresh (Paperback)

Yes, I know. There isn't a lot of point in writing this review since Fresh is a relatively obscure novel that few people are likely to read anyway and while I enjoyed it, I can't recommend it with any real enthusiasm so it isn't likely to inspire anyone to search high and low for it. But, I wrote one anyway. What can I say? I like to write book reviews.

A family member picked this book up for me somewhere and it's easy to understand why. The cover features a blood soaked cleaver and an amputated chicken suggesting a darkly funny, quirky crime novel which is exactly the kind of thing that appeals to me. But while the author does have a lot of promise there just isn't enough of a plot here to fully satisfy the reader.

Fresh is the debut novel of Scottish author Mark McNay and it has a solid premise. Sean O'Grady is a working class shlub grinding out his days in a chicken processing plant outside Glasgow. He enjoys the simple pleasures of life in an industrial town; a pint with the boys and a quiet evening at home cuddling his wife on the couch and watching the telly. But whatever small pleasures Sean may find have been spoiled by the toxic presence of his older brother Archie. Fresh is about a day in the life of Sean - the day that his brother is released unexpectedly from prison. Archie's release is especially problematic for Sean because he's spent some of the cash his brother asked him to hold while he was in jail. Sean desperately needs to replace the lost money before Archie comes looking for it.

I like that McNay doesn't make Sean an angel. He's had his own run-ins with the law and he has a gambling problem. His financial woes are entirely of his own making. He behaves cowardly at times and his submission to his violent brother is often disturbing. This is where the novel excels. It does do a very good job of exploring male relationships. The male characters are well developed and the dynamics of the relationship between Sean, his brother and uncle are explored effectively.

Where the book fails to really deliver is in its plot. Sean spends the first two-thirds of the novel trying to scrape the money together. He hits a few dead ends but then manages to work things out in a rather innocuous way. A lot of the novel is spent on first-person flashbacks that explore the relationships in the novel but do nothing to drive the plot forward. The novel does pick up momentum once Archie is released from jail and he pressures Sean to run `errands' for him. From there it builds to a rather abrupt ending that isn't completely satisfying.

The characters and setting were interesting but there just isn't enough of a story here to carry a novel. I enjoyed it well enough but not enough to recommend it to others. The author has potential and I wouldn't be averse to reading another of his novels but I probably won't go out of my way to find one.

One last note: It is worth warning readers that the novel is written entirely in a combination of street slang and Scottish burr. It takes about 15 or 20 pages or so before you get the hang of it but once you catch on, it isn't a problem (weans are children, polis are police, toon is town, and so on). 3 1/2 stars.

4.0 out of 5 stars life where a full belly, a warm fire and a good woman is perfection., April 13, 2008

By 

John "Notes of a bookdreamer" (Bristol, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fresh (Paperback)

This is Mark McNay's first novel and clearly draws on first hand knowledge of the day to day grind of a certain working class life where a full belly, a warm fire and a good woman is perfection. It fits within a British tradition of "kitchen sink realism" kicked of by John Osbourne's "Look back in Anger" in the 50's that looks at the dreams and anger of the working class man and woman. Think of Alan Sillitoe's Saturday night and Sunday morning or the film work to the current day of Ken Loach and Mike Leigh, both of whom continue to create powerful films unafraid of tackling head on current social problems.

The story follows a day in the life of Sean working in a chicken packing factory**, who discovers that his Brother Archie has come out of jail early ( in for violence and drugs related crime). This sets up a chain of events with tragic consequences as Sean has spent most of a money clip he was banking for his brother. He desperately struggles during the course of the day to borrow the money from family and from the firm. The novel also by flashbacks reveals Sean's and Archie's childhood and life up to the events of the day. Sean is no angel; he gambles, takes a more or less willing part as a pick up in his brother's drug's network and will use his fists. But unlike his brother does with his family needs in mind- his own and that of his uncle and aunt who gave him a home when his father left and mother died. And it's for his family that he has to fight for as the day develops.

The story unfolds through a lot of dialogue and switches between first and third person perspectives rather then description although we get's Sean's flights of imagination for colour. The dialogue is written in Glaswegian but it doesn't jar and often it's in the silences between characters that speak more. The speech patterns (expect sentences where F**k can be a noun, verb, adjective and have several meanings from love to hate! and the mundane events of the day convey tenderness, violence and humour in scene after scene with warm believable characters.

It's remarkable that the author started a creative writing course in his late forties in 1999 which lead to this award winning (Arts Foundation New Fiction 2007) novel. Hope for all us yet! It is by no means perfect, as the ending is a little flat and the characterisation of Archie teeters on the edge of caricature but it's an easy page turner and I can't wait for the Ken Loach channel four adaptation that surely must be in pre production talks as you read this!


** and you may want to rethink eating cheap value chicken after reading the book!