FOR THE GOOD TIMES

Book ID/图书代码： 04560018C00001

English Summary/英文概要： David Keenan’s second novel plunges the reader into the dark night of Belfast in the 1970s: an era of military terror and sectarian violence, of occult visions and religious intensity.
Sammy and his three friends live in the Ardoyne, an impoverished, predominantly Catholic area of North Belfast that has become the epicentre of a country seemingly intent on cannibalising itself. They love sharp clothes, a good drink, and the songs of Perry Como, whose commitment to clean living and looking good holds up a dissonant mirror to their own attempts to rise above their circumstances. They dream of a Free State, and their methods for achieving this are uncompromising, even as they fully indulge in the spoils of war.

Keen to stand out and to make a difference, the boys find themselves in the incongruous position of running a comic-book shop that has been taken over by the ’RA. Their clandestine activities belong in the x-rated pages of graphic fiction: burglary, blackmail, extortion, torture, and murder. And they become transfixed by the initiatory possibilities of free-reign criminality. But when punk rock arrives and the hard edge of the decade starts to reveal its true paranoid colours, Sammy finds himself increasingly isolated, especially after increasingly bizarre and gruesome away days in Glasgow and London. Camaraderie and loyalty is the fuel of a terrorist cell. When those virtues prove faulty, the game is up - and Sammy’s world starts to shrink as he is assaulted by terrifying visions and moments of mind-bending synchronicity.
For the Good Times shouts and sings with visionary depth and power. It is not just a book about the IRA, but an exploration of what it means to ’go rogue’, of the heartbreak and devastation that commitment to ’the cause’ can engender, of ideas of martyrdom and fatherhood and self-sacrifice. It unpacks any dewy-eyed romance associated with the Troubles while re-visioning it as a time of psychological and spiritual intensity where the nature of day-to-day reality itself – as well as who was in control of it – was up for grabs. Through a dizzying amalgam of modernist prose, roughhouse vernacular and hallucinatory Irish humour it establishes David Keenan as one of our generation’s most fearless and entertaining literary stylists.

Chinese Summary/中文概要： 伴随着天马行空般的奇思妙想和诙谐，作者向读者吟唱出这部《被遗忘的时光》。这不仅仅是一本讲述爱尔兰共和军故事的小说，它探索了真正意义上的‘离群叛逆’，以及对‘事业’的承诺所带来的巨大身心伤害的真正含义。它向我们展现了和麻烦缠身分子的露水姻缘的浪漫情怀，奠定了David Keenan势必成为这个时代最无畏和最具娱乐性的文艺标杆。

Sammy和他的三个朋友均是来自北爱尔兰阿马的乡下男孩，这是一处充满了纷争的国家边界区域。四个男孩都喜欢穿时髦的衣服，晚上在镇上的酒吧喝上一杯，吟唱Perry Como的经典歌曲。他们的梦想是一个自由的国度，而他们实现这一目标的方法是毫不妥协，一行人前往，多事之地的贝尔法斯特，却发现自己身处终日厮混于与之前目标绝不相称的一家漫画书店里。他们的秘密活动隶属于漫画小说中的最低层面：夜盗行为，收取保护费，勒索恐吓，折磨和谋杀他人。对于这些男孩来说，任何犯罪行为都是禁忌的。不过当朋克摇滚的出现，十年的沧桑开始渐渐转变成为真实而又偏执的色彩，Sammy发现自己越来越离群索居。所谓的同志之间的友爱和忠诚，只是恐怖分子巢穴的燃料。当美德被证明缺失时，一起都结束了，Sammy的世界开始分崩瓦解。。。（Sandy）

Awards/获奖情况：‘Keenan’s indelible novel is hilarious, disturbing and surreal - like The Sopranos written by Flann O’Brien and edited by Aleister Crowley.’ Mail on Sunday

’The bad old days of 1970s Belfast are refracted through David Keenan’s wild, hallucinatory imagination in For the Good Times, a riotous, wise-cracking, gore-spattered account of the Troubles . . . Keenan is subtly mocking as he lets Sammy’s self-aggrandisement reveal the sordid truth of his exploits, and his breakneck storytelling leaves you utterly unsettled.’ The Times

’A stream-of-consciousness account of the savagery and farce of the fray is told to us with manic energy and vernacular punch.’ Telegraph

‘Simultaneously repellent and brilliant . . . one of the most strikingly written novels I have read for a long time, and, if you can stomach the violence, often one of the funniest.’ Sunday Times

’The novel is written with the blackest of humour, particularly in its exquisite dialogue, and the constant laughter balances the darkening vision of the narrator as he comes to maturity and is unhinged by what he has seen and done . . . increasingly elemental in its energy . . . There is a pulsing beat to the prose, accelerating rhythms built of comic repetition, bawdy vernacular and shocking collisions. For the Good Times becomes a compassionate portrayal of men whose humanity is deformed by the Troubles; it is a dark voyage into and ultimate rejection of the idea that it is in violence that man’s true potential is revealed.’ Financial Times

’Could well become one of the definitive accounts of the Troubles. It’s an exhilarating novel, burning with moral difficulty, rage, danger and dark humour.’ Literary Review

‘A frenzy of Scorsesean gore, paranoia and debasement with a surrealist edge . . . In practically every crackling line of tough, trippy and guiltily laugh-out-loud funny prose . . . it proves why the Airdrie-raised and now Glasgow-based author is one of the most hotly-tipped Scottish writers of the moment.’ Malcolm Jack, Scotsman

’This fantastic, terrifying novel is phantasmagorical, high-velocity gothic. It transgresses boundaries of present and future through the seer-like character Miracle Baby, and the parameters of life and death through communication with a departed compadre . . . Bravura hallucinatory accounts, comic book narratives, Biblical allusion, Irish joke interludes and really funny dialogue . . . make For the Good Times an unsettling, thrilling read.’ Spectator

’Where Keenan focuses on the affectionate but fraught friendships, Sammy’s naive affair with a compromised wife of a target, or anecdotes from a bruised community, the prose sings. Irvine Welsh comparisons hold up well; both write with a fitful brilliance and an ear for knuckle-cracking dialogue.’ Esquire

’The language batters you. You feel hijacked and abandoned in a place where collusion rules and nothing matters beyond Perry and his bel canto tunes. Extraordinary.’ NI Mirror

’A nastily funny, ultra-violent account of Belfast . . . Samuel’s hyper-adrenalised narrative blends hallucinatory visions, paranoid delirium and graphic descriptions with a Martin McDonagh-style feel for farce . . . Samuel’s voice is shockingly alive and entertaining’ Claire Allfree, Daily Mail

About the Author/作者介绍： David Keenan 70年代末80年代初的童年时光岁月曾在英国的艾尔德里渡过。曾著有《英国不为人知的一面：神秘黑社会的秘密历史》，还是《The Wire》资深评论家。《This Is Memorial Devic》是他的首部小说。（Corrected by Sandy Lau）

David Keenan is the author of England’s Hidden Reverse: A Secret History of the Esoteric Underworld and a senior critic on The Wire.

Format:TRADE PAPERBACK

Rights Status/版权销售情况：Simplified Chinese/简体中文：AVAILABLE

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