the psychopathology of everyday life - Adrian McKinty's blog: Victoria

Monday, December 24, 2012

Victoria

Emily Carr's painting of what to me looks like the beach right down the road from her house

Queen Victoria has a lot to answer for. I grew up in Victoria Estate, Carrickfergus; I attended Victoria Primary School; I currently live in Melbourne, in the State of Victoria, Australia and for the last couple of days I've been in the pleasant and very picturesque town of Victoria, British Columbia. All these Victorias have their own charms but I think Victoria, Canada is perhaps the loveliest and certainly the gentlest. A beautiful harbour, stunning central buildings around this harbour, quaint neighbourhoods that you can stroll around in a day and a great clifftop walk out along Dallas Road. I've uploaded a couple of photographs I took with my battered 4th gen Ipod and to the right is a painting by Emily Carr the artist whose home I visited and saw fine examples of her work (which reminded me a little of Caspar David Friedrich).
...
I travelled up to Victoria on the fast (30 knots) catamaran service from Seattle and a very pleasant journey it was too. Because you go through international waters you could actually have the journey pay for itself if you bought two or three cartons of duty free cigarettes and a couple of bottles of whisky. Alas on the way up I didn't see any orcas but if you stand out the back with the smokers and the loners contemplating suicide you can see spectacular scenery all the way...

Emily Carr's house on Government Street

the Empress Hotel famed for its high teas (not a selling point in my book). I did like the Mansard roof though

The Dallas Road clifftop trail. To the left is the Juan de Fuca Strait and the Olympic Mountains in
Washington. It wouldnt photograph on my ipod but the beach looks just like the Emily Carr painting above

24 comments:

Deb Klemperer said...: Lovely painting!

I can feel a list of places called Victoria coming on.. and counting the number of pals who bear that name, all of whom abbreviate it. Just count your lucky stars.. When I worked in Peru there was a trend (possibly short-lived) for giving campesino babies non-local, European names.. There was a little girl called Vaselina..

Loner or smoker? or both? Either way, sounds like it was the best view on the boat..

There is a whole 'smokers' area architecture' going on at UK pubs since the 2007 indoor ban. Someone will soon do a paper on it!

Merry Christmas Adrian and all!; December 24, 2012 at 11:18 PM
Cary Watson said...: Glad you could make it up here to Canada. Hope you took back lots of duty free Tim Hortons ground coffee. Merry Christmas!; December 25, 2012 at 12:52 AM
John McFetridge said...: Don't forget The Kinks take on Victoria:

http://youtu.be/vW-JYsF3xHI

And I think there's a healthy trade in smuggled Kinder Eggs, too...; December 25, 2012 at 3:02 AM
adrian mckinty said...: Deb

Vaselina? Thats funny and tragic.

You could kill yourself pretty easily off that catamaran. One leap into that wake at 30 knots at this time of year...

Merry Christmas right back at ya.; December 25, 2012 at 3:36 AM
adrian mckinty said...: Cary

IF I ever go back I'll see what I can smuggle...; December 25, 2012 at 3:37 AM
adrian mckinty said...: John

I've always liked that song. In fact the first concert I ever went to was the Kinks in Dublin sometime in the late 70's.; December 25, 2012 at 3:42 AM
Paul said...: Happy Christmas to you and your family Adrian and Happy Christmas to all.; December 25, 2012 at 4:30 AM
Deb Klemperer said...: Ha Ha, yep, cheery seasonal greetings can be like a loaded gun to the head - say it too - or else!

To be honest, Vaselina sounds a lovely name when said in a South American Spanish accent ..; December 25, 2012 at 4:59 AM
John Halbrook said...: Glad you made it to Canada for Christmas even though it is the wrong coast (Nova Scotia is where I'm at this year) It looks lovely and I like the painting, too. I'm heading off to London soon and buying your new book is high priority.; December 25, 2012 at 6:21 AM
lil Gluckstern said...: Nice place to visit. Happy Christmas to you and you family, and thank you for the pleasure you bring to us.; December 25, 2012 at 6:24 AM
Deb Klemperer said...: tis 10pm Xmas Eve, I have had a few bevvies at the pub, am watching 30-yr old Morecambe and Wise re-runs... didn't I do this last year??; December 25, 2012 at 8:58 AM
Deb Klemperer said...: I am so busy taking the piss, I forgot to say that this post has made me want to visit Victoria, British Columbia, a place I had not heard of before today.. just showing what a good blogpost it is...; December 25, 2012 at 9:08 AM
adrian mckinty said...: John

Cheers, mate, Merry Christmas and a safe trip to the UK.; December 25, 2012 at 10:50 AM
adrian mckinty said...: Deb

Beer and Eric Morecambe, doesnt get any better if you ask me....; December 25, 2012 at 10:51 AM
adrian mckinty said...: Lil

Thanks for that and Happy Holidays to you too!; December 25, 2012 at 10:51 AM
Peter Rozovsky said...: Lovely. You've seen a part of my home and native land that I missed. But that painting looks more like El Greco than it does Casper David Friedrich.
======================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com; December 25, 2012 at 1:38 PM
seana graham said...: My sister introduced us all to Emily Carr after a trip to Canada, when she brought back some posters of her work. I've loved her stuff since then. I even have some little biography of hers somewhere, but being me, haven't read it.

I wish you'd used the part of your phone where you voice over the guided tour like you did in Japan. Although we have to hope that Victoria doesn't suffer a similar fate.; December 25, 2012 at 2:03 PM
adrian mckinty said...: Peter

The skies owe a lot to Van Gogh too.; December 25, 2012 at 3:26 PM
adrian mckinty said...: Seana

I like her. I'd heard of her but I dont think I'd ever seen any of her work before. It seems like she took German Romanticism and post impressionism and crashed it into the seascapes of Vancouver Island which is all to the good.; December 25, 2012 at 3:27 PM
Peter Rozovsky said...: Yep, amd you know, that blast of white in the sky does remind me of the German Romantics--some of whom give me the creeps. If you're still in Canada, look for the Group of Seven. Some of their stuff is what Carr's work really looks like.; December 25, 2012 at 3:35 PM
Matt said...: IIRC Victoria has nice laws prohibiting the construction of any Barad-Dur-esque condos. Unfortunately they never have sorted out the deal where they continue to pump raw sewage out into the Pacific.; December 25, 2012 at 4:01 PM
adrian mckinty said...: PEter

I'll see if I can find some Group of Seven stuff...; December 26, 2012 at 5:38 PM
adrian mckinty said...: Matt

Its weird they would do that when everything else is so pristine...; December 26, 2012 at 5:39 PM
Peter Rozovsky said...: This painting by one of the Group's members should give you an idea: nature scenes, big patches of highly saturated color, etc. Check this link, too.; December 26, 2012 at 5:51 PM

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More about me

I was born and grew up in Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland. After studying philosophy at Oxford University I emigrated to New York City where I lived in Harlem for seven years working in bars, bookstores, building sites and finally the basement stacks of the Columbia University Medical School Library in Washington Heights.

In 2000 I moved to Denver, Colorado where I taught high school English and started writing fiction in earnest. My first full length novel Dead I Well May Be was shortlisted for the 2004 Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award and was picked by Booklist as one of the 10 best crime novels of the year. The sequel to that book The Dead Yard was selected by Publishers Weekly as one of the 12 best novels of 2006 and won the Audie Award for best mystery or thriller.

In mid 2008 I moved to St. Kilda, Melbourne, Australia with my wife and kids. My last book Falling Glass was Audible's Best Mystery or Thriller for 2011. I've just published a new novel for Serpents Tail called The Cold Cold Ground.

All Hail McKinty!

"If Raymond Chandler had grown up in Northern Ireland he would have written The Cold Cold Ground."

---The Times

"Hardboiled charm, evocative dialogue, an acute sense of place and a sardonic sense of humour make McKinty one to watch."

---The Guardian

"A literary thriller that is as concerned with exploring the poisonously claustrophobic demi-monde of Northern Ireland during the Troubles, and the self-sabotaging contradictions of its place and time, as it is with providing the genre’s conventional thrills and spills. The result is a masterpiece of Troubles crime fiction: had David Peace, Eoin McNamee and Brian Moore sat down to brew up the great Troubles novel, they would have been very pleased indeed to have written The Cold Cold Ground."

---The Irish Times

"McKinty is a big new talent."

---The Daily Telegraph

"McKinty is a gifted man with poetry coursing through his veins and thrilling writing dripping from his fingertips."

---The Sunday Independent

"Adrian McKinty is fast gaining a reputation as the finest of the new generation of Irish crime writers, and it's easy to see why on the evidence of The Cold Cold Ground."

---The Glasgow Herald

"McKinty is a storyteller with the kind of style and panache that blur the line between genre and mainstream."

---Kirkus Reviews

"McKinty's literate expertly crafted crime novel confirms his place as one of his generation's leading talents."

---Publishers Weekly

"McKinty crackles with raw talent. His dialogue is superb, his characters rich and his plotting tight and seemless. He writes with a wonderful and wonderfully humorous flair for language raising his work above most crime genre offerings and bumping it right up against literature."

---The San Francisco Chronicle

"McKinty keeps getting better. He melds the snap and crackle of the old Mickey Spillane tales with the literary skills of Raymond Chandler and sets it all down in his own artful way."

---The Rocky Mountain News

"The first of McKinty's Forsythe novels, "Dead I Well May Be," was intense, focused and entirely brilliant. This one is looser-limbed, funnier...so, I imagine, is the middle book, "The Dead Yard," which I haven't read but which Publishers Weekly included on its list of the 12 best novels of 2006, along with works by Peter Abrahams, Richard Ford, Cormac McCarthy and George Pelecanos."

---The Washington Post

"McKinty, who grew up in Northern Ireland, has an ear for language and a taste for violence, and he serves up a terrifically gory, swiftly paced thriller."

---The Miami Herald

"There's nothing like an Irish tough guy. And we're not talking about Gentleman Gerry Cooney here. No, we mean the new breed of bare-knuckle Irish writers like Adrian McKinty, Ken Bruen and John Connolly who are bringing fresh life to the crime fiction genre."

---The Philadelphia Inquirer

"McKinty's writing is dark and witty with gritty realism, spot on dialogue, and fascinating characters."

---The Chicago Sun-Times

"If you like your noir staples such as beautiful women, betrayal, murder, mixed with a heavy dose of blood, crunched bones, body parts flying around served up with some throwaway humour, you need look no further, McKinty delivers all of this with the added bonus that the writing is pitch perfect."

---The Barcelona Review

"I really enjoyed [Dead I Well May Be’s] combination of toughness and a striking literary style. Both those things are evident in Hidden River. McKinty is going places."

---The Observer

"This is a terrific read. McKinty gives us a strong non stop story with attractive characters and fine writing."

---The Morning Star

"[McKinty] draws us close and relates a fantastic tale of murder and revenge in low, wry tones, as if from the next barstool...he drops out of conversational mode to throw in a few breathtaking fever-dream sequences for flavor. And then he springs an ending so right and satisfying it leaves us numb with delight and ready to pop for another round. Start the cliche machine: This is a profoundly satisfying book from a major new talent and one of the best crime fiction debuts of the year."

---Booklist

"The story is soaked in the holy trinity of the noir thriller: betrayal, money and murder, but seen through with a panache and political awareness that give McKinty a keen edge over his rivals."

---The Big Issue

"A darkly humorous cross between a hard-boiled mystery and a Beat novel."

---The St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"A roller coaster of highs and lows, light humour and dark deeds, the powerful undercurrent of McKinty's talent will swiftly drag you away. Let's hope the author does not slow down anytime soon."

---The Irish Examiner

"A virtual carnival of slaughter."

---The Wall Street Journal

"McKinty has once again harnassed the power of poetry, violence, lust and revenge to forge a sequel to his acclaimed Dead I Well May Be."

---The Irish Post

"A pacey, violent caper in which McKinty vividly portrays [Belfast's] sleazy, still-menacing underbelly."

---The Sunday Times

"McKinty writes with the soul of a poet; his prose dances off the pages with Old World grace and haunting intensity. It's crime fiction on the level of Michael Connolly with the conviction of James Hall."

---The Jackson Clarion-Ledger

"The Bloomsday Dead is the explosive final installment in a trilogy of kinetic thrillers."

---The New York Times

"Adrian McKinty has garnered nothing but praise for his first two books. The third in the trilogy The Bloomsday Dead should leave no doubt that he is a true star. Fast moving and highly engaging this is a great book. McKinty just gets better and better."

---CrimeSpree

"Until The Dead Yard's relentless, poignant ending you'll turn these pages as quickly as you can."

---The Cleveland Plain Dealer

"McKinty's Dead Trilogy has been praised by critics, who call it "intense," "masterful" and "loaded with action." If your reading pleasure leans toward thrillers offering suspense, close calls, wry wit, sharp dialogue, local color and sudden mayhem, you wont do better."

---The Sacramento Bee

"Le Fleuve caché d'Adrian McKinty impressionne par la richesse et la diversité de son ton et de son écriture, passant avec aisance du lyrisme ample de la nostalgie de l'amour perdu au rythme saccadé du narrateur sous l'emprise de l'héroïne. Ce livre rare et maîtrisé est une réussite bien digne de la Série noire."

---Le Figaro

Eine eigentlich simple Story, die natürlich bereits als Grundlage für Hunderte Bücher und Filme diente, macht Adrian McKinty zu der mitreißenden Odyssee eines jungen Mannes, der in der Lage ist, sich seiner Umwelt anzupassen wie jene Kakerlaken, die er in seinem Harlemer Appartement jagt, studiert und sowohl angewidert awie anerkennend entkommen lässt. Nicht umsonst 1992 angesiedelt, ist Der sichere Tod der kongeniale Kommentar zum Wesen der Neunziger.

- Jochen König, krimi-couch.de

"McKinty - that guy is a friggin genius."

---Ken Bruen

"McKinty is a cross between Mickey Spillane and Damon Runyan, the toughest, the best."

---Frank McCourt

"McKinty is an exciting new talent."

---Ed McBain

"Daddy's book is really boring."

---Sophie McKinty (aged 2 1/2)

Monday, December 24, 2012

Victoria

24 comments:

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