I'm reading those Red Riding books just now - by David Peace.
I'm about 90 pages in to 1974 and taking it slowly. Anyone who saw the TV adaptation and thought that was too grim should avoid the book. The book makes the TV version look like Goldilocks.
In interveiw David Peace has said that crime corrupts everyone it touchs. Victims, their families, neighbours, perpetrators, the police, journalists... everyone is tarnished by it. In the way they think, behave, carry the knowledge of human rottenness and find it reflected in their words and behaviour. Peace is no doubt right, but this book screams its message as loudly as anyone can tolerate and the relentless crawl through human faailure is hard to take. There are no happy people in this book.
I can manage about 20 pages a day and I'm reading Milly Molly Mandy books before I go to sleep to offset it!
