Never has a new book attracted such criticism and a collective outpouring of bile as the former lead singer of the Smiths, Morrissey’s first foray into fiction. List of the Lost tells the story of of a 1970’s relay running team who accidentally kill someone, a man who turns out to be a demon and comes back to kill the relay team one by one.
Michael Hann in Guardian said: ‘Do not read this book; do not sully yourself with it, no matter how temptingly brief it seems. All those who shepherded it to print should hang their heads in shame.’
Charlotte Runcie in the Telegraph: ‘List of the Lost is terrible and, at only 118 pages, still feels overlong.’
I wouldn’t normally highlight the woes of a fellow writer, but he’s a musician and they have a rich history of writing turkeys or at least turgid rubbish, I should know, I’ve had the misfortune to read many of them. Interestingly, it’s published by Penguin, they of the Modern Classics, another attempt by them to move into general fiction. If they’re going to make a success of it, they’ll have to be more selective in future about what they publish.
Have you got a turkey to top Morrissey? How about Bob Dylan’s Tarantula?
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