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I must hand it to Mike Stotter for asking
me to review this collection of short stories by Scotland's most
well-known writer. Firstly, Mike knows that despite being a huge
crime reader, I've never really got into Rebus, due to
circumstance rather than choice. I have always been afraid of the
huge 'back catalogue' of Rebus as well as Rankin's Jack Harvey
novels. I did however read his previous collection 'A Good
Hanging' which featured 12 tales from the life of Inspector Rebus,
as my way of being introduced to this Scottish icon. I felt that
'A Good Hanging', as a collection which is now ten years old, was
a little 'uneven' in terms of quality. There were some diamonds
amongst a number of shiny pebbles.
'Beggars Banquet' however is much
different as it is not exclusively Rebus. In fact, Rebus is
outnumbered in the 21 tales on offer. More importantly the
difference for the reader is that it is far more balanced than its
predecessor.
There are two CWA Dagger awarded stories,
as well as some unusual tales such as 'Video Nasty' a surreal
first person narrative. It felt as some of the stories appeared to
have originated as radio plays, and 'Talk Show' one of the Rebus
tales reads like one. Many of the stories are very fast reads such
as the macabre hitman tale, 'The Hanged Man' in which the
antagonist gets more than he bargained for. There is also social
commentary as well such as in the story 'The Glimmer'. Another
interesting feature of the collection is the way it shuffles the
stories told in the first and third person between the couple of
fistfuls of Rebus. I may well be crucified at the stake by saying
that I preferred the non-Rebus tales as they were of more interest
to me, for example, 'The Confession' and its claustrophobic style
of writing. This is probably because I don’t really know
Rebus, and perhaps the short story format doesn’t do justice
to the character. Short stories tend to be very plot driven, as
opposed to character studies, due to length as well as style.
Rankin's writing style(s) make also for a very different reading
experience.
In conclusion, 'Beggars Banquet is a
thoroughly enjoyable collection, and perfect for either bedside
cabinet or the early train journey to work. I hope it leads
publishers to realise that in today's fast-moving,
time-constricted world, the short story collection may well be
back in vogue, and I'm sure 'Beggars Banquet' will help that
message. I was tempted to make reference to his recent OBE, but
decided against it, as meeting Melvyn Bragg and being profiled on
'The South Bank Show' has shown that Ian Rankin had reached the
summit way before his visit to the Queen, and this collection
shows his talent to all.
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