2022/087: blueeyedboy -- Joanne Harris

2022/087: blueeyedboy -- Joanne Harris

'Mark' is a blue word, like market; like murder. He likes it much better than 'victim', which appears to him as a feeble eggy shade, or even 'prey', with its nasty undertones of ecclesiastical purple, and distant reek of frankincense. [p. 112]

blueeyedboy is set in Malbry, in the working-class area of White City -- geographically near, but socially distant from, St Oswald's School for Boys, the setting for Harris' Gentlemen and Players and Different Class. Social class is very much a factor in this novel: 'BB' grows up in poverty, one of three sons of Gloria Green, who works as a cleaner, and a father who is out of the picture. When the novel opens, BB is in his forties and still living in his mother's house. Or, more accurately, living as 'blueeyedboy' on WebJournal, a blogging site curiously reminiscent of LiveJournal: 'Restricted entries for private enjoyment; public – well, for everyone else. On WeJay I can vent as I please, confess without fear of censure; be myself – or indeed, someone else – in a world where no one is quite what they seem...' [p. 19]. ( Read more... )