The Arena of the Unwell

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I don’t mean that it ‘just comes to me’ as if from an external force or god or whatever, just that I lean on rhythm when deciding whether a sentence works or not. Konemann’s prose is not particularly stylish or refined, but the book is extremely readable and difficult to put down (I found), wanting to find out what happened next in the lives of his 20-something, seemingly going-nowhere, party kids. Also, I felt that the Smiling Politely part of the story, although well-integrated through press releases and interviews, etc. And nor it is all about romantic relationships; it also celebrates queer friendships and community through the role of Mairead, Noah’s best friend, and her girlfriend Jenny. A book leaves our collection of over seven million titles and begins a new chapter every two seconds, enabling more goods to be reused.

After he and his friend Mairead go to a secret comeback gig by their favourite band Smiling Politely, Noah runs into Dylan, a bartender he’s wanted to approach for ages. The Arena of the Unwell is a novel about a music-loving guy in London who is drawn into a toxic relationship with two older guys in the music scene.The Arena of the Unwell by Liam Konemann – A coming-of-age novel about male mental health and queerness in the grimy indie music underbelly that retains humour whilst looking at a toxic relationship and the realities of NHS cuts. As much as anything else, The Arena is a coming-of-age story, as we watch Noah try to support himself and figure out how he wants his relationships to be. Pulled into a toxic and codependent relationship with Dylan and his brooding, enigmatic friend Fraser, Noah bounces distractedly between sweaty gigs and clubs, swapping beds and friends along the way.

John ‘Jock’ Findlay was born and brought up in the heart of the burgeoning West Lothian shale oil industry. The Arena of the Unwell follows 22-year-old Noah as he is drawn into the co-dependent relationship of two older men in the indie music scene. All this makes The Arena sound quite dark, but, despite some of the subject matter, it is often very funny. The long-awaited second instalment in Samantha Shannon's Sunday Times and New York Times-bestselling series Tunuva Melim is a sister of the Priory.You hate them because they are exactly the kind of person you don't want to be, and exactly the kind of person you are. A coming of age novel for people who like or came of age themselves deeply into music, The Arena of the Unwell spirals the reader into not only sticky floors and spilt pints, but a hard-to-put-down toxic relationship amidst the realities of NHS cuts for mental health services. I was surprised not to appreciate this novel after having read (and loved) the novel “Love in the Big City” because the protagonist of that book is somewhat similar to Noah.

The offhand comments and jokes (like Mairead’s girlfriend and Noah’s coworker Jenny having been an emo) really build up a picture, and one that makes you both want to be at a gig and really not, seeing as Noah isn’t exactly using music in a healthy way a lot of the time.

A lot of fiction I read this year was good, but not so good as to be one of my top books, so it is quite a brief list this year. Not just those of the main trio, but also those of Noah’s best friends, and even his boss were all in need of expansion. While music is an undeniable component in Noah’s narrative, Smiling Politely serve a rather underwhelming function in the story. I just tried to hold all those emotions in mind and think about how someone experiencing them all would talk. It's heartening to see so many new queer books representing the complexity and many different forms of gay experience.

The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Our Culture Mag Limited. The Arena of the Unwell is a gritty and exhilarating exploration of loneliness and longing, obsession and jealousy, queerness and male intimacy. His alcohol and drug consumption lends a murky quality to many portions of his narration and further adds to the gritty atmosphere of the story.was not well developed enough for the conclusion to really affect me – it was all happening at a distance.