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attempt to imbue the text with gravitas, a device overused to the point of self-parody. The book is also poorly edited, adding to an overall impression of sloppiness.â Owen goes on to say that âMyers tries to interpret
Edwards's depression, eating disorders and self-harm, key components of his cult status and crucial precursors of his decision to disappear. The trouble is that the real Richey wrote about these things far more memorably and distinctively himself, most notably on his final album with the Manics,
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not going to ruin our lives and in a pure fictional sense it may well have its worth. It's just the presumption that the writer kind of knew someone..." In a
November 2010 interview, Wire described the premise of the book as âreally presumptuous...It would be really pious and stupid to try and ban it because we grew up on rock 'n' roll mythology. I feel uncomfortable with it and it fills me with a bit of dread, but if I was 16 I'd probably look at reading it. But we're not happy with it.â
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think the comments that I've heard have been fair enough. Given some of the things Nicky Wire has said in the past about some people I think he's probably been quite charitable. It could have been far, far worse." Myers also said that he had written to the
Edwards family, explaining why he wrote the book and "a little bit about myself and about the influence their son had on me and people like me," and sent a similar letter to the Manics.
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document a period of his life that seems destined to remain a mystery, but could explain much about his complex character...Maybe, thanks to this book, is at last getting something he deserves â an insight into his personal conflicts, his efforts to maintain wellbeing and his desire to do the right thing."
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writes that âIt seems a cheap criticism to say that a former music journalist falls back too frequently on the style of the indie press, but unfortunately that is the case here...Banality and lack of imagination mar the text...Myers deploys frequent paragraph breaks and short, solemn sentences in an
119:
reportedly expressed cynicism towards Myers' book. In an interview in
September 2010, Wire said, "I found it too upsetting to read. Richey was â is â a brother, a son, a friend." In another interview in the same month, Wire said, "I just feel it's better if I don't see . It's a free country and it's
88:
comprises two narratives. One is from Richey's first-person point of view, beginning with his departure from his London Hotel on 1 February 1995, and covering his thoughts, movements and encounters from this point onwards. The second narrative strand is a second-person point of view, running through
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academic Paula
Hearsum concluded; âthe fansâ general rejection of Myersâ knowingly faked Edwardsâ autobiography was more than a blind response to its author treading on the hallowed ground of Edwardâs celebrity image or misrepresenting his fan base. Instead it reflected judgments about the authorâs
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writes that "There's an element of macabre tabloid sleaze to conjecture, and some awkward amateur psychoanalysis attempting to identify the demons that led to Richey going AWOL. Equally contentious are the flashback sequences, differentiated here by itallics, charting
Edwardsâ rise and fall, which
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to be the absolute truth, but rather a version of it." Myers also said that although he never met
Edwards, he "shared many mutual friends or acquaintances with him ... I hope the book is sensitively handled. I also spent months researching it too, so factually it's pretty tight, I think." According
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as an "excellent book," and in its "most arresting of sections, Myers draws on all his journalistic skill and fan-boy credentials to give a realistic account of Edward's final days...Myers deserves credit not only for adding a third dimension to
Edwards, but for trying a fourth, for attempting to
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In an interview in May 2010, Myers said, "I wrote this book for people who have never heard of Richey
Edwards, and I thought his story was one that had not been told in a manner befitting his life ... I wanted to get beyond that false perception and tell the story of an intelligent young academic
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In an interview with the BBC in
September 2010, Ben Myers said that he never expected the Manics to like the book, adding that "All I could have hoped for is that they could accept or appreciate what it is I'm trying to do. I have to accept anything the Manic Street Preachers say about it, but I
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review claims that "What is sure is Myers' skill for storytelling; the absence of any cynicism, a certain hypnotic meditative pace he successfully employs that draws you in as the novel progresses and a mood of melancholic nostalgia, a tantalising nostalgia for a time not long passed but gone
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review claims that "Myers is finest when relating the mechanics of life in and around a rock band; never once is there a dropped beat. He understands the reactionary nature of the post-punk diktat, the people it attracts and its importance to lives given up to it." The review also describes
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critical distance from the fan role he claimed to inhabitâŚUltimately, Myersâ work was dismissed by fans and critics not because he had dramatically impersonated Edwards, but because his prose did not seem faithful enough to the original its inspiration.
107:'s production company in Los Angeles got in touch to request a copy with a view to adapting it into a film. That wasn't a moment of joy though â more one of mirth. Imagine a Hollywood version of a very Welsh story... well, it's unthinkable, isn't it?"
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Richey's childhood, school, university, career with the Manic Street Preachers, and physical/emotional breakdown. This second narrative strand eventually reaches the point at which the first narrative strand began, converging both narratives.
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as "a novel for our celebrity-obsessed age, a thorough investigation â written in beautiful prose â of a young man suicided or disappeared by society. From life in a small town to sex, drugs and rock and roll excess, Ben Myers'
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to Myers, the book's first draft took six months to write, and went through another six to nine months of edits between himself and his editor at Picador. Myers also said that "many months before the book was even published,
270:...Set against this existing body of work, the task Myers has set himself seems somewhat pointless...it is hard to escape the feeling that this is less a novel than a music biography written in the first and second person.â
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clearly take liberties with the subject's innermost thoughts...Nicky Wire has already expressed the band's unhappiness with the book, and several thousand diehard Manics fans may soon be joining the chorus of disapproval."
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as "a work of fiction that bears a convincing ring of truth...This nuanced portrait of Edwards, explores the band's rise, the Richey myth, and the pain that fuelled his alienation anorexia and self-harm," and the
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writes that âRichard is not a provocation, nor does it claim to solve the Richey mystery. It is a sympathetic and sad imagining of the boy who became a reluctant pop idol before that notion became oxymoronic.â
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231:, Jonathan Gibbs writes that âthere's no escaping the fact that the writing is, considering its subject, bizarrely insipid...You can't imagine Richey giving the time of day.â
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from a good home with good friends around him who became the most engaging British rock star of his era. To do that I felt that fiction was the best medium. I donât purport
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was samizdat and music, art, culture were things you risked getting your head kicked in for. And a nostalgia for places and people, of course, who are no longer here."
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rather repulsive. Fictional stories about real people are not new but taking so much artistic licence with a man only legally presumed dead in 2008 is distasteful.â
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as âa novel that, while imperfect, largely works as both a tribute to an iconic figure and an analysis of a talented, intelligent individual with real problems.â
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magazine, âMyers' recreation of Edward's life is sensitively handled â an exploration of a troubled, articulate man who was shy and withdrawn.â
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describes Ben Myers as "a sensitive, thoughtful writer...His greatest skill is the atmospheric evocation of landscape and place."
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On his blog on 28 May 2010, Myers noted that Picador ran a Twitter-based competition to win an advance bound proof copy of
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408:"DiS meets Nicky Wire: "Under New Labour, Britain became a giant call centre really..." / In Depth // Drowned in Sound"
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When issued as a mass market paperback in October 2011 Richard received a much more positive review in The Guardian.
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its way through the bloated beigeness of the contemporary British novel." The review by
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claims that âfor all the objective merits of Myersâ writing, it's hard not to find
73:, and that an advance bound proof copy of the novel had been put up for auction on
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54:, disappeared on 1 February 1995 at the age of 27 and was declared officially
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An academic analysis of the overall critical response to Myersâ book by the
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https://eprints.brighton.ac.uk/15481/1/phdbypub_hearsum_v20_FINAL.pdf
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330:"Beat the Dust - the American Indy All-Stars edition Sept 2011"
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434:"Preaching to the converted | the Japan Times Online"
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forever, before social networking and mobile phones, when
497:"A Future in Noise: Book Review: 'Richard', by Ben Myers"
460:"Why novelise the mystery of the Manic Street Preachers?"
542:"Richard: A Novel by Ben Myers is rather repulsive"
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http://www.bookslut.com/features/2011_03_017339.php
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34:is a book by English author and journalist
159:as one of the best music books of 2010.
115:Manic Street Preachers bassist/lyricist
111:Response from the Manic Street Preachers
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155:, Bob Stanley of St. Etienne selected
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66:and was released on 1 October 2010.
522:Gibbs, Jonathan (1 November 2010).
390:"Interview: Manic Street Preachers"
388:Smith, Aidan (21 September 2010).
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557:"Richard by Ben Myers â review"
216:Marilyn Roxie, for the website
555:Owen, Paul (23 October 2010).
1:
42:. Edwards, who suffered from
136:has received mixed reviews.
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299:"Random Notes From: Here"
297:Ben Myers (28 May 2010).
377:. London. 18 April 2010.
227:Reviewing the novel for
611:Picador (imprint) books
524:"Richard, By Ben Myers"
16:Novel by Benjamin Myers
601:Manic Street Preachers
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58:on 23 November 2008.
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544:. 29 September 2010.
503:on 11 September 2010
466:. 29 September 2010.
336:on 17 September 2011
606:Fiction set in 1995
596:2010 British novels
440:on 15 November 2010
367:"Matthew Bell: The
278:Brighton University
414:on 28 January 2013
245:Terry Staunton of
132:Upon its release,
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483:"Picador Books -"
371:Diary (18/04/10)"
218:A Future in Noise
202:slashes and burns
128:Critical response
62:was published by
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247:Record Collector
240:Richard: A Novel
31:Richard: A Novel
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505:. Retrieved
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507:23 December
444:23 December
585:Categories
304:25 October
285:References
255:Reviewing
165:describes
117:Nicky Wire
93:Background
44:depression
563:. London.
530:. London.
418:7 October
236:The Metro
153:The Times
140:The Times
105:Brad Pitt
52:self-harm
36:Ben Myers
464:BBC News
185:Time Out
151:Also in
48:anorexia
257:Richard
222:Richard
199:Richard
194:Richard
167:Richard
157:Richard
145:Richard
134:Richard
100:Richard
86:Richard
71:Richard
64:Picador
60:Richard
340:4 June
509:2010
446:2010
420:2010
342:2010
306:2010
206:3:am
163:Mojo
81:Plot
75:eBay
50:and
369:IoS
211:NME
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