Luca Veste has been a long-time supporter of other writers with his remarkable blog Guilty Conscience, but LIVERPOOL FIVE is his first outing as a writer of fiction himself. I gotta say, he acquits himself quite nicely.
This is a brief collection, five short, sharp tales seeped in heavy irony and a sort of wry dark humor.
The first story, “Dreams”, is maybe the hardest to define, as it’s basically a simple set-up: a young man enjoying daily conversations with an old man, until the little knife twist of remorse at the end.
“Model Behavior” also has a nice twist; the narrator strikes up a renewed friendship with a girl he knew in school who is now trying to break into modeling, but doesn’t really pursue the friendship—much to his later horror. The end of this one actually gave me a bit of a chill…
In “Heavy Sleeper”, a man’s tendency to sleep through anything turns out to be his undoing. Clever little piece.
“Peeling Spuds” is a mean little story about a much-abused wifey finally snapping. It’s my favorite in this collection.
And Veste leaves us with “He Ain’t Heavy”, a dark tale about family, and the possibility that we don’t really know our loved ones as well as we think.
Over-all, the stories in LIVERPOOL FIVE are solid and compelling, and Veste’s voice as a writer is remarkably self-assured, considering that he only just started doing this stuff. I have every confidence that he’s going to get better and better. LIVERPOOL FIVE is recommended.
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