Book Jacket

 

rank 5283
word count 117764
date submitted 04.02.2010
date updated 06.02.2011
genres: Fiction, Popular Culture, Comedy, C...
classification: adult
complete

The Last Syllable

Simon Law

THINGS HAPPEN.

If nothing else, just read the last chapter: it is brief, you should get the idea - it should not spoil the rest...

 

THE LAST SYLLABLE is a series of 15 separate narratives based around a single character, Dave. While the stories are-contained they run in chronological – each connected in series.

At the beginning Dave is 16 years of age - at the end he is in his late thirties. Each individual narrative contains events, situations or relationships: that Dave sees as inflicted upon him.

Each story develops and moves him - towards an end that is as inevitable as it is unexpected.

There is nothing exceptional about Dave, he knows it. He is merely part of life’s progress. The events, situations and relationships, in which he becomes embroiled are, usually, everyday. Only occasionally are they extraordinary.

There is little that occurs that might not in any life. The stories, as with the whole, are driven by Dave’s, very normal, reaction to events as they unfold.

The author might have met Dave, as may the reader. It is the commonality of the character that reflects society, and its parts.

Dave is very common man.

 
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tags

childhood, death, fear, growing up, ireland, london, lost and found love, politics, pubs, school, terrorism, work, youth

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16 comments

 

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Walden Carrington wrote 334 days ago

Simon,
You describe Dave and his experiences in such a realistic way that The Last Syllable seems like a true life account. This amusing collection of stories shows that unexpected occurences can bring adventures to ordinary folk and despite people's plans, life is unpredictable. You describe Dave's feelings very well and the dialogue is realistic and reads like ordinary conversations. It's overall a very believable series of stories.

Walden Carrington
Titanic: Rose Dawson's Story

SusieGulick wrote 707 days ago

Dear Simon, I found this your 2nd book & am backing it - wonderful work - I love the stories of this guy - is it someone you know personally? Amazing adventures!! :) Your paragraphs & dialogue are nice & crisp, like in your other book. :) Am backing this one, too. :) Could you please take a moment to back my 2 memoir books? Thank. :) Love, Susie :)

Simon Law wrote 710 days ago

Confusion, I checked e-mail before checking comments on A.
Thanks again.
I only wonder if it will make any difference to the ratings.
Come Again has been slowly slipping for days - despite backings (mostly yours) and comments (ditto).
SL

Simon,
I read the first and the last; quite simply: you make the ordinary extra-ordinary!
Jilaine Tarisa
A Moment of Time

ValentineBaby wrote 710 days ago

Simon,
I read the first and the last; quite simply: you make the ordinary extra-ordinary!
Jt

Simon Law wrote 721 days ago

Thank you so much.
I am sorry that so few people have had a look.
Dave - and it took some time to find his name - is everyman.
There are other fun bits but, unfortunately the last, I think the best.
Unfortunately off to Ireland this week, so the boy can see his other family so not sure what I will be able to do.
Thank you again,
SL



simon,
totally different voice...kind of pinteresque or dare i say beckettease! I think it is everyones private nightmare, as the peggy lee song says 'is that all there is?'
in todays fast world of being famous for 15 minutes (for nothing), it is the Daves who make the world go round.
i like the way in such a short chapter (only read 21 as you suggested) you create such a debate about the meaning of Daves life and the readers...sparkling writing...
Diane

Diane60 wrote 721 days ago

simon,
totally different voice...kind of pinteresque or dare i say beckettease! I think it is everyones private nightmare, as the peggy lee song says 'is that all there is?'
in todays fast world of being famous for 15 minutes (for nothing), it is the Daves who make the world go round.
i like the way in such a short chapter (only read 21 as you suggested) you create such a debate about the meaning of Daves life and the readers...sparkling writing...
Diane

Mal Muirhead wrote 728 days ago

Cracking ending, very poignant but laced with comedy. I like the repetition of 'Dave', repeated almost to meaninglessness. Not wanting to be pompous it reminded be of Beckett's 'The Unnameable' where the narrator's I is said so often is ceases to mean anything. So when Dave says at the end, 'I might have missed the point,' there is a delicious existential feel to to. Or at least that's what I get.
Cheers
Mal Muirhead - Marvellous Mavis and the Devolve-o-Meter

Callaghan Grant wrote 749 days ago

Simon, I like the way that the repetitiveness of Dave's thoughts serve to expand 'the process', but I think it's just a touch too repetitive. It's poignant. I like Dave. Making me like him in just one short chapter is quite good, actually. What is most striking about this chapter is the theme of having missed the point in life. I like it and it helps me relate to the character because I myself have said many times in my few years that, when I die and see Our Father again, I expect He will smile in a welcoming way and wearily shake His head as He says "Cailin, you did a fine job at all you undertook. You were always diligent, but I am afraid you missed the point of it all entirely."

Loving regards, Callaghan

Simon Law wrote 790 days ago

Thanks for dragging Dave from the negative.
It was getting to him.
Simon Law

"Good-day at work?" That really speaks to work at Dave's level. Tea, plank walks, milk concerns, ah the life of an apprentice. Bag filling, and bladder concerns--the narrative is so real that it truely sings to readers--keep reading--this is real life on the job. People can learn form reading a complex storyline focused on basic relationships among workers on the job. Backed. Chuck (Paperboy Adventures)

Mr. Nom de Plume wrote 790 days ago

"Good-day at work?" That really speaks to work at Dave's level. Tea, plank walks, milk concerns, ah the life of an apprentice. Bag filling, and bladder concerns--the narrative is so real that it truely sings to readers--keep reading--this is real life on the job. People can learn form reading a complex storyline focused on basic relationships among workers on the job. Backed. Chuck (Paperboy Adventures)

RichardBard wrote 808 days ago

The last chapter of THE LAST SYLLABLE, By Simon Law

I felt Dave’s fear, the gnawing in his gut as he faced going to the hospital, again. I understood his underlying desire for death from the bus accident, far better than dealing with the final stages of cancer, one agonizing day after another. Your POV remained spot on as Dave lay there, immobile in the middle of the street, watching the feet and legs of those surrounding him at the scene, his thoughts roaming to the constable’s shoes rather than his imminent end, and then reminiscing on the depressing choices he’d faced when he learned of the cancer. But no matter, because it would all soon be over. He was tired. His life was behind him. The immediate was now. Too bad he couldn’t get one last pint from the pub across the street. Chilling…

This is very well written. You certainly grab the reader, if not the issue of death, by the throat. Backed

Richard Bard, BRAINRUSH, Glad to be alive.

Raymond Nickford wrote 808 days ago

The Last Syllable:

Simon,

I liked the build of the irony : that it was not one of the many catalysts to his death which Dave could have ever envisaged to threaten his life but, instead, the doctor's sudden delivery of the news that he has a malignant tumour. This is almost proof of the philosophy that we all have a ticket with a number on it and, when the Reaper reveals to us our number, we can't choose another.
As we learn that it is not death but the 'process' of dying that disturbs Dave, still, the irony surfaces in comedy when he considers that, if the process is slower than he anticipates, he might be able to slip in a last pint at the pub.
Life and the onset of death - and I've watched my father die of carcinomatosis and my older brother to cancerous Lymphoma over the last 6 years - is a tragi-comedy [more a tragedy]. But if we don't see the comedy, then that only leaves unabated tragedy; so your last story contributes, in brisk and witty prose, to a reduction of the latter. That must be worth backing.
Ray,
(A Child from the Wishing Well)

pinkcoffee wrote 814 days ago

Only read the first chapter, but will be keeping it on my watchlist to keep popping back to read more... I want to see where this goes. I like your writing style, keeps the reader 'in the know' without over use of description. Can't wait to see how Dave gets on.
I wish you the best of luck with your book. kind regards pinkcoffee 'In The Moment'

Jim Darcy wrote 820 days ago

Wow, poor Dave! Love the way he is still trying not to look up the policewoman's skirt and finding a reason for the accident, the woman maybe with an ill baby. There is nothing common about Dave. Jim D Serpent's Blood
ps he lives just up the road from me and has bladder cancer. Great guy, wicked sense of humour.

bunnyzoe wrote 821 days ago

Read your first - But Come Again is much more ... brittle?

mikegilli wrote 834 days ago

Congratulations on the brilliant ending.
You certainly finished off poor Dave brilliantly,
his rain of thought leading us effortlessly along...
Don't ask me to analyse it... You cracked it that's all
Re/shelved and all the best.......Mikell The Free

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