“…the conventions of normal chronology had been abandoned.” #thesmiths #michaelbracewell

Back in January I shared my thoughts about a wonderful book which I’d received as a Christmas gift from lovely Jacqui – “Souvenir” by Michael Bracewell. The book was basically catnip for me, transporting me back into the London of the late 1970s and 1980s. It was a beautifully written and evocative work which really spoke to me, and I was happy to discover Bracewell’s writing. He’s produced a healthy number of books which I could obviously go out and explore, but when I discovered recently that he had a new title out, I inevitably had to procure a copy – I mean, “The Smiths: A Novella” was going to be irresistible. In the same way that “Souvenir” was rooted in a particular era and culture, “Smiths” does a similar thing for the five year period in the 1980s when the band was huge. I remember it well, as I was a massive fan myself, and so I was interested to see Bracewell’s take on things. And needless to say, the book takes on an unusual form. In 115 pages, the narrator looks back on…