The first novel, in revised form, from "possibly the best living writer in Britain" (The Daily Telegraph)
In The Colour of Memory, six friends plot a nomadic course through their mid-twenties as they scratch out an existence in near-destitute conditions in 1980s South London. They while away their hours drinking cheap beer, landing jobs and quickly squandering them, smoking weed, dodging muggings, listening to Coltrane, finding and losing a facsimile of love, collecting unemployment, and discussing politics in the way of the besotted young--as if they were employed only by the lives they chose.
In his vivid evocation of council flats and pubs, of a life lived in the teeth of romantic ideals, Geoff Dyer provides a shockingly relevant snapshot of a different Lost Generation.
Jonathan Gibbs is a writer, critic and lecturer.
My Geoff Dyer recommendations for those who don't know: novels The Colour of Memory and Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi (his best), or non-fiction But Beautiful (jazz), The Ongoing Moment (photography), Out of Sheer Rage (DH Lawrence and literature more generally), Zona (film).
"Like its subjects, the book is sharp and witty. . . . [Dyer] fans will enjoy reading about the characters' obsessions (such as jazz, film, and photography), as well as Dyer's thoughtful and absorbing digressions." --Publishers Weekly
"Of all the hyped novels of 1980s London, it remains one of the most genuine." --New Statesman
"Dyer writes crisp, Martin Amis-inflected prose, full of acute perceptions and neat phrases . . . The book abounds in colourful descriptions of familiar aspects of London life." --The Times Literary Supplement
"The great thing about [The Colour of Memory] is its tone, which is neither snide nor wistful, but sharply contemplative, with the typical (and typically pleasing) Dyer humor underlying it all." --The Threepenny Review