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I would catch a sniff of his smell, Old Spice, from out of the air, and I would feel so sad and lost to despair because I came to realise, son, I came to realise that it was all just echoes, running down. That it was all just after-images, fading.

Sometimes a book comes along that you just love, for lots of different reasons.This is a quote from a brilliant novel by Irish Writer, David Keenan. For The Good Times. 

How many of our fathers wore Old Spice and how many used to play Luke Kelly and all those other Irish singers. You didn’t want to hear this stuff, when you were a kid. There is a photograph of my dad on here. We travelled back to Warren Point in Ireland. He’s the fella pointing in the blue gilet and not looking at the camera. I’d just had a swim.

Later in the novel, there’s a haunting description of what it’s like to enter a jail.

Being in jail is to enter The Dead Zone: The Place Of Endless Echoes. We crossed over as surely as the dead did, and just like them we lost interest in the world on the other side.

I’ve been preparing for the next stage of Perfume Stories. Watch this space.

David Keenan, For The Good Times – published by Faber and Faber (2019)