How to Make Friends With Demons

William Heaney is a master forger, the face front of a rare-book business that puts all profits towards the homeless. He and his friends have it all worked out: Jazz finds a customer, William discusses the product and price, and Stinx, the artist, forges a perfect authentic copy. But that’s not all. William Heaney sees demons. They live on the fringes of human life, the shadowy, smoky figures that attach themselves to humans. And he can’t do anything about them. But why should he worry? He’s been clean of them for several years now, as he works on his forgeries. At least, that’s until Yasmin appears, with her questionable association with a prospective client. And her appearance is quickly followed by two seemingly unconnected men: one who fought in Desert Storm, and another that he’d rather forget. Now it appears that a simple book-dealing business has turned into a fight for William Heaney to stay on his feet.

It occurs to me that all the books I’ve read recently have been written in the first person. This one in particular was recommended by a friend. And the beginning, I admit, was fairly good. But I soon grew tired of the endless narration, and the book that should have taken one week to read took four.

That isn’t to say I didn’t like it at all. The beginning roused my curiosity with Heaney’s talk of demons, and Antonia was a good character. The ending, I thought, was very powerful, and the overall narration was carried over well. But when it came to the middle, I found that I just couldn’t get into it. Sure, there were a few good parts--I particularly enjoyed Heaney’s conversations with his daughter Sarah and her boyfriend, Mo--but other than that, I can’t say that I liked it much. I found the narration to be endless, the characters a bit flat. Everything seemed to be dragged out, with a few exceptions.

Still, I can’t say that I wouldn’t recommend it. The narration was much more lighthearted than that in the other books I’ve been reading, and it was a welcome break from such seriousness. Once again, the ending was very powerful, and I think the book was worth reading just for that. And the book carries a great message in the way of reality: what is reality, exactly, except for what a person experiences? Heaney is normal--there is nothing wrong with him, and this has been stated by a psychologist. But what is normal, really? Joyce really pushes the meaning of reality to the limit, and that’s just what I loved about this book.

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Notes: How to Make Friends With Demons by Graham Joyce was first published in 2008 by Gollancz, an imprint of Orion Publishing Group under the title Memoirs of a Master Forger under the pseudonym William Heaney. The version I read was hardcover, published in 2009 by Night Shade Books.

Adult speculative dark fantasy, 298 pages, first person point of view

Topics: Existentialism, homelessness, acceptance, self-forgiveness, family

Publisher’s age recommendation: N/A

Warnings: Prevalent, blatant sexual references. Some violence (an explosion, an account of the Persian Gulf War). Liberal use of alcohol, prevalent use of drugs (mostly smoking, though there are some references to other, more hard-core substances), and strong implication of substance abuse. Liberal swearing, highly prevalent.