10 reasons why you should read City On Fire

fireThe $2 million that ex-journalist Garth Risk Hallberg received for City On Fire is reputedly the biggest advance ever given to an author for a debut novel.

Some critics aren’t happy about this and the book has received mixed reviews. We, however, loved it and these are ten reasons why you should read it over Christmas, if not before:

* It is 911 pages and that’s a good thing

* It’s nearly the Great American Novel

* It is a much better book on New York than Bonfire Of The Vanities

* The 1976-77 period it covers is a pivotal time in American history

* It makes you question whether London really was the start of punk

* Characterisation is deep and characters easily loved or hated

* It is more Gotham than Gotham City ever tried to be

* It is a much better experience than the inevitable film it will become

* It uses rarely-used words that make your reach, delightedly, for the dictionary

* Any author that has ‘Risk’ in their name deserves to have a chance taken on them