This has been republished as a tie-in with the movie by Jacques Audiard and I read it curious to see how much the central relationship between Stephanie and Ali is based on the book. The answer is not at all. Actually the book (originally published 2006) is a collection of ten short stories set in North America (the movie is set in France) and all Audiard took from it is the figure of a prize fighter and a terrible accident on a frozen lake with the fighter’s young son, from the first story – Rust and Bone. This is combined with a crippling encounter with a killer whale that occurs in the fourth story, Rocket Ride. But there the victim is a young man who performs spectacular acrobatics upon the whales, and the outcome is distinctly bitter. So combining these scattered elements and structuring a romance around them with a female character named Stephanie is all the work of Audiard and his co-writer Thomas Bidegain.
I’d probably have found this out if I’d surfed around a little more, but it was sort of interesting to look at source material anyway. Received wisdom is that B-grade books often make the best films; that their lack of literary qualities allows for more satisfactory ‘transcriptions’. You can get to the bare bones of a story easier, do more with it. Of course a story is never going to be the same as a movie in any case – the experience of reading is so different from viewing – but it also depends what you’re looking for in a story. I take it Audiard was impressed by the freakishness of the whale accident and the fighter’s helplessness in rescuing his young son from a frozen lake. But he instantly sees how this crushes the character’s world, wants to trace the consequences. In Davidson’s hands however, the focus is more upon the macabre and damaging. He’s not looking long term, not even long story. He’s preoccupied by the mechanics of the events, the gory detail. Character is scarcely even discernible under the plodding assembly of research and background. Relationships are so vague and distant they are dealt with in comfortable platitudes, clever conversation. The first person narratives never find a voice, ultimately lack conviction. There is something essentially juvenile and crude about much of the book, not so much at the level of prose – they’re competent enough as creative writing exercises – but at a deeper level of engagement, the author’s own sensitivities and perceptions. He is, essentially a macho shithead.
It’s true, he edits a body-building magazine for a day job. Obviously he’s just not my kind of writer. Davidson admires writers like Chuck Palahniuk (The Fight Club) – maybe Davidson’ll turn out to be gay, like Chuck. Might explain a few things. He also admires Brett Easton Ellis and Denis Johnson (or Dennis - as it's spelt on my copy of Already Dead) – well Johnson I did like… up until Tree of Smoke, where I think he was plainly out of his depth. But the earlier stuff was great. Did you ever see the film of Jesus’ Son? Awesome – includes a cameo by the novelist – and best thing Samantha Morton ever did. I wonder what Audiard thinks of Johnson? You want outsiders - Denis is your go-to man. Anyway Davidson’s never going to be in that league. The other stories in Rust and Bone are about another boxer, a dog fighter, repo man, sex addict and the last and longest – the abandoned children of a retired magician. They track down their father, once adults, to be thoroughly disillusioned. That’s the only story that doesn’t pivot on demonstrations of intimidation and guilt and tellingly, centres on the trick of completely disappearing. These are not great options.
Give it 5