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A Method Actor’s Guide to Jekyll and Hyde
£2.60
After a bike crash in a foggy Edinburgh, troubled young actor Robert Lewis wakes to find that life has changed for the darker. And the weirder. He’s still a deceitful egoist but now life seems to be deceiving and manipulating him. Everything that can go wrong is going wrong. He’s losing control of his love life, his starring role in a new adaptation of Jekyll and Hyde, and, quite possibly, his mind. A Method Actor’s Guide to Jekyll and Hyde is a dark, maniacal thriller that explores many kinds of duality – individual, social and cultural, and is a heartfelt tale about the search for belonging and the nature of love and desire. It’s also bloody funny.
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Additional information
| Publisher | Polygon An Imprint of Birlinn Limited (1 Jun. 2011) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 224 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 1846971837 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1846971839 |
| Dimensions | 12.7 x 1.78 x 20.32 cm |
by Olivia Andurwork
I hugely enjoyed
A Method Actor’s Guide to Jekyll and Hyde
; a good fast-paced read with plenty of humour, giving me real laugh-out-loud moments. But all the way through I was enjoying the tale that was unfolding before me, trying to second guess what would be the outcome, I found it a thrilling read…I loved it.
by gixerpix
Kevin once again provides a book that grips you from start to finish, if you live or have stayed in the Edinburgh area you’ll know what i’m trying to say from the minute you start reading,again like the Stornoway way his talents in writing (in my opinion)grip you into the story & take you on this rollercoaster ride until the book has ended. i look forward to reading his next book.
Well done again dude..
Al…
by mr drawler
Subtler, more considered and richer in tone and detail than his debut hit ‘The Stornoway Way’, Kevin MacNeil’s sophomore novel takes the reader on a wild ride through Edinburgh and the mind of its central character, actor Robert Lewis.
Despite him being an actor rehearsing a stage version of Jekyll and Hyde, this is not a novel about ‘a play within a novel’. Rather it is an inspiring look at duality – of soul, city, psyche and celebrity.
A highly entertaining read, full of clever writing and wit; yet also one of the few modern novels that will reward even more on the second read.
A masterpiece of technique and a delightful analysis of our yins versus our yangs.
by Innes
A real treat. Funny, clever, unpredictable and intriguing. Just bought the Stornoway Way. I would recommend to anyone who loves the original.
by Adrenalin Streams
Struggling, ineffective but ambitious young actor Robert Lewis is about to play the lead in a production of Jekyll and Hyde when he is nearly killed by a vehicle knocking him off his bike as he cycles through Edinburgh. On recovering he finds the characters of his fellow actors, including former girlfriend Juliette, have changed and he perceives he is being victimised. As a reaction to this Lewis’s own character changes and he becomes more driven, powerful and dominant. But, that is not the whole story! To be honest, when I read the opening chapters of the novel it was a bit of a struggle. I thought the author, through his main character, was trying too hard to sound hip, modern and flash by using quirkily worded sentences, sentences that only half made sense and with an unnecessary kaleidoscope of language. However, I soon realised that the language and its construction were perfectly suited to the over active, indeed fevered brain of Robert Lewis. This is a great book. I wouldn’t have said so at the start, and even two thirds of the way through I would have said it was merely a really good read but, in the last quarter, which I won’t spoil by revealing, everthing is turned wildly on its head and a fantastic whole is delivered up. So, buy this book and DO read it to the very end. You’re in for a treat!
by neverendings
(3.5 stars)
Robert (Lewis) is in a bad way after a cycling accident, but he is determined that it will not affect his casting in the lead role(s) of a new production based on Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. But it seems he must prove his worth over a new actor who has been brought in to play the same role(s) not to mention win back his erstwhile `girlfriend’ Juliette. In fact, none of the cast or crew seem to fully appreciate either Robert’s bravery/tenacity in the face of his post-accident pain, or indeed his immense talent. And somehow, everything in his life seems to be sliding dramatically from bad to worse…
The bulk of the story is told by Robert, so given the aftermath of the accident, combined with the subject of the play, the logical reader expects some kind of Jekyll & Hyde manifestation within his character. To his credit, MacNeil does not choose the obvious route, and diverts the storyline in an unexpectedly Zen direction, when a second character takes over the narrative towards the end of the novel and sheds new light on all that has been read so far.
As you might expect, the story explores a lot about the duality of nature, the masks actors wear and why, and the degree to which everybody acts/lies in their day-to-day `being’. Given that the main cast are actors, a lot of the metaphor falls in this direction (& reminded me quite strongly of ‘The Confessions of Edward Day’ by Valerie Martin). Robert is an archetypal misfit who garners empathy (in the reader) through his self-delusion with regard to the image he projects; and MacNeil successfully translates this trajectory into an alternative perspective when the ending reveals the truth. It was a clever and enjoyable read if not quite as clever and enjoyable as I had dared to hope…
by shangri-la
This is a layered, intense, intelligent book. But its true genius lies in the fact that you will only really see all that when you get close to the end. I started reading and was quickly drawn in by the black humour and fast-paced writing. And then, at a certain point, everything changed. Suffice to say an intriguing new light was shed on all that had gone before. I never re-read books – but I am going to make an exception for this one. Brilliant – highly recommended.