A random review I found when looking for something else that needs a home...

A Drink with Shane MacGowan aims to give an insight into the life and times noted hell-raiser Shane MacGowan, former Pogues lead singer and a man who has known many a bar floor up close and personally.

Whilst the title is unimaginative, it’s oddly apt. Editor and co-author Victoria Mary Clarke has left the text of four years worth of conversations with MacGowan unedited to the point of incomprehensibility, leaving the book as the literary equivalent of being lambasted by that pissed bloke in the bar who is so drunk he can’t speak but wants to tell you what an amazing and exciting life he has had
Clarke, who has been dating MacGowan for 15 years, described herself prior to the publication of this book as an angel-channeller and tarot reader. Frankly if this book is anything to go by she shouldn’t throw the cards and crystal ball away just yet.

Rather than letting the amiable Shane speak alone, Clarke has used a pretentious conceit to top and tail their conversations. Leaving no adverb unturned, she insists on using psuedo-stage directions ending with increasingly bizarre descriptions. Gems include descriptions like ‘Shane snorts acrimoniously and takes a swig acerbically,’ and one imagines she has RSI from flicking through her thesaurus, using ‘outragedly’, ‘beatifically’, ‘soporifically’, and ‘assiduously’ before plumbing new depths to describe ‘a pint of Guiness awaiting a valued customer, proudly.’ Jarring interruptions to the flow like this made the book unreadable. Tragically.

The heavy handed and pretentious use of the material is a shame, as there is much in here of interest, even if one doubts how much of it has basis in fact.

Bearing in mind that thanks to years of drink and drug abuse Shane MacGowan can’t even remember the words to his own songs when he plays in concert nowadays, his powers of recall are suspiciously incredible, and a cynic would attribute his dramatic and descriptive accounts to a hefty dollop of blarney. This doesn’t mean they aren’t entertaining.

According to Shane his reprobate status was established early, with him smoking, gambling and drinking 2 bottles of Guinness a night at the admirably early age of five. His tortured genius started early, "when I was three, I was writing IRA stories; when I was six, I had read Venus In Furs".

But MacGowan shows he’s a lot more than a not-pretty face – giving articulate and intelligent insights on subjects from De Valera, Reggae, Steve Buscemi, as well as, unsurprisingly, a guide to drink and drugs which would teach the average pharmacist something.

Shame the writing style means reading the thing is akin to searching through dog shit with your bare hands to find a piece of jewellery swallowed by Fido...