A review of Johnny Ruin, by Dan Dalton
My relationship with Unbound began as a reader.
One of the first books I supported was Johnny Ruin by Dan Dalton, which arrived recently. It’s an exciting feeling to see your name in the back of a book for the first time and know you played a tiny part in its publication. And it helps that it’s a fantastic book too.
I’d been following the author on Twitter for a while after reading some of his literary articles online and the description of his book grabbed me immediately. It’s a story about a man who goes on a road trip through his own mind with Jon Bon Jovi.
Three of my favourite things, right there in one book. Road trips: check. Psychological stuff: check. Bon Jovi: check.
Now, I know Bon Jovi at some point became the epitome of uncool, but I will always have a soft spot for them. I grew up listening to their music; the first album I bought was one of theirs. And I had a huge adolescent crush on Nineties Jon Bon Jovi, which is also the incarnation that appears in the novel.
I vividly remember being blown away by Bon Jovi performing Always at Niagara Falls for Top of the Pops when I was a kid. It’s cool to see this version of him revived and given a pop culture twist, as a spirit cowboy with a wry sense of humour and no sense of shame.
Update: I’ve just watched the Niagara Falls video on YouTube. Oh. My. God.
Ahem.
I think I was reviewing a book…
Jon appears in the story as a kind of spirit guide, taking the protagonist on a journey through his own memories as he tries to deal with the end of a relationship and his unresolved grief over the earlier death of a friend. But memory is a tricky thing and it isn’t always reliable, especially as the narrator can be reluctant to admit things to himself.
Mental health is an important issue too, dealt with in unflinching style through the narrator’s depression, which he is literally forced to confront in order to move on from the decaying world he finds himself trapped in.
His own mistakes and bad behaviour haunt him, as he’s forced to relive not only the best moments of his relationship with Sophia, but also the ways he hurt her and ultimately drove her away, as the landscape around him becomes darker and more violent.
A common trope in the road movie genre is the journey of self-discovery. This is a novel that strips the skin from its narrator and holds every flaw, every mistake up to the light, analysing it endlessly in that agonising way that depression has. The narrator was bereft at the end of his relationship, believing himself wronged by his ex-girlfriend, convinced that she has cheated on him but determined to get her back. For much of the novel we only see her through his eyes, through the memories he chooses to focus on.
We see them hooking up at gigs, fucking athletically, her seductive and breathless at every turn. She doesn’t become much more than desire personified, always appearing in the context of sex, or drugs, or rock and roll. But that is only the version of her the narrator allows us to see. It’s the one he’s obsessed with, that he abuses, fixated on those memories even after she’s moved on, refusing to allow her to exist away from his bed or his body.
But she does and she fights back against his version of their story.
Like any good novel set entirely in a character’s mind, this is non-linear, moving fluidly through time and place, capturing fleeting moments of childhood joy set against an adult’s heartbreak and self-loathing. It’s beautifully written, with a lyrical style that is raw and punchy, yet filled with pathos.
My favourite book of the year so far.
Find out more
Johnny Ruin on Goodreads
Johnny Ruin on Amazon
Johnny Ruin on Unbound
P.S. Here’s that video of Bon Jovi at Niagara Falls. You’re welcome.