The Last Days of Disco Review

For the past few weeks I have been reading David Ross’s debut novel The Last Days of Disco. This is a nostalgic tale set in 1982 Kilmarnock in the height of the UK’s last recession and on the cusp of The Falklands War. 

Our story revolves primarily around the Cassidy family, namely Bobby and his older brother Gary. Bobby decides to set-up his own disco business to make some extra cash but his growing popularity soon draws the attention of a one Fat Franny, who holds a monopoly over the disco scene in the town. 

Inevitably Bobby and his friends have run-ins with the man - who fancies himself as some sort of DJ deck Godfather and the hilarious situations and consequences that this leads too. 

But to say that the book is merely a comedy would do it unfair justice as The Last Days of Disco is as haunting as it is funny. Gary Cassidy’s story is also told in tandem with his brother’s, from his army training in Wales to his deployment to The Falklands. 

Author David Ross doesn’t shy away from the gritty reality of a war that many thought at the time would last so long. The war unfolds through radio, TV and newspaper excerpts of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and journalists at the beginning of the middle and later chapters, adding a strong degree of realism to the story. This is mirrored by the tension in the Cassidy household as they watch the war on TV from their living room on the other side of the world. 

The book is a bit hard to get into when you first pick it up but it gets easier if you stick with it. The dialogue is written almost entirely in Scots (or slang). I’ve lived in Scotland for more than twenty years and I’ll admit, even I seriously struggled at first with picking up the dialogue but it does get easier to read if you give it a chance. My only concern is that if I was having a lot of trouble, I can’t imagine what an international audience would go through. 

Maybe if a second edition was ever produced, I would recommend toning down the use of Scots or just have the dialogue in plain English (we all know this boosts sales *cough*). 

Also, staying with an international theme, most readers aboard probably do not know where Kilmarnock is…it’s near Glasgow.

Anyway, I’m going to go off topic here a bit. One of my complaints about some other e-books and paperbacks I have read is that they do not describe their settings very well. This is especially true of some American authors where locations are named but no further detail is given. I think some authors assume that everyone lives in the US (no we don’t) or have at least been on holiday there (too poor). 

But this exclusion of detail often makes international readers feel left out because they have no idea where the author is talking about or the atmosphere connected to the place. David Ross however, is not one of these authors. 1980s Kilmarnock is set-up well and the attitudes of the local populace are well reflected through the characters. 

 The Last Days of Disco gets 9/10. 

It is available on here.