When Spaceman Blues first appeared it was to an enthusiastic review from Matt Cheney. Since then other reviewers have been less appreciative and the book seems to have sunk without trace. Having finally got around to reading it, I think I can see both sides. Slattery’s prose is, in places, magnificent, and the book is also highly amusing in places. But it is also a gay love story set amongst the immigrant communities of New York against a background of an alien invasion. The soundtrack is by George Clinton, and the ending is very downbeat. Beautiful book. Not gonna sell.

Though it had been in the water for days, it was found not three hours ago, shuffling in the tides of the East River before wrapping itself in the struts of a pier near the Financial District, where commuters sweating stains in their sharp suits pointed at it and called each other on their cell phones. It will make the cover tomorrow because of this. The brokers and bankers are unused to bodies in the water, it is unprofessional.

Lovely stuff.