Richard Hell - Go Now

Self-proclaimed as an 'originator of punk', Richard Hell, published the novel Go Now in 1996. I only recently picked it up and read it in two installments either side of Arthur Kane's I, Doll. Funnily enough the New York apartment that the book's lead character, Billy Mud, lives (or rather exists) in bears a certain resemblence to one of Kane's former hovels, described as it is with a bath tub in the middle of the kitchen. Whether Hell visited Kane there, or whether such a set up is commonplace in such a prime location, I couldn't say.

In Go Now Billy Mud is a fading punk rock star, stifled by record company wranglings and dealing with acute drug addiction. He's offered the opportunity to take a road trip across the US to bring a car back from Los Angeles and to document the experience, taking with him a female photographer friend with whom he has had an on-off (mainly off) relationship with for many years.

Part road-trip, part tale of a self-obsessed junkie musician, the novel has just enough about it to keep you interested to the end (and Mud's road-trip ending humiliation - or at least he should have been humiliated; the drugs prevent that natural reaction).