Sitting somewhere between a novel and a biographical account, Richard could be termed, for want of a better word, an imagining. Laid out as a series of past recollections and flashbacks as well as the more intimate thought processes of the present, its crooked chronology sets forth one possible series of events leading up to the disappearance of Richey Edwards, one time guitarist with the Manic Street Preachers.
Thankfully at no time does the book ever take on the air of authority and claim to have solved the mystery of what happened, instead it reads like an almost psychological work out of the possible thought processes which dictated Richey’s decisions and actions throughout his career and more pertinently, those last few days.
One of the more fitting aspects of the book is the style in which it is written, although well researched it retains a certain charm by sticking to a very snappy journalistic approach, the very layout of the text providing interesting structures and often seemingly imitating the tortured duplicity of a fracturing mind.
It is obviously the work of a fan and Myers nostalgia for the times becomes one of its selling points. Although definitely aimed at the fan rather than the rock historian or crime sleuth it is full of wonderful “what ifs” and “maybes” and although we are unlikely to get anywhere close to the truth, this is a touching and tender treatment of a difficult subject.
