All My Colors- David Quantick

Titan Books

Book Review By Gemma E McLaughlin

This week’s book was picked out, at first, almost solely on appearance. As I am very much the kind of person to judge a book (just a little bit) by its cover I always look for books with cover art, fonts and visuals in general that interest or stir emotions for me and I was absolutely amazed by seeing All My Colors for the the first time. The imagery of the girl with her eyes crossed out by imperfect, black stars with shocking beams of colour curling around her and of course the cover was something that made me feel, instantly lost into whichever world David Quantick desired to take me to. Although one should not judge a book entirely on its cover, the power a beautiful book can hold over your mind is not one that should be underestimated.

After reading the blurb of the book and deciding that under no circumstances would I not be in possession of this story by the end of the hour, and so I began to read. We learn a lot about the book’s main character, Todd Milstead and the way in which he lives his life. Todd is a currently unpublished author who spends his nights discussing literature with his not quite as difficult friends until they all, including his wife, grow tired of his egotistical tendencies and cruel remarks about his friend’s lives and ability. For all his nonsense there seems to be only two differences between Todd and his friends; Todd has an incredible memory, and is unreasonably rude about how many famous books he knows off by heart, that is until he begins to quote a book that never existed and no one, not even Todd knows where it comes from. He couldn’t have made it up, could he?

I am completely in love with David Quantick’s writing style and have decided that though I would read something of this plot in any form by any writer, truly the best way to read it is in the delightfully funny words of David Quantick. Of course there are many ways in which this book could have not been funny, and yet, even with a reasonably serious plot there was a fantastic spark to humour in every word as we were allowed to watch from the sidelines and find our all the ways Todd Milstead’s life could fall apart for a book found, not in his study, but within his own mind.

I loved every part of this novel, the story which I read and of course the story which Todd Milstead discovered. There is so marvellously original yet so classic about the ideas expressed and the way that this book was written which has been missing in modern literature for an unreasonable period of time. David Quantick should be and will be, the one to fill that gap.