Nobody's Empire

October 21, 2024
Murdoch, lead singer and lyricist for the band Belle & Sebastian, follows up his memoir, The Celestial Café, with a turgid debut novel tracing an indie rocker’s coming-of-age. Stephen, a young Glaswegian scenester recently released from a lengthy hospital stay for chronic fatigue syndrome, is mostly confined to his one-room apartment, and picks up the nickname “the World’s Coldest Boy” for dressing in layers. Jobless and unlucky in love, he listens to post-punk records, finds Jesus, befriends the equally troubled Carrie, pines after her fetching younger sister, and declares himself “but a shadow of a boy.” Well, this is but a shadow of a book, and its narrator, a “free-floating vagabond of the state,” doesn’t have a lot to offer beyond prayers and playlists, though when Stephen and his roommate Richard decamp to San Francisco, there’s at least a change of scene and some fun philosophical jabbing with local musicians. Ultimately, Stephen finds himself through songwriting and begins putting a band together to cut a demo, but even the most faithful Belle & Sebastian fans will have trouble getting there. This is a dud. Agent: Jud Laghi, Jud Laghi Agency.