Baby Got Books

Two More by Millar: Part 2 – Ruby

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I’ve been working my way slowly through the books of Scottish author Martin Millar. It’s only “slowly” because his books (written over the past two decades) are being released in the US one at a time. The second of the Millar books that I tackled this time around is Ruby and the Stone Age Diet. I’m not sure what those are in the bowl on the cover. Stones? Gems?

Like the other books in what I’ll call Millar’s “Brixton Series,” Ruby and the Stone Age Diet features a large cast of squat-hopping, unemployed youth with no dreams of a future beyond their next welfare check (or “giro”). Our narrator is nameless, but he is unique in Millar’s Brixton – he actually tries to hold down a job. Any job. He’s not very successful in that regard. But still… He may be hampered by his daily imaginations of complex sci-fi plots that he believes are impacting his life.

The titular Ruby is our narrator’s room mate. She provides all of the forward motion for the pair. As a passive-aggressive woman of action, Ruby definitely runs the show at this particular flat. Ruby’s “stone age diet” is based on her theory that we should only eat food that was available to cave men. In practice, this means that Ruby throws away most of the squat’s food after opening the can.

Narrator and Ruby work to overcome obtacles and live a better life, but it doesn’t really pan out. And then the book ends. This wasn’t my favorite of the Millar novels that I’ve read so far. It seemed a little more muddled than the others, but it still hit man of the same notes. If you’re thinking of checking out Martin Millar’s books, I wouldn’t recommend starting here.

While thinking about Ruby and Stage Diving last night, I hatched a theory that Millar and Bret Easton Ellis, while outwardly worlds apart, are actually two sides of the coin. Where Ellis writes about the ennui of super rich American youth, Millar tackles the existential dread of crushingly poor British youth. The common thread is English speaking youth devoid of any meaningful future, at least as far as they can see. The youth are – in a word – screwed.