Review: Dry Hard

Dry Hard by Nick Spalding
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Dry Hard is a hysterically funny novel that chronicles one couple as they move through the stages of addiction recovery. From their manic highs in the throes of drunken oblivion to their lows of hitting rock bottom, author Nick Spalding infuses enough humor to make the journey one in which the reader fully engages, cheering for the characters to make it to full sobriety.

Spalding’s genius here is in his ability to make us laugh, even whilst we simultaneously wince. Kate and Scott Temple, both in their forties, are given voice in alternating chapters, the first several of which detail their drunken behaviors in separate high profile, awkward situations. The farcical nature of their retelling of events will cause even the most cynical of readers to truly laugh out loud, but not without an underlying feeling of unease and perhaps even a bit of guilt over finding the couple’s alcohol-induced actions amusing. This tightrope is walked throughout—we snort at their slapstick antics then silently follow Kate and Scott as they explore the depth of their self-deception and fight to recover.

The other character here that plays heavily into the plot is the couple’s sixteen year old daughter Holly. While her parents’ chapters are told as if Kate and Scott are speaking directly to the reader, Holly’s actions are retold through a narrator who addresses us as if we are sitting next to him. This was an interesting choice on the part of the author, and one that results in seeing Kate and Scott as unreliable storytellers, often drowned in their own indulgences. The recounting of events through an omniscient narration, however, is felt to paint a more authoritative picture, as we find ourselves audience to Holly’s internal teenage angst, revealed without a filter.

Dry Hard also takes a comical swipe at the iconography of British contemporary culture. YouTube is featured as both a vehicle of destruction and of redemption, and Spalding takes shark-jaw-sized bites out of Krav Maga, Piers Morgan and even Boris Johnson. Jools Holland’s Annual Hootenanny is also skewered in one of the funniest paragraphs in the book:

The Temples are watching Jools Holland’s Hootenanny.

Nobody in their right mind watches Jools Holland’s Hootenanny. It’s one of the rules of New Year. The BBC broadcast it—as is their right—and the entire population of Great Britain completely ignores it, as is theirs.

Only those suffering severe infirmity, or suicidal loneliness, have ever sat through Jools Holland’s Hootenanny. To do so under any other circumstances would just be plain wrong.

In the end, Dry Hard does devolve into a bit of banality, but the trip there makes this novel deserving of a read and worthy of high praise. Well written, with a focused plot, no extraneous filler and loads of laughs, Dry Hard may be destined to take its place among the funniest books written this year. Spalding will most certainly widen his fan base with this release—and rightfully so. The book definitely made a fan of this reviewer.

Thanks to NetGalley and Amazon Publishing UK for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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