"Didn't occur to me it was schizophrenia, though it easily could be. I thought it was a more a device."
"I thought it was schizophrenia."
Interesting, although it was me that raised the question of schizophrenia I thought that it was just a device, or at least, I did at first, now I'm not so sure. I mean, judging by their reactions his dead moods are obviously to visible to other people and it does seem that he cannot remember the things he thinks or that happen to him in one mood when he goes into the other mood so something really does appear to happen. I think it's a very vivid image these "cracks" in his head as the change of mood starts happening more violently towards the end of the book. I think I can imagine what they feel like and I don't like it.
"It's such a tautly written piece"
Yeah, definitely, every word used very precisely - the book really whizzed by.
"I read it about ten years ago - I remember thinking that the whole drifting through life in an alcoholic haze, no real job, going for afternoon sleeps to shake off the booze and then going out agin in the evening, was a pretty accurate description of my student days."
Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. When I moved to London without a job and later on when I was unemployed again I had periods like this. At the start there is a bit where he lays out how much money he has and calculates how long he can continue this life-style - although he has no plan whatsoever on how to change it when the money runs out; this is barely mentioned but captured very neatly, perhaps because it's something that lots of us have experienced. I'm very familiar with this feeling, after leaving a job with a bit of money and slowly pissing it all up the wall and thinking I need to make a change in x months, then x weeks then going out and getting drunk to not think about it but always having it at the back of my mind when I woke up hungover, then eventually realising the time has come and passed and I haven't done anything - and then going out to get fucked up one last time to avoid thinking about it.
As I said before, I like the way that this is always alluded to but virtually none of the scenes are actually set with the four of them (Mickey, Netta, Peter and George) in a bar drinking. Somehow this helps capture the blurredness of their lives.