This Is Memorial Device, the debut novel by David Keenan, is a love letter to th
e small towns of Lanarkshire in the west of Scotland in the late 1970s and early
80s as they were temporarily transformed by the endless possibilities that came
out of the freefall from punk rock. It follows a cast of misfits, drop-outs, sm
all town visionaries and would-be artists and musicians through a period of time
where anything seemed possible, a moment where art and the demands it made were
as serious as your life. At its core is the story of Memorial Device, a mythic
post-punk group that could have gone all the way were it not for the visionary e
xcess and uncompromising bloody-minded belief that served to confirm them as und
erground legends.
