Niall Griffiths debut novel
Grits(2000) is a vernacular tale of alcoholics, drug addicts and drifters from across the UK, who come together in the seaside town of Aberwystwyth. It is also largely autobiographical. As a young man, Griffiths moved to Aberystwyth to research his PhD in post-war British poetry, but soon became, as he puts it, an “enthusiastic participator in parties”. After indulging in a series of drug and alcohol fuelled binges, however, Griffiths found he could not remember anything – yet, strangely enough, it was this element of forgetting that prompted the process of writing:
If you go on these binges sometimes you reach these bright and shining places, where great witticisms roll off people’s tongues, but in a sense your life is wasted, because you forget.
803 words
Citation: Nee, Laura. "Grits". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 23 June 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=22020, accessed 21 November 2024.]
