Niall Griffiths, Grits

Laura Nee (Cardiff University)
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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 …

803 words

Citation: Nee, Laura. "Grits". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 23 June 2008 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=22020, accessed 29 March 2024.]

22020 Grits 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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