U Want it Darker: undercurrent of melancholyMurray Middleton is a master of inference – an art, a style, a skill evident throughout this collection of nine stories. Both are written in a more conventional narrative style and fit Middleton’s subtitle for the book: Tales of Artists in Despair. U Want it Darker: Sharp eye for the unspokenIt isn’t necessary to discuss every piece in the collection to convey its flavour, but ‘Two Comedians’ deserves mention. review: ghosts, trauma, culture and karaokeTaken together, these stories demonstrate Middleton’s sharp eye for the unspoken, the awkward, and the unresolved. Middleton’s ‘artists in despair’ are not simply failures; they are survivors, creators, and, in their persistence, quietly heroic.