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As If (Paperback)

by Blake Morrison (Author) "As if this were the start of a dangerous adventure, the small boy puts his hand in the bigger boy's, and they follow a third..." (more)
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
RRP: £8.99
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As If + When Kids Kill: Unthinkable Crimes of Lost Innocence (Virgin True Crime) + The Case of Mary Bell: A Portrait of a Child Who Murdered
Price For All Three: £18.55

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Product details

  • Paperback: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Granta Books; New edition edition (12 Jan 1998)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1862070458
  • ISBN-13: 978-1862070455
  • Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 1.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 53,572 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #8 in  Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Social Sciences > Sociology > Family & Social Groups > Age Groups > Adolescents
    #18 in  Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Social Sciences > Sociology > Family & Social Groups > Age Groups > Children

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Product Description

Product Description

This volume seeks to expose the hollowness of condemnation divorced from understanding in relation to the Bulger murder trial. People have almost become desensitized to random murder. It is often explained away by madness, sexual fantasy or rejection. One murder in recent times reduced every person to silence: the abduction and beating to death of a helpless infant by two ten-year-old boys. How and why did two innocent boys kill another? Is childhood innocence a myth? And what punishment could fit such a crime, assuming that children are fit to stand trial for murder? Blake Morrison went to the trial in Preston, and discovered a sad ritual of condemnation with two bewildered children at the centre. He looked for possible explanations in the boys' families, their dreary environment, their fantasies, their exposure to violent films. He evokes the worst feats of parents through candid and raw memories of his relations with his own children, and delves into his own childhood to reveal the worst thing he has ever done, to show how easy it is to go along with cruelty. Blake Morrison is the author of two collections of poetry, "Dark Glasses" and "The Ballad of the Yorkshire Ripper", and is co-editor of "The Penguin Book of Contemporary British Poetry". His memoir, "And When Did You Last See Your Father?" won the Waterstone's/Esquire Award for non-fiction and the J.R. Ackerley Prize for Autobiography in 1993.
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"As if this were the start of a dangerous adventure, the small boy puts his hand in the bigger boy's, and they follow a third boy through the square . . ." Read the first page
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Customer Reviews

14 Reviews
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3 star:
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2 star:
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Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (14 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Intelligent, sensitive and beautifully written, 20 Feb 2003
By A Customer
"As If" is the author's attempt to understand the "why" of the murder of James Bulger. In an attempt to do this, comparisons are made with his own home life, history and feelings, and while there is no question that his writing is exquisite, too much of the book is given over to describing the author's circumstances. I agree with the reviewer who thought this rather self-indulgent, and I felt a little frustrated since I bought the book to read about the Bulger murder, and not Blake Morrison. I also would have liked more transcripts, drawings, etc.

And yet this seems a small price to pay, since it would then not be the extraordinary book it actually is. One particular account of the author visiting the murder scene left me overwhelmed by some of the most moving and powerful writing I think I have ever read! Morrison's honest treatment of the Bulger murderers is truly commendable, and anyone with so much as a passing interest in the case should read it, so long as they are prepared to forego sensationalism for something altogether more intelligent.

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The Courage to ask why - of oneself, 29 Jun 2005
To question the 'Why' of the murder of James Bulger is to revisit, an inch at a time with complete honesty. The importance of Blake Morrison's book is his compassion for each person immediately involved without sinking into sentimentality and easy self righteousness. However just as important his unflinching return to his own childhood, his remarkable insight into the unformed minds of children - for our pressuposition that the age of ten is old enough to know 'right from wrong' in any adult sense - and his small but telling details of just how profoundly this killing affected him, listening to the taped evidence day after day.

This is a hard book to take unless you morally place your childhood self above others - in which case it will not be of sufficient interst to merit the demands that morrison places on his readers. I was reminded a lot about my own childhood - though it neither resembled Morrison's or Thompson and Venables.

This is a searingly honest, engrossing book about a terrible and still rare phenomena - the ideal antidote to the screaming pages of the tabloids and to the quick desire to dissociate oneself from a crime which is an indictment of our country's attitude to children, class, poverty and the sheer drudgery suffered by so many children - a burning fuse that, when it reaches its end blasts away our preconceptions and smug assumptions.

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20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars a harrowing throught provoking book that kept me awake, 7 April 2002
By A Customer
I have always believed that the boys that killed James Bulger needed listening to and thats what Blake Morrison does. He takes us on a vist back to his childhood and those of the 'evil' boys and tries and in my opinion suceeds in showing us how wronged the all three boys were, not just Jamie Bulger.

I came away with a sence of shame, at being an adult and for allowing other adults to band together and not see that it was in fact our fault that James got killed, read the book with an open mind, and don't put it down until you have read each word and understood each line.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Distressing, yet important
This is a superb book. The author manages to cover the facts of the case, and highlight the unfortunate causes. Read more
Published 21 months ago by A. D. Cox

4.0 out of 5 stars Thought-provoking and fair
I was interested in this as the Bulger case was one of the cases I covered in my dissertation on the link between violent media and violent acts. Read more
Published 22 months ago by NB

5.0 out of 5 stars Truly, an inconvenient truth
Can a book about the brutal murder of a child and the trial of the killers be considered a favourite?

This is one of mine. Read more
Published on 23 Jul 2007 by The Kinniburgh Kid

5.0 out of 5 stars The Simple Wonder of Compassion and Empathy
I have long believed that 'To understand all is to forgive all' (Voltaire). Many people don't agree but I often wonder how those adults braying for two ten year old boys to be... Read more
Published on 17 Jul 2007 by I. Losada

5.0 out of 5 stars a thoughtful and considered book
This book is not worth reading if you are just looking for a wart-and-all account of the James Bulger murder case. But it is fantastic. Read more
Published on 6 Jun 2005 by sparky53

3.0 out of 5 stars Childhood Innocence - Is there any such thing?
This book rightly agonises over society's response to an apparently motiveless crime.

I should say at the outset that I find the sight of crowds outside courts and/or police... Read more

Published on 24 Oct 2003 by T. MacFarlane

2.0 out of 5 stars Not a detailed account :more a quest for comprehension.
I agree that the book was charged with emotion and I commend the author for seeking to understand why the crime was committed. Read more
Published on 2 Oct 2002 by Mr. J A Knight

5.0 out of 5 stars Keeping Hope Alive
Higher autobiography Martin Amis has said is the literary form characteristic of the late twentieth century. Read more
Published on 30 April 2001

5.0 out of 5 stars Those who wish to comprehend this tragedy must read this
This was a book I wanted to read for some time. Coincidentally, as I finished it (Jan 2001), news broke that the two convicted boys will be granted anonymity on their release... Read more
Published on 11 Jan 2001

5.0 out of 5 stars Too important to ignore...
Morrison's personal recounting of the James Bulger trial is at times uncomfortably honest. This is a wise book, beautifully written. Haunting and unforgettable.
Published on 6 Aug 2000

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