Brass
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Review
"Helen Walsh's first novel, Brass...has the best--as in the most honestly and evocatively described...sex of any contemporary fictious sex I've read....You forget how rare it is to find a heroine who acts the predator and not the victim, who gets to make the jokes rather than feed the lines to the joker."
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
Nineteen-year-old Millie O'Reilley is clever, spiky and adored by men - yet utterly forlorn. Increasingly disillusioned, she seeks an escape in the underbelly of Liverpool...Shockingly candid and brutally poetic, Helen Walsh has created a portrait of a city and a generation that offers a female perspective on the harsh truth of growing up in today's Britain. Brass is an unsettling but ultimately compassionate account of the possibilities of identity and the desirability of love.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
An emotional coming-of-age story is not the kind of book I generally go for, so I was surprised at just how enjoyable Brass was to read. It's not the most original plot in many ways; without revealing anything too significant it is obvious from the off that the life of Millie is not as ideal as it seems. That's not a bad thing; it allows the author to concentrate more on the characters than the situations, and this is a very character lead book. Told alternately from the point of view of Millie, a student with a successful father and Jamie, her platonic older male friend, we see two sides of the same story, how in a friendship nothing is always as clear cut as it appears.
The language is bold, striking and above all realistic and natural. It's crude, but it does not feel forced; the use of Scouse slang works well, the situations and ideas are described vividly and propel the story along at a stunning pace. By the end of the novel you will have been shocked and amused, and you'll be wanting to read more, but you're at the back page by now. It's three am, and you've logged onto Amazon to see if there's anything else by the same author, but not yet. I have no doubt that there will be soon. A great debut novel.
Format:Paperback
I found this a strangely compelling book; the central character 19 year old Millie,is presented at first as an out and out drug taking, sexually adventourous nihilist but of course she can afford to be; she has a nice middle class backgroundand University lecturer Dad to fall back on.
It is her relationship with the more scally Jamie- whose first person perspective we ocassionally get on his relationship with Millie and who comes out as the more rounded of the two characters- that is central to the story which veers too often towards a predictable template but remains well written and attention holding to the last.
In fact Helen Walsh's strength is in capturing the voice of her generation and the metropolitan underside of the 21st century UK city- in this case Liverpool. In a funny sort of way I couldn't help thinking it was our Bright Lights Big City reversed, a sort of hall of mirrors warping of excess at the other end of the social scale.
A good, stimulating read that if you tune right into, you will sail through. Just don't expect to be too emotionally challenged, or meet any people you can particularly warm to :)
It is her relationship with the more scally Jamie- whose first person perspective we ocassionally get on his relationship with Millie and who comes out as the more rounded of the two characters- that is central to the story which veers too often towards a predictable template but remains well written and attention holding to the last.
In fact Helen Walsh's strength is in capturing the voice of her generation and the metropolitan underside of the 21st century UK city- in this case Liverpool. In a funny sort of way I couldn't help thinking it was our Bright Lights Big City reversed, a sort of hall of mirrors warping of excess at the other end of the social scale.
A good, stimulating read that if you tune right into, you will sail through. Just don't expect to be too emotionally challenged, or meet any people you can particularly warm to :)
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Written to shock, this succeeds from the very first page, describing a sex act for which a young woman has paid a prostitute. These episodes or ones very like it occur frequently in this novel and Walsh cannot seem to help pushing her sexual fantasies into our faces at any opportunity. These episodes, raw and roughly sketched in are often the opposite of erotic and sometimes quite funny. But don't read this book if you're not ready to be gobsmacked - it is this writer's mission to make sure you are well acquainted with female on female sexuality.
Nothing wrong with that, if it's your thing, and nothing wrong if you want to fill your first novel with the idea that it all has to take place in squalor, between drug binges and the heavy symbolism of lost innocence in a lost city (well, Liverpool anyway). The book is also, touchingly, about friendship. Millie and Jamie are friends and don't fancy each other, but meet up for drugs and nightclubbing forays because they're - like - soul-mates without desire for each other but with a bond stronger than sex. You might see this as far-fetched, but this, and Millie's relationship with her middle-class businessman father, provides the novel with some hope for redemption - there is little else of human nature beyond the basic in this book. If you concentrate on the writing and not on the ego-driven sex factor, Helen Walsh is not a bad writer. Don't ask me about plot though, I couldn't discern one.
If your main reason for writing a book is to be the wildest child in a small corner of literary anomie and cultural myth then this kind of gothic, transgressive, sink-hole nihilism will suffice. This is throwaway stuff however, from the other end of the spectrum and you will not read much here that says anything lasting or meaningful about human relationships. Walsh is no Rimbaud.
Nothing wrong with that, if it's your thing, and nothing wrong if you want to fill your first novel with the idea that it all has to take place in squalor, between drug binges and the heavy symbolism of lost innocence in a lost city (well, Liverpool anyway). The book is also, touchingly, about friendship. Millie and Jamie are friends and don't fancy each other, but meet up for drugs and nightclubbing forays because they're - like - soul-mates without desire for each other but with a bond stronger than sex. You might see this as far-fetched, but this, and Millie's relationship with her middle-class businessman father, provides the novel with some hope for redemption - there is little else of human nature beyond the basic in this book. If you concentrate on the writing and not on the ego-driven sex factor, Helen Walsh is not a bad writer. Don't ask me about plot though, I couldn't discern one.
If your main reason for writing a book is to be the wildest child in a small corner of literary anomie and cultural myth then this kind of gothic, transgressive, sink-hole nihilism will suffice. This is throwaway stuff however, from the other end of the spectrum and you will not read much here that says anything lasting or meaningful about human relationships. Walsh is no Rimbaud.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
tin eared
Backs are arched, hair is coal black, skies are pierced by cathedral spires - all in the first few pages.
Clichés are scattered like..................
Clichés are scattered like..................
Published 9 months ago by F. Brown
brass by helen walsh
Helen walsh gives us Millie O' Reilly, a messed up 19 tear old with a penchant for sex and drugs. The book follows Millie's thoughts and actions during her a very difficult period... Read more
Published on 22 Dec 2009 by Mrs. Emma Watson
Great Little Book !
I'm not a great book reader but this book really made me take notice; a great read that flows well, yes shocking and crude in places but thats what makes the book so difficult to... Read more
Published on 23 Sep 2009 by Karl
Shocking but accurate?
Having recently enjoyed Somewhere in England I rushed out to buy Brass.
This was an excellent read, shocking but addictive. Read more
This was an excellent read, shocking but addictive. Read more
Published on 25 May 2008 by J. Robinson
Savage
I thought I was unshockable.... but then I read 'Brass' and realised I am not, thank god.
Helen Walsh's novel is raw, savage and unputdownable. Thoroughly enjoyed it.
Helen Walsh's novel is raw, savage and unputdownable. Thoroughly enjoyed it.
Published on 12 Feb 2008 by Pevers
Middle Class out of towner slums it
Walshs book purports to chart the journey into self awareness of Millie O'Reilley a 19 year old middle class bisexual girl as she licks, sucks and snorts her way around several... Read more
Published on 11 Aug 2005 by KEVIN HASSETT
breath taking!
I read this book in a translation, I'm not English-speaking.
The blood/pain/soul/body fluids Walsh putted in this piece of art is dripping from the pages and crawl under your... Read more
Published on 10 July 2005
Not the ending I expected
I thouht that Brass was a thoroughly absorbing book. The characters, although extreme, where easy to empathise with on some levels. Read more
Published on 1 Mar 2005 by antipixi
Brassed Off
Being a Northern girl (though not from Liverpool) I decided to give Helen Walsh's debut novel Brass a read. Read more
Published on 27 Aug 2004 by Luanne
Just this once I wish I was George Bush
Some months back I read an interview in The Guardian with Helen Walsh. And, although she didn't come across as a particulary likeable person her attitude towards female sexuality... Read more
Published on 30 July 2004
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