Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A canny read in places!, 24 Mar 2008
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
This is a big book; perhaps too big. I live in Tyneside and so began reading with enthusiasm, able to recognise and visualise the places that are described and easily understand the dialect. I wasn't surprised to read that although this is his first novel, Kelly has previously written biographies. The story is structured around what seemed sometimes overly detailed descriptions of the lives of the three main characters. I struggled through the book from about a quarter of the way in. I just wasn't gripped and his writing style made for slow reading. I confess that I skimmed through the section about the Labour MP through lack of interest that was making reading a chore. It turned out that the MP bore little relevance in the conclusion and overall thread of the story in any case.
I did enjoy parts of the book, although I feel it was unnecessarily long and would have benefitted from further editing. For me it was a bit like watching a film and spotting all the places I know, they were what kept me plodding through the book until the end, which suddenly built to a thrilling climax.
I would recommend this book to anyone familiar with the North East, who also has interests in religion and politics.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great Length, Good Read, 8 Mar 2008
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
I enjoyed this book, I really did. And the fact that it's mostly set in my native city of Newcastle upon Tyne (although in a fictional suburb) was a bonus.
But, I'm afraid it requires a good editing. This is ironic as the writer is actually an editor for Faber and Faber. Was someone too shy to advise him it needed cutting down?
David Peace claims it is 'The Great British Novel of this Decade', which is sheer hyperbole; it's nothing of the sort. What it is though is an old-fashioned thumping good read.
You'll know by now that it's main protagonist (Reverend John Gore) is a priest aiming to establish (or 'plant') a new church in a deprived area of Newcastle.
Kelly develops the three other main characters, Lindy, the local unmarried mother Gore falls for, a minor league, hard as nails gangster named Steve Coulson, and Martin Pallister, a lecturer turned Labour MP. He weaves their stories into Gore's life, however, and this is a big failing, he sets up Martin Pallister, spending no small number of pages establishing his back story, to very little effect.
However, I particularly enjoyed the character of local heavy Steve Coulson and his hard upbringing, although someone else has remarked that they found this to be set at soap opera level.
The writing is good throughout and even the young Tony Blair gets to make a cameo performance. And although it's a big book it didn't feel like a chore reading it.
So, I'd recommend this to everyone who likes something meaty. But be aware that the book doesn't have the gravitas to be the epic, profound novel about modern Britain (it's largely set in 1996) that the publishers desperately want it to be.
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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A strong debut and a provocative if flawed novel, 22 Jan 2008
Crusaders is a well researched and strongly crafted piece of social realism. Revolving around three men (a vicar, an underworld crime boss and a Labour MP) in the 12 months leading to the Labour landslide of 1997 (though there are numerous flashbacks detailing the characters' biographies) the novel illuminates the intersection between politics, morality and religion in an engagingly epic narrative. The characters are well drawn and, for a long novel, the pace is expertly sustained. The flavour and character of the North East and Tyneside specifically is wonderfully captured and represents, for me, one of the real strengths of the book. His dialogue feels right and he has a good ear for the dialect, authentic yet accessible.
There are some flaws though. Perhaps inevitably, there are loose ends and narrative strands that fizzle out unsatisfactorily (especially the MP's story). As well as basic grammatical errors that inexplicably seem to have been missed at the proof reading stage, there is also a strained use of language with Kelly using the same unusual words or phrasing repeatedly ('sodality' is one example, his use of 'same' is another). Such repetitions do not suggest style or tone of voice so much as a limited range of expression and a reliance upon a thesaurus.
All in all, Crusaders is for the most part a success - a sprawling novel with grand aims, an insightful piece of social realism, with elements of thriller thrown in for good measure. It's interesting to note that David Peace offers the front cover endorsement - "the great British novel of this decade." It is certainly among the great novels, but Peace is being necessarily modest. His GB84, a novel with a similar setting and purpose, for me, holds that title.
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