- Paperback: 239 pages
- Publisher: Faber and Faber; 1st ed edition (3 Sep 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0571206131
- ISBN-13: 978-0571206131
- Product Dimensions: 21 x 13 x 2.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,287,981 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Mick Jackson's Five Boys opens with young Bobby being evacuated from a blitzed London to the supposed calm of a small South Devon village. But for Bobby, the eccentrics and eccentricities of his new home are far more dangerous than the German bombs. Billeted with elderly spinster Miss Minter, Bobby soon encounters the village characters--and, identified as a Nazi spy, becomes the latest hapless victim of the local gang, the Five Boys. In time, though, he's befriended by one of the Five, Aldred, an organist's assistant with an overactive thyroid and a passion for a London he's seen only in books. Together, the Boys (now Six) embark on a series of adventures and pranks, climbing the church tower at night to pelt grave stones with plums, sneaking into the house of the suspiciously semaphoric Captain, and getting mixed up with, and carried off by, the mysterious Pied-Piper-esque Bee King. What starts as a straightforward evacuation story shifts into a series of more or less prankish anecdotes (a funeral for a pig, the invasion of US soldiers) before spiralling into a more disturbing denouement. But despite the hints of lurking tragedy, the author keeps the book light, capturing perfectly the bewildered innocence of his young hero, and of a lost England.
Jackson's debut novel The Underground Man was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Whitbread First Novel Award and won the Royal Society of Authors' First Novel Award--immediate and well-deserved recognition for Jackson's considerable skills at conscientiously re-imagining the past, but with a dash of pure eccentricity. --Alan Stewart
Product Description
Bobby, a cockney evacuee to rural Devon, is victimized by a local gang called the Five Boys. But he is not the only stranger to have an impact on the village. There are US soldiers destined for Operation Tiger off Slapton Sands, an English deserter in hiding, and above all the mysterious Bee King.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
These reviews agree on a lot of things. The book feels like 3 separate books: Bobby's story that's strangely cut short, a collection of short stories about the village and the tale of the Beekeeper. And the five boys? As somebody else says, we only ever scratch the surface of one of their personalities (Bobby isn't one of the five). And the ending is a shock.
So what have I got new to say? Well first, although the book is very disjointed I did enjoy reading it. Maybe Jackson could turn his hand to short stories sometime. Second, although there's a big shock at the end, there are one or two subtle bits earlier in the book that point towards it. Third, the beekeeper is an amazing character. He has a Doctor Who feel to him, in a William Hartnell sort of way. Eccentric on the outside, buzzing with inteligence on the inside and with an air of mystery and hint of mystical powers.
Did I say buzzing then? No pun was intended, but that's the kind of person he is. Was it skillful character development from Jackson that made me say it?
And finally, all the thoughts going through the reader's mind about he disjointedness of the book, take his attention away from the buildup for the surprise ending. If the whole book had been built around the ending, then it wouldn't have been such a shocker. Methodology in the madness?
Four stars from me, just for setting all these thoughts buzzing through my head.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
"Five Boys" is a book that left me baffled. It has something, but I'm not sure what. Like other reviewers, I was both charmed and enchanted by "The Underground Man" and was intrigued to read another book by Mick Jackson.
What I found positive about "Five Boys" is that the book transported me into another world: a rather odd world of childhood and memory, Englishness and history. This is a world of "Dad's Army" meets "Lord of the Flies" - on the surface whimsical and nostalgic but with an eerie menace below the surface.
As other reviewers have said, the book fails in its lack of characterisation and its disjointed structure, leaving the reader rather bewildered at the end as it what it was all about. I found the style of writing - particularly the continual ommission of pronouns - rather annoying, although Jackson's ability to conjure up a picture in the mind is excellent.
All in all, "Five Boys" is a bit of an oddity, but it won't put me off reading more from Mick Jackson.
What I found positive about "Five Boys" is that the book transported me into another world: a rather odd world of childhood and memory, Englishness and history. This is a world of "Dad's Army" meets "Lord of the Flies" - on the surface whimsical and nostalgic but with an eerie menace below the surface.
As other reviewers have said, the book fails in its lack of characterisation and its disjointed structure, leaving the reader rather bewildered at the end as it what it was all about. I found the style of writing - particularly the continual ommission of pronouns - rather annoying, although Jackson's ability to conjure up a picture in the mind is excellent.
All in all, "Five Boys" is a bit of an oddity, but it won't put me off reading more from Mick Jackson.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
We all have lists of Books We Have Read But Wish We Hadn't. And in the words of Jesse from The Fast Show, this week I have been mostly Wishing I Hadn't Read Mick Jackson's Five Boys. (As I gave up 100 pages before the end, I half got my wish.)
The reason I wish I hadn't read it is because then I might still think it was good. Scott Aardvark below says that it's three stories that don't quite work, and that it's after the first part that it flags. I half agree: I think it starts badly too. Even in the opening scenes, while I still had a smile on my face and a letting-myself-be-taken-where-the-story-will frame of mind, nothing whatever of interest happens. There are no piquant observations, amusing incidents or moving characters. It's like Stepford in there.
We are led to believe from the cover that this book is "startlingly original" and "eccentric." While I agree it's "eccentric" to follow up a fantastic novel with a rotten one, the consensus ends there. The only way the string of sitcom-tastic self-contained scenes will intrigue you is if you're thrilled silly by such escapades as "boys have a nosey around old man's house," "boy helps out in church administration" and "visiting GIs shock local ladyfolk at barn dance with jitterbug stylings." Ho, and indeed, hum. All in all, as tales of provincial life go, it's too much Last of the Summer Wine and not enough League of Gentlemen.
And what makes this so doubly a sin, or at best a real head-hanging shame, is that (as you must know by now) Jackson's first novel The Underground Man was incredibly good. It had tragedy, comedy, originality, verve and skill - everything that Five Boys lacks. If it hadn't been written by Jackson you'd just toss it aside and think nothing more; as it is, it's a mystery: you can scan the pages of Five Boys all day for signs of the enormous talent that shone in every line of The Underground Man, but the horizon is uncluttered. And this is after reading (most of) it with goodwill and positivity aforethought: I dread to think how someone might react who hasn't encountered Jackson before.
All in all - in case you hadn't picked up the general vibe here - Five Boys must be the most disappointing second book since Harper Lee owned up to ghost-writing that Britney Spears novel.
The reason I wish I hadn't read it is because then I might still think it was good. Scott Aardvark below says that it's three stories that don't quite work, and that it's after the first part that it flags. I half agree: I think it starts badly too. Even in the opening scenes, while I still had a smile on my face and a letting-myself-be-taken-where-the-story-will frame of mind, nothing whatever of interest happens. There are no piquant observations, amusing incidents or moving characters. It's like Stepford in there.
We are led to believe from the cover that this book is "startlingly original" and "eccentric." While I agree it's "eccentric" to follow up a fantastic novel with a rotten one, the consensus ends there. The only way the string of sitcom-tastic self-contained scenes will intrigue you is if you're thrilled silly by such escapades as "boys have a nosey around old man's house," "boy helps out in church administration" and "visiting GIs shock local ladyfolk at barn dance with jitterbug stylings." Ho, and indeed, hum. All in all, as tales of provincial life go, it's too much Last of the Summer Wine and not enough League of Gentlemen.
And what makes this so doubly a sin, or at best a real head-hanging shame, is that (as you must know by now) Jackson's first novel The Underground Man was incredibly good. It had tragedy, comedy, originality, verve and skill - everything that Five Boys lacks. If it hadn't been written by Jackson you'd just toss it aside and think nothing more; as it is, it's a mystery: you can scan the pages of Five Boys all day for signs of the enormous talent that shone in every line of The Underground Man, but the horizon is uncluttered. And this is after reading (most of) it with goodwill and positivity aforethought: I dread to think how someone might react who hasn't encountered Jackson before.
All in all - in case you hadn't picked up the general vibe here - Five Boys must be the most disappointing second book since Harper Lee owned up to ghost-writing that Britney Spears novel.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
All hail to the Bee King...
I was attracted to this book by its intriguing cover featuring the (Fry's) Five Boys on the outside and a photograph of bees and a honeycomb on the inside (design by Pentagram). Read more
Published on 22 Nov 2009 by G. E. Harrison
Dull and unrewarding
I stumbled upon this book at a second hand bookshop and bought it expecting an enjoyable and nostalgic account of an evacuee, and his struggles to adapt to life in the country,... Read more
Published on 22 Jun 2006 by Mr. Philp Unsworth
The End of Innocence
I picked up this book believing it was a novel about a young London boy sent to live in Devon to avoid getting killed in the Blitz. Read more
Published on 9 Jan 2003 by A. Ross
Five Boys - several short stories
Jackson's "The Underground Man" is a sublime and original book.
"Five Boys" has chapters of the same writing prowess. Read more
"Five Boys" has chapters of the same writing prowess. Read more
Published on 29 Nov 2002 by mfl
Quirky but endearing
At the start of Mike Jackson's bitter-sweet novel, "Five Boys", we follow schoolboy, Bobby, as he is sent away from his home in war-time London into the supposed safety... Read more
Published on 30 July 2002 by Steve Benner
The Underachieving Man
We all have those books we have read that we wish we hadn't. In the spirit of Jesse from The Fast Show, this week I have been mostly wishing I hadn't read Five Boys. Read more
Published on 15 Jun 2002 by John Self
Slight story
This was one of those books which you read all the way to the end and then think "what was that all about?". That's if you make it to the end. Read more
Published on 29 May 2002
A triumph of packaging over substance
I was so disappointed with this book. Scott Aardvark's review is spot on, although to me Five Boys actually lacks the dark wit of the (superb)Underground Man... Read more
Published on 15 April 2002 by nhjohnston@lineone.net
A refreshingly modern interpretation of wartime Britain
Far from the drudgery of the classroom classic 'Carrie's War', Mick Jackson's second novel is a refreshingly modern interpretation of wartime Britain. Read more
Published on 30 Nov 2001 by claire_and_gary@hotmail.com
Gave me a real buzzzz
This book was a great companion on a recent trip, the only problem was keeping my girlfriend from stealing it. Read more
Published on 2 Oct 2001
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
