- Hardcover: 336 pages
- Publisher: Faber and Faber (1 Jan 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0571195466
- ISBN-13: 978-0571195466
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16.2 x 3.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 184,651 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Happy Like Murderers
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Gordon Burn has already written a book about serial killer Peter Sutcliffe so it should be no surprise (apart from wondering at his stamina for this sort of material) that he has also taken on the macabre story of the Wests. This is a vile catalogue of the manner in which Frederick and Rosemary West raped, tortured and killed. It spares none of the utterly sordid details.
Burn, who has also written two acclaimed novels (Alma Cogan and Fullalove), has opted to apply some of the techniques of fiction to this grisly task. But while this approach does raise ethical questions--he sometimes recounts scenes and emotions that only the participants, and they are dead, could have witnessed--such is his obvious seriousness of intent that these episodes can be justified in narrative terms. The vast compilation of awful but indisputable facts inevitably makes the prosaic detail of the Wests' lives, like Fred's endless DIY and Rose's Sunday lunches, almost unbearably sinister. And the ghastly details of their victims' fates are unspeakably depraved. Britain has seen nothing like this scale of domestic degradation before. But while every reader must decide for themselves how much of this they need to know, and how much they want to know, it is nevertheless right and commendable that Gordon Burn has written this chilling book and thus given people the choice. --Nick Wroe
Book Description
The true crime classic republished to tie in with the ITV drama based on Fred and Rose West, Appropriate Adult
--This text refers to the
Paperback
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
34 of 36 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a remarkable account of the worlds of Fred and Rose West and it pulls no punches.
I have read of life in Auschwitz and other concentration camps, as well as detailed biographies of the killers Ed Gein and Dennis Nielsen, and I can say without hesitation that I have not before encountered such a detailed account of pure evil.
The news media have concentrated, for the most part, on the women and girls that died at the hands of Fred and Rose West. This book does not speculate on the details of those killings since only one living person knows what actually happened, and she isn't saying.
Detailed and graphic accounts of the child abuse suffered by the West's young family are included and I found these to be truly sickening. Including such details may sound voyeuristic but there is no titilation here, just horror.
It is a well crafted read and Gordon Burn should be commended on handling such a subject with sensitivity.
People will read this book and cry.
16 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a grotesquely fascinating book about a grotesque man and his equally grotesque wife. Fred and Rosemary West will be remembered for their systematic abuse of their own children (and others) and how for many years they evaded being discovered because of the indifferent society they lived in. Gordon Burn takes his readers into a modern day Heart of Darkness in which there is no happy ending, only survivors who will never be the same again. This is not an easy book to read, it starts in a peculiar way, far removed from the West family. Instead it looks at the lives of people who at first seem to have nothing to do with the storyline, but then the threads are carefully draws in, showing the connections to Fred and Rosemary and how evil can spread its tentacles in the most unlikely of places. This is horror story that turns your stomach because it is true horror, of how a man and a woman could get away with murder for years. This book is not for the faint hearted or squeamish, it is brutal, and explicit in its search for the truth. However it is well written, savagely analytical and totally mesmerising. It is book that I can recommend but only if you have the stomach to read it...
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I think that so little time was spent on the victims lives up to the time of their murders was a mistake by the writer. But perhaps it was because permission was not given by the victims families and to save them further pain. Very little information was given about Rose West's involvement or of her trial. The writer seems to be obsessed as to who Fred West really was. He delves into his history and with apologies to Dickens, the description and dialogue conjures up a picture of a Dickensian era.
If you've always wondered what makes any individual a serial killer then Gordon Burns summing up of Fred West is the book for you.
If you've always wondered what makes any individual a serial killer then Gordon Burns summing up of Fred West is the book for you.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Read with caution
I have never before wished I could unread a book until I read this. That's not to say it's a bad book, far from it, Burn has a style of writing much removed from the usual cheap... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mrs Anthing
SCARY!
A very scary but well written book. It gives a real eye-opening insight into what life was like for this family. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Mr. Matthew W. Hiles
a factual novel?
If you're looking for a straightforward, orderly account of the West case, don't get this. Get Howard Sounes's 'Fred And Rose' instead. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Zeddy12
Could have been better
This book relates in grim detail, the abuse and murder handed out by Rose and Fred West to numerous children and young people over the decades at Cromwell Street and elsewhere in... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Junius
Actually rather unhappy
I've had this book a long time. It was bought as inspiration for the sort of fiction I was writing when younger and angrier, which I may yet resurrect. Read more
Published 4 months ago by M. Eloise Harding
interesting story, awefully written
This is the first true crime book that I have ever read and I can only hope that not all books of this genre are written like this one. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Ludwig Wittgenstein
Very Poorly Written
I don't think I have ever read such a badly composed book. The book jumps all over the place and is constantly repetitive. Read more
Published 6 months ago by John Phillips
Total Let Down
This book is a total let down, very poorly written the author repeats himself time and time again, don'waste your money buying this book.If I could give a zero rating I would.
Published 6 months ago by ANNE TEMPLETON
Happy Lile MurderersHeavy reading
The book gets better the longer you read it.The author seems to reach the innermost thouhts of both of the Wests.
Published 6 months ago by Mr. D. W. Root
Happy like murders
I really enjoyed this book. It was factual without being sensational - bearing in mind the subject matter was grim. Read more
Published 7 months ago by foxy lady
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