- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; New edition edition (29 Feb 1996)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0140188967
- ISBN-13: 978-0140188967
- Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.8 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,980,116 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Fresh from university, after a dismal 3-week stay in Stotwell and a brush with his future in-laws, Charles Lumley decides to escape. He becomes in turn window-cleaner, drug-runner, chauffeur, bouncer and radio gag-writer in his picaresque progress through 1950s Britain.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book has a long and distinguished history and it is nice to see it being reissued 50 years after its first publication. All the brouha about Amis and the ANgry YOung Men aside, if you go a little deeper you will see that this was actually the novel that started it all off in 1953. I guess that in those days, the story of a graduate dropping out of polite society to become a window cleaner (and then a drugs courier, hospital porter, chauffeur and other working class jobs) was more shocking than it would be now...But Hurry On Down is actually very funny, with forays into the dark side of human behaviour, and has a comic sense of occasion that compares well with the offerings of Sir KIngsley a year later. It is also sharply observed - a real young man's novel. I loved it again, many years after first reading it, and I think it should again be very popular in its fiftieth year!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
John Wain's literary excellence lies in his simple style of writing. Hurry on Down is a study of disaffected youth in 1950's Britain. This Briain is smokey and industrial and everyone is earning a wage. This is the world of mugs of tea, Woodbine Cigarettes, rainy streets, fog and smog, a country that appeared to exist in continuous monochrome and the enigmatic pre-decimal coinage, even the book jacket proclaims that it cost "2/6" (two shillings and sixpence).
At the centre of the book is Charles Lumley. Given that the book was written in 1953, Wain had become part of the tradition that had spawned fifties Anti-Heroes (Look back in Anger and Rebel without a cause). Lumley's first act of rebellion is to forego his university education and become a window cleaner.
Consider these passages:-
"In Charles's breast pocket was a paper packet containing his last cigarette. He took it out carefully, but it had somehow bent , and the paper was broken in the middle. He began to smoke it, holding it so that one finger exactly covered the torn spot, inhaling deeply. The hot storm-centre of alcohol in his stomach rose to meet the smouldering pool of nicotine in his lungs, and, the burden of guilt and fatigue slipping from his shoulders, he breathed a silent prayer of gratitude to the twin deities of his world"
"The words crashed into the silence by the sudden cessation in Blearney's voice. The effect was that of a man talking loudly in a tube train, who barks out at the end of his sentence as soon as the tube stops, and the whole carriage hears it"
"...Now we can really beginthe fun - the party's complete. Folks, this is Harry Lumpy...This is Jimmy, Stanley and Elsa" The succession of names flooded over his mind like dirty water..."
Comment Comment | Perm
At the centre of the book is Charles Lumley. Given that the book was written in 1953, Wain had become part of the tradition that had spawned fifties Anti-Heroes (Look back in Anger and Rebel without a cause). Lumley's first act of rebellion is to forego his university education and become a window cleaner.
Consider these passages:-
"In Charles's breast pocket was a paper packet containing his last cigarette. He took it out carefully, but it had somehow bent , and the paper was broken in the middle. He began to smoke it, holding it so that one finger exactly covered the torn spot, inhaling deeply. The hot storm-centre of alcohol in his stomach rose to meet the smouldering pool of nicotine in his lungs, and, the burden of guilt and fatigue slipping from his shoulders, he breathed a silent prayer of gratitude to the twin deities of his world"
"The words crashed into the silence by the sudden cessation in Blearney's voice. The effect was that of a man talking loudly in a tube train, who barks out at the end of his sentence as soon as the tube stops, and the whole carriage hears it"
"...Now we can really beginthe fun - the party's complete. Folks, this is Harry Lumpy...This is Jimmy, Stanley and Elsa" The succession of names flooded over his mind like dirty water..."
Comment Comment | Perm
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Wain is almost forgotten today I think and this certainly is well worth reading. Not sure it is his best book, but he is an author to rediscover.
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