- Paperback: 352 pages
- Publisher: Black Swan; New edition edition (2 Feb 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0552770795
- ISBN-13: 978-0552770798
- Product Dimensions: 19.3 x 12.4 x 2.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 485,000 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Glasgow Herald
'The significance of this friendship distinguishes Boyle's memoir from others ... Far less self-pitying than ANGELA'S ASHES.'
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
Scotsman
'Boyle's memories are marked with fondness rather than sentimentality ... with a sad twist in the tale guarenteed to grab you.'
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Having come from and growing up in Paisley, I found this book to be highly enjoyable.The way John Boyle describes his surroundings and the struggle he had growing up in one of the most notorius housing schemes then and now. Anyone from the west of scotland that could relate to the tenaments and life in them should read this book. Also how great freindship can come from a unity of hardships.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This memoir has moments of real insight and compassion. It is a significantly honest telling of a simple but often harrowing story, The period, place and the circumstances of this young boy's adolesence are described unflinchingly and his relationship with his friend, Laff, is not sentimentalised. The last meeting of the author and Laff is the more powerful because it is underplayed. It could not have been invented. It had to have happened that way. A good and compelling read.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I read with delight Mr Bolye’s previous memoir, Galloway Street, becoming a real fan of its tenderness and touching, humourous observations. For me, the first book dealt with the forming of a consciousness; Laff is more the forming of the man’s character. The book’s first part is full of numerous glances and glimpses, both wily and wounding, of different individuals and various adolescent grief; the second half takes over from the layered set-up and delivers a focused, richly emotional journey toward tragedy and liberation, with lyrical touches we’ve come to expect from this author, and an ending that sends the spirit zooming off along with the writer’s.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Affecting
John Boyle writes about his youth, and especially his friendship with school friend James Lafferty, Laff. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Benjamin
Laff- it nearly made me Cry
Laff: A FriendshipThis book has been written with a lightness of touch and little evidence of self pity. Read more
Published on 5 Dec 2007 by Paisley Buddy
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