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Product Description
Review
'A book about London; in other words, a book about everything' Peter Ackroyd, The Times
Product Description
'A book about London; in other words, a book about everything' Peter Ackroyd, The Times
Walking the streets of London, Iain Sinclair traces nine routes across the territory of the capital. Connecting people and places, redrawing boundaries both ancient and modern, reading obscure signs and finding hidden patterns, Sinclair creates a fluid snapshot of the city. In LIGHTS OUT FOR THE TERRITORY he gives us a daring, provocative, enlightening, disturbing and utterly unique picture of modern urban life. And in the process he reveals the dark underbelly of a London many of us did not know existed.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have only had time to dip in and out of this wonderful book because I am currently reading about life in Hackney also courtesy of Mr Sinclair.Suffice it to say that his prose is fluid,intelligent and a joy to read I especially enjoyed his account of a putative meeting with Lord Archer.Mr Sinclair's feeling and respect for the history,people and atmosphere of places he knows so well is lightly bourne and delivered in an easy,sumptuous style.
9 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
the subject is less than serious, and it's a clear reference to the fact that reading this book was really hard, also because I am not a native speaker of english and also because I lack the knowledge of "london" facts.
the subject also refers to the density of information, facts and knowledge on London (and not just london), that this book contains.
it's not been easy to read this book and it's not been easy to appreciate it. often I felt I was about to rule it out as a sort of english Umberto Eco (an intellectual showing off his encyclopedic knowledge of London).
but there is something genuine about Iain Sinclair, and it helped seeing him at a reading at the RFH to have a feeling of someone that is the opposite of a Umberto Eco: a down to earth person.
sometimes you have to let go, let the flow of information get lost in the short term memory; sometimes one has to stop and go back reread, take a note, find a post-it to mark the page, or perhaps even get the shoes, leave the comfort of a sunday read on the couch and venture to a part of London which is not necessarily safe or the best to be (that's in fact another problem: reading this book 12 years down the line doesn't help, because some of the london described by Iain Sinclair no longer exists or it has changed dramatically).
but this is hardly a book calling for a real walk around london: this book is about a long trip deep down in the soul of the city, in an invisible layer where an invisible network connects points , buildings, facts, people who are no longer there, or are not to be seen. THis is a "trip of the mind", into a twilight zone of things that escape the day to day reality.
or it's a period story, telling of people who were coming of age in the recent past, directors, artists, people living on the edge of everything, and how those people interacted, how they crashed, how they delivered their products.
finally, me being italian, I couldn't but appreciate the space given to Antonioni (although it really feels like Iain Sinclair tries to regain some english control of that italian feature), and to his movie that has become so iconic about London.
Now the 400 page book that has been my friend for nearly 7 weeks, lies on the table in front of me full of postit , full of notes, and I wonder if I should go back to it and start all over again, or leave it and move on to the next venture: the orbital!
the subject also refers to the density of information, facts and knowledge on London (and not just london), that this book contains.
it's not been easy to read this book and it's not been easy to appreciate it. often I felt I was about to rule it out as a sort of english Umberto Eco (an intellectual showing off his encyclopedic knowledge of London).
but there is something genuine about Iain Sinclair, and it helped seeing him at a reading at the RFH to have a feeling of someone that is the opposite of a Umberto Eco: a down to earth person.
sometimes you have to let go, let the flow of information get lost in the short term memory; sometimes one has to stop and go back reread, take a note, find a post-it to mark the page, or perhaps even get the shoes, leave the comfort of a sunday read on the couch and venture to a part of London which is not necessarily safe or the best to be (that's in fact another problem: reading this book 12 years down the line doesn't help, because some of the london described by Iain Sinclair no longer exists or it has changed dramatically).
but this is hardly a book calling for a real walk around london: this book is about a long trip deep down in the soul of the city, in an invisible layer where an invisible network connects points , buildings, facts, people who are no longer there, or are not to be seen. THis is a "trip of the mind", into a twilight zone of things that escape the day to day reality.
or it's a period story, telling of people who were coming of age in the recent past, directors, artists, people living on the edge of everything, and how those people interacted, how they crashed, how they delivered their products.
finally, me being italian, I couldn't but appreciate the space given to Antonioni (although it really feels like Iain Sinclair tries to regain some english control of that italian feature), and to his movie that has become so iconic about London.
Now the 400 page book that has been my friend for nearly 7 weeks, lies on the table in front of me full of postit , full of notes, and I wonder if I should go back to it and start all over again, or leave it and move on to the next venture: the orbital!
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Sinclair's erudite and scholarly approach renders visible a London that is neglected, ignored and even widely unknown. It is a unique, dense book, borne of an unrelenting fascination with a city that resides paradoxically in both the past and the present. Drawing together disparate ideas, he examines the fabric of the capital, tracing threads that encompass politics, art, mysticism, conspiracy, literature and religion. Sinclair moves through physical and cultural boundaries, skirting the fringes and engaging with peripheral but perhaps visionary figures as well as identifying forgotten architectural remnants and apparent anomalies in a vast urban sprawl. The London he presents is powerful, provocative and disturbing - through the activities of its inhabitants the city is able to assume such human characteristics. Befitting his background in psychogeography, Sinclair's narrative is shaped through the routes he walks in the city; accompanied by photographer Marc Atkins, he chronicles the dark underbelly of modern urban life.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Wonderful topic ruined by a sesquipedalianist
Simply, he can not write. If he talked to anybody the way he writes, he would get smacked in the face. That makes it more annoying because the topic is wonderfully interesting. Read more
Published 9 months ago by A. JARVIS
Incomprehensible!!
I suppose it just might be me, but I found this book to be totally impenetrable and try though I did to get into it, I just had to give up. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Lucky Pierre
Difficult to get into, hard to follow and quite pompously written
This book has great potential but is hard to get through due to its lack of simplicity. He can't write a sentence such as 'This eccentric pensioner walks through the borough every... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Nathan Strange
Ian Sinclair/LIGHTS OUT FOR THE TERRITORY
With "LIGHTS OUT FOR THE TERRITORY" Lights Out for the TerritoryIain Sinclair throws another slant on the history of London - this book does exactly what it says on the tin!!! Read more
Published on 4 Dec 2009 by Mrs. V. M. Poland
Essential London writing
This is a stunning book. It is one of the books that has influenced me most. It is packed with fascinating London lore and I have been led to seek out many of the people, places,... Read more
Published on 20 July 2007 by Darran
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