Luke and Jon
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Product Description
Review
'It's a hell of a thing to accuse a new writer of wisdom, but that's what Robert Williams's first novel has: a warm, dead-to-rights understanding of the human heart, expressed in prose as clear as a glass of water. I'd predict great things for him, but I think that they've already begun.' --Francis Spufford
'Compassionate and perceptive ... Simply a great read.' -- Adele Parks
'A striking and extremely moving debut.' --Alex Clark
'Like many classic stories of childhood, Robert Williams's Luke and Jon is told with an outsider's eye: cool and clear and hiding deep emotion beneath a carapace of coping ... the language with which he recounts this tale of friendship and survival seems newly minted. The kind of book that reminds you why, as a child, you started reading in the first place.' --Financial Times
'The prose here is almost a poem ... Luke and Jon is a novel of promise in every sense... We are left satisfied yet wanting more. 'It was special' as Luke says. 'It was enough.'' --Sheena Joughin, TLS
'Compassionate and perceptive ... Simply a great read.' -- Adele Parks
'A striking and extremely moving debut.' --Alex Clark
'Like many classic stories of childhood, Robert Williams's Luke and Jon is told with an outsider's eye: cool and clear and hiding deep emotion beneath a carapace of coping ... the language with which he recounts this tale of friendship and survival seems newly minted. The kind of book that reminds you why, as a child, you started reading in the first place.' --Financial Times
'The prose here is almost a poem ... Luke and Jon is a novel of promise in every sense... We are left satisfied yet wanting more. 'It was special' as Luke says. 'It was enough.'' --Sheena Joughin, TLS
Book Description
The winner of the Book Tokens' Not-Yet-Published Prize - an arresting debut about friendship, grief and love.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
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I loved this book. Not my normal choice for fiction, it nevertheless has been one of the best books I read in the past year. The characters, Luke and Jon, at first I thought may have alluded to something biblical, but it is just coincidence. Luke is a teenage boy whose mother died recently in a car accident. She suffered from manic-depression. His father is a carpenter and he too suffers, but from alcohol dependency. He is not a destructive alcoholic, though his life seems to be going that way. He rarely works and the bailiffs have been round to repossess Luke and his goods and their house.
So they end up in the back end of nowhere in a dilapidated house in Yorkshire, where they encounter Jon, or Slackjaw as everyone calls him at school. He spends his days absorbed in books, learning facts about the world, life and the universe. He dresses weird and is secretive about his home life.
All the characters in the book deal with life indifferent ways: through painting, through passivity, through drink. But by the end all are redeemed and life goes on. The project that the father undertakes represents the iron will inside that is looking to break free in spite of downs in life. The book is about finding the strength to endure, to take all that life throws at you and rise with grit and force. Highly recommended.
So they end up in the back end of nowhere in a dilapidated house in Yorkshire, where they encounter Jon, or Slackjaw as everyone calls him at school. He spends his days absorbed in books, learning facts about the world, life and the universe. He dresses weird and is secretive about his home life.
All the characters in the book deal with life indifferent ways: through painting, through passivity, through drink. But by the end all are redeemed and life goes on. The project that the father undertakes represents the iron will inside that is looking to break free in spite of downs in life. The book is about finding the strength to endure, to take all that life throws at you and rise with grit and force. Highly recommended.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
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Let them shout it down every Manchester street, let them shout it loud enough to disturb the author behind the counter at Waterstones: Robert Williams (no relation) has a talent to be envied. Who is he, and how does he know so much about grief, the slow burn of it, and of male comradeship, and how does he get it down so well? With a style as neat and unfussy as the cubes of colour in a child's paintbox, and in under two hundred pages, he involves us in real, lived lives, with humour and pathos held in careful balance. My only dissapointment was how, if not for the NYP prize, this short novel might have been kept from the public.
I wish the author a great future.
I wish the author a great future.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
This is Robert Williams's first novel. It won the National Book Tokens NYP prize, and it's easy to see why. For a first time author, Williams has a natural affinity with words, and writes as though he has been a writer all his life.
The story is told from Luke's point of view, in the first person. This is a difficult way to tell a story, because it limits the author to that one perspective, and the reader can only know what Luke knows, and witness events that he witnesses. Done well though, it can produce a powerful, emotional novel - and that is what we have here.
Luke's mother has recently died in a car crash, and he and his father are forced to move to a dilapidated house beyond the edge of a small town in the Dales. Luke and his father have problems that go beyond merely financial, as they struggle to come to terms with Luke's mother's death. Luke meets Jon, a boy of his own age, with issues of his own, who is their nearest neighbour.
The story shows, how through art and through helping Jon, the Father and son can come to terms with their grief and rebuild their lives. But the magic comes from the author's ability to paint a picture with words. You can not only feel Luke and his father's emotions, you can visualise the characters experiencing those emotions as you read. The description of the house they move to is vivid. The changes to the house mirror the changes in the lives of the occupants themselves, and add an extra layer to the story. Throughout the book there is a sense that by transforming the environment you live in, you can give yourself a sense of purpose that can help to transform the way you feel.
This is a book for adults and mature teenagers, who are good readers. It isn't going to appeal to every teenager, but perhaps to those who enjoy a more literary read, or those who can identify with the story. Some of the issues it deals with, bereavement in the family, a forced move to a new area, poverty etc, will be issues that sadly, some real teenagers will experience, and it does present the positive message that you can come through these difficulties in time. But you don't have to need this story to appreciate it - it has an emotional power that should reach most readers, whether they share any of the experiences or not.
The story is told from Luke's point of view, in the first person. This is a difficult way to tell a story, because it limits the author to that one perspective, and the reader can only know what Luke knows, and witness events that he witnesses. Done well though, it can produce a powerful, emotional novel - and that is what we have here.
Luke's mother has recently died in a car crash, and he and his father are forced to move to a dilapidated house beyond the edge of a small town in the Dales. Luke and his father have problems that go beyond merely financial, as they struggle to come to terms with Luke's mother's death. Luke meets Jon, a boy of his own age, with issues of his own, who is their nearest neighbour.
The story shows, how through art and through helping Jon, the Father and son can come to terms with their grief and rebuild their lives. But the magic comes from the author's ability to paint a picture with words. You can not only feel Luke and his father's emotions, you can visualise the characters experiencing those emotions as you read. The description of the house they move to is vivid. The changes to the house mirror the changes in the lives of the occupants themselves, and add an extra layer to the story. Throughout the book there is a sense that by transforming the environment you live in, you can give yourself a sense of purpose that can help to transform the way you feel.
This is a book for adults and mature teenagers, who are good readers. It isn't going to appeal to every teenager, but perhaps to those who enjoy a more literary read, or those who can identify with the story. Some of the issues it deals with, bereavement in the family, a forced move to a new area, poverty etc, will be issues that sadly, some real teenagers will experience, and it does present the positive message that you can come through these difficulties in time. But you don't have to need this story to appreciate it - it has an emotional power that should reach most readers, whether they share any of the experiences or not.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Beautiful story -
Luke and Jon - Robert Williams
I'm not sure what drew my attention to this book. Was it because Robert Williams wrote it? Read more
I'm not sure what drew my attention to this book. Was it because Robert Williams wrote it? Read more
Published 2 months ago by ronix
Engaging, but depressing novella
Luke and Jon is an engaging, but depressing novella. The book begins with the death of Luke's mother and so we see how a child copes with bereavement. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Jackie
Excellent reading
This book was a pleasure to read and also very easy to read. Luke and Jon are excellent characters and the story rambles along at a pace suitable to the points being brought to... Read more
Published 23 months ago by SJSmith
A moving, honest, and funny novel
"Luke & Jon" is the story of Luke, a teenager trying to cope after the death of his mother and the friendship he forms with Jon, who, in his own way, is also troubled. Read more
Published on 23 May 2010 by Eleanor
Luke and Jon
Robert Williams' famous namesake wrote 'Angels', a tribute to his mum. With 'Luke and Jon', the author writes a moving elegy for all those who lose their mothers at a young age. Read more
Published on 10 May 2010 by Quicksilver
A genuinely fresh voice
What an absolutely fantastic book this is! Robert Williams is a truly fresh writer with a unique and important voice. Read more
Published on 27 April 2010 by David Pearce
Luke and Jon
This book is a perfect example of something that will appeal to teenagers and young adults. It doesn't moralise or patronise, but the story line is one that will make them think. Read more
Published on 16 April 2010 by Mrs. S. H. Holden
A Vivid, Engaging Book
Robert Williams' "Luke and Jon" is a warm, inviting read, a book helped along by a combination of empathetic, intelligent realism and an authoritative prose that's as engagingly... Read more
Published on 27 Mar 2010 by Thomas Elce
Magical Simplicity
Sometimes you read a book that makes a profound impression upon you; maybe it's the spell cast by having just the right words on the page, or perhaps there is something in the text... Read more
Published on 25 Mar 2010 by R. Sanderson
Excellent Read
Not my usual type of read but I found myself reading it in only a few sittings, this possibly due to the clever headed chapters. Read more
Published on 23 Mar 2010 by Mr. T. A. Matthews
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