Unmotivated and dormant, Jack is drawn into the rampant whirlwind of Neil Blake, who he meets one windy night on the Holloway Road. Inspired by Jack Kerouac's famous road novel, the two young men climb aboard Jack's Figaro and embark on a similar search for freedom and meaning in modern-day Britain. Pulled along in Neil's careering path, taking them from the pubs of London's Holloway Road to the fringes of the Outer Hebrides, Jack begins to ask questions of himself, his friend and what there is in life to grasp. Spiting speed cameras and CCTV, motorway riots and island detours, will their path lead to new meaning or ultimate destruction?
On the Holloway Road
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'A beautifully written story about friendship and the longing for adventure in an increasingly demystified world, and the eternal question of what life is all about.' Zoe Jenny, best-selling Swiss author of The Pollen Room.
'Blackman's wonderful book is a modern-day road trip filled with quirky characters and locations. He writes beautifully, making the mundane extraordinary and the everyday fascinating.' --Deborah Wright, best-selling author
About the Author
Andrew recently moved back to the UK after spending six years in New York, where he worked as a staff reporter for the Wall Street Journal. He has also written for newspapers and magazines across America, including Monthly Review, the Cincinnati Post, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Seattle Times and Tampa Tribune, and won the Daniel Singer essay prize. He has a Bachelor's degree in modern history from Oxford University and a Master's degree in journalism from Columbia University. Chosen from hundreds of entries Andrew Blackman was the first winner of the Luke Bitmead Writer's Bursary, winning a publishing contract with Legend Press.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By Liam Walsh
Format:Paperback
"On the Holloway Road" relates the story of a narrator, Jack, who having left a minor public school top of his class has fallen into a rut: unable to complete his Great Novel he lives with his mother in Crouch End, a chintzy yet dull suburb of London, occasionally driving around in search of adventure, friendship, inspiration - or perhaps just to escape the tedium of his life.
One evening he meets Neil in a kebab shop. Neil is everything the narrator is not: streetwise, funny, confident, and perhaps most of all a lover of life, the antithesis of Jack's existential angst-ridden personality.
Jack and Neil become friends, and set out on a road trip up the A1 and to Scotland. The novel relates their adventures and mishaps - confrontations with oil-riggers, being arrested during a fuel dispute on a motorway - and finally to Barra in the Hebrides, where we meet one of Neil's girlfriends, Nicola, with whom Jack briefly and chastely shares a bed. The novel has a twist at the end that I never saw coming, yet as soon as it happened was not only obvious, but probably inescapable.
Such then is the plot, but this is not a plot-based novel. Rather, it is an exercise in existentialism, a character study, a literate, literary novel that never under-estimates its reader. One of the things I like best about the novel is the way it describes the grimy streets I know so well in a lyrical, original style. I also like the way it alludes to Kerouac and plays with his most famous book, "On the Road", with Britain's backwaters poor substitutes for the great American canvas.
Having spent 25 years in the Holloway Road area, having grown up in Yorkshire, and even visiting Barra on a school trip (where with two other 14-year-olds I was sent Bivouac-ing up a mountain overnight, hard to imagine in these safety-conscious times) the novel described familiar places in an unfamiliar way. Andrew's prose is poetic, thoughtful and mannered (perhaps overtly so in places), and I'm sure his next novel will be even better.
One evening he meets Neil in a kebab shop. Neil is everything the narrator is not: streetwise, funny, confident, and perhaps most of all a lover of life, the antithesis of Jack's existential angst-ridden personality.
Jack and Neil become friends, and set out on a road trip up the A1 and to Scotland. The novel relates their adventures and mishaps - confrontations with oil-riggers, being arrested during a fuel dispute on a motorway - and finally to Barra in the Hebrides, where we meet one of Neil's girlfriends, Nicola, with whom Jack briefly and chastely shares a bed. The novel has a twist at the end that I never saw coming, yet as soon as it happened was not only obvious, but probably inescapable.
Such then is the plot, but this is not a plot-based novel. Rather, it is an exercise in existentialism, a character study, a literate, literary novel that never under-estimates its reader. One of the things I like best about the novel is the way it describes the grimy streets I know so well in a lyrical, original style. I also like the way it alludes to Kerouac and plays with his most famous book, "On the Road", with Britain's backwaters poor substitutes for the great American canvas.
Having spent 25 years in the Holloway Road area, having grown up in Yorkshire, and even visiting Barra on a school trip (where with two other 14-year-olds I was sent Bivouac-ing up a mountain overnight, hard to imagine in these safety-conscious times) the novel described familiar places in an unfamiliar way. Andrew's prose is poetic, thoughtful and mannered (perhaps overtly so in places), and I'm sure his next novel will be even better.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By D. Bennett
Format:Paperback
I really enjoyed this book.It is well written with a strong narrative.The story carries you along and the characters are really vivid and alive. At the same time it is packed with interesting ideas about frienship, the meaning of life and relationships.It made a nice change to read something that was enjoyable and also thought provoking.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By Florizel
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
It is perhaps best to start when commenting on this book with the end. It comes as a shock but somehow we feel as terribly inevitable after all that has happened with these two characters throughout their amazing road journey. In a way this ending makes the book, and at the end we feel deflated but we also ask ourselves could it have been any other way? Neil and Jack, so different in nature, are an odd couple and the book delineates the difference very well. Neil, at once dangerous and unstoppable and Jack, more deep-thinking and anxious, set out together to try and find themselves, penetrate the phrase 'meaning of life'. What they do find is interesting and believable but always taken on board quite differently by each character. Neil, a one time young offender, and Jack, a hopeful writer, see the world in completely different terms. Neil beds his women while Jack is much more reticent. But what both characters do find is love even if it is only in one another's unique friendship. A must-read book for anyone interested in a culture clash which results in deep feeling and an uncommon bond.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great Debut!
On The Holloway Road is a road trip novel set in the United Kingdom, but with obvious links to the Jack Kerouac American story. Read more
Published 11 days ago by A. E. Thomas
4.0 out of 5 stars
Review
An interesting rewrite of On The Road, set in modern day Britain. The author plays on the contrast between the open road of the 50s original, and the traffic-jammed, speed-camera... Read more
Published 21 months ago by J. Everington
1.0 out of 5 stars
Totally unconvincing
I was really looking forward to reading this book, based on the reviews given here. But I simply can't understand how any intelligent person can like this book. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Peter Sullivan
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic!
This is a wonderful wonderful piece of writing. It is a rare teat to come upon an author who can capture the characters in his book and deliver them to his reader in such an honest... Read more
Published 23 months ago by Freckles
5.0 out of 5 stars
A really excellent little book
This is an excellently written book. The character development is well considered and the very fine detail of the sensitivity and strength of both of the two main characters... Read more
Published on 7 Jan 2010 by Helen P
4.0 out of 5 stars
Intriguing and impactful but ultimately unsatisfying.
Ostensibly, this is a novel about a road trip in a Nissan Figaro up the A1 by two friends who are an archetypal "odd couple. Read more
Published on 2 Aug 2009 by O. P. Dawson
5.0 out of 5 stars
Highly recommended, a real page-turner
'On the Holloway Road' by Andrew Blackman, is an exceptional piece of writing. I found it absorbing and insightful;there are many memorable paragraphs which stay with you long... Read more
Published on 31 Mar 2009 by Maria Savva
5.0 out of 5 stars
Rivetting and compelling
As the previous reviewer says, a gripping read and it really does make you think about what we do everyday. Read more
Published on 8 Mar 2009 by Michael
5.0 out of 5 stars
A thought-provoking page-turner
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, it's insights and anecdotes staying with me after the final page. It's a gripping read, you really want to know how it will turn out, and it makes... Read more
Published on 2 Mar 2009 by K. Lawrence
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