Sheepshagger
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Written in rough, tough and fiercely native prose, Sheepshagger is a coming-of-age ensemble novel about a bunch of promiscuous, disenchanted, druggy Welsh youngsters, growing up in a world from which they feel disconnected, surrounded by a beautiful countryside they struggle to understand. In the middle and somehow pivotal to this motley Celtic crew is Ianto: a genetically unfortunate ne'er-do-well who yet possesses the spiritual centredness the others lack. It is Ianto who relates to the rurality around them: "the lightning blasted blackthorn", the "same soil his forefathers dug in". As a result of the strange, totemic figure he cuts, Ianto manages to hang with the others and become something of a mascot to them, even though they tease him mercilessly about his virginity. The dialogue is vivid and believable, in an expletive-rich Irvine Welsh way. The intervening descriptions are spare and impressive, although they sometimes strain too hard towards lyricism: "he is like something dredged from the harbour long sodden in silt and brine, a being discarnate of mud and stagnant water". The book culminates in a rural cop-chase; however the true poetic essence of the book is its very contemporary take on Welshness. Griffiths' second novel is a modern-day elegy to the put-upon man-of-the-woods, the long-oppressed Celt, the deracinated Taff, the Sheepshagger. --Sean Thomas
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
Review
"Haunting and intensely imagined, layered with chilling humour and charged with linguistic energy... a powerful and disturbing novel." - A.L. Kennedy
""Sheepshagger" is never less than compelling; the range of Griffiths's achievement is as exhilarating as the reach of his ambition." - "Guardian"
"The power of Griffiths' language is astounding, steeped in the wild forces of nature that have helped make Ianto what he is, by turns lyrically beautiful and tumultuously violent." - "The Times"
""Sheepshagger" is never less than compelling; the range of Griffiths's achievement is as exhilarating as the reach of his ambition." - "Guardian"
"The power of Griffiths' language is astounding, steeped in the wild forces of nature that have helped make Ianto what he is, by turns lyrically beautiful and tumultuously violent." - "The Times"
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Much has been made of the importance of Ianto as the first memorable Welsh anti-hero, and yet for me it's the supporting characters who reek of authenticity and make this book unforgettable. I once knew a lad who hailed from Caernarvon, and reading this it was almost like meeting him again - the same combination of hedonistic recklessness and morose cynicism. I can well believe that in every small town in the West of Wales, there's a group of friends who would read Sheepshagger and recognise themselves within minutes.
Ianto's toking- and tripping-buddies perceive him as a semi-mute, antisocial moron, and yet their lifestyles aren't so very different, dominated as they are by thrill-seeking, violence and self-degradation. In one of the three intercut narratives, Ianto's erstwhile mates are huddled in a room together perhaps a year or so after the events of the story, trying to fathom out what turned him into a multiple killer. The irony is, it never occurs to them to ask, "How did WE turn out to be such a bunch of losers?" Lack of opportunity can't explain it - Llyr is a property owner and Marc, we learn, comes from a middle-class family. Perhaps the answer is that they are trapped in, and protected by, a self-referential set of social norms of their own - as long as their conduct is "normal" by their own standards, they never feel the need to justify it.
Another irony is that Ianto, the most aimless and dysfunctional of the entire sorry bunch, is the only one who seems to be capable of generating anger at the injustices he's suffered. As for Llyr, Griff and the other "normal" folk, if they ever feel any discontent with life it never progresses beyond petty xenophobia towards the uber-rich English incomers. They're just too busy getting high and getting laid. It's almost as if apathy and rage are different sides of the same coin.
Many people will be put off by the extremity of the violence, and especially the very distressing sexual abuse scene towards the end. The level of bloodshed and human depravity does at times go beyond what's strictly necessary plot-wise (and in particular I think the sexual abuse element could very well have been left out altogether), but at the same time I feel that if he'd toned down the violence too much, he would have compromised his vision.
This book is bleak but not hopeless, and above all it does not seek to normalise violence. It may not offer much hope of creating a better world, but one is left with the feeling that the world would be a better place if more people were like Niall Griffiths.
Ianto's toking- and tripping-buddies perceive him as a semi-mute, antisocial moron, and yet their lifestyles aren't so very different, dominated as they are by thrill-seeking, violence and self-degradation. In one of the three intercut narratives, Ianto's erstwhile mates are huddled in a room together perhaps a year or so after the events of the story, trying to fathom out what turned him into a multiple killer. The irony is, it never occurs to them to ask, "How did WE turn out to be such a bunch of losers?" Lack of opportunity can't explain it - Llyr is a property owner and Marc, we learn, comes from a middle-class family. Perhaps the answer is that they are trapped in, and protected by, a self-referential set of social norms of their own - as long as their conduct is "normal" by their own standards, they never feel the need to justify it.
Another irony is that Ianto, the most aimless and dysfunctional of the entire sorry bunch, is the only one who seems to be capable of generating anger at the injustices he's suffered. As for Llyr, Griff and the other "normal" folk, if they ever feel any discontent with life it never progresses beyond petty xenophobia towards the uber-rich English incomers. They're just too busy getting high and getting laid. It's almost as if apathy and rage are different sides of the same coin.
Many people will be put off by the extremity of the violence, and especially the very distressing sexual abuse scene towards the end. The level of bloodshed and human depravity does at times go beyond what's strictly necessary plot-wise (and in particular I think the sexual abuse element could very well have been left out altogether), but at the same time I feel that if he'd toned down the violence too much, he would have compromised his vision.
This book is bleak but not hopeless, and above all it does not seek to normalise violence. It may not offer much hope of creating a better world, but one is left with the feeling that the world would be a better place if more people were like Niall Griffiths.
9 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
By the time I had finished this book, I felt that I had witnessed some of the bleakest possible lives. None of the characters seemed to have any direction in their lives, getting relentlessly smashed on booze and a variety of drugs. Their behaviour is at the best anti-social, and at the worst actively ruining the lives of others around them with horrific and graphic violence. And they don't even seem to enjoy getting stoned.
And then the writing is over-elaborate, long detailed sentences overflowing with similes, the sentences bursting with adjectives like popcorn in a cinema bucket; looks grand but has little taste.
Yet I couldn't put the book down. I read it in 2 days (skipping some of the popcorn). After finishing it, I threw the book away, not wanting to inflict the depression on anyone else.
And then the writing is over-elaborate, long detailed sentences overflowing with similes, the sentences bursting with adjectives like popcorn in a cinema bucket; looks grand but has little taste.
Yet I couldn't put the book down. I read it in 2 days (skipping some of the popcorn). After finishing it, I threw the book away, not wanting to inflict the depression on anyone else.
9 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A fantastic novel, even exceeding the feat that was Grits. The novel was even more poignant to read given the current controversy over the release of Jamie Bulger's killers. Who is worse; the criminal who commits the atroscity or the vigilantes who jump on the cause as an excuse for further violence? I loved this book as much as I loved the last Griffiths wrote...
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Hard Hitting and Lyrical
I read this one when it came out and found it hard hitting and lyrical at the same time. The subject matter is bleak and depressing , but Griffiths successfully manages to pull off... Read more
Published on 6 Mar 2010 by Mark P
disturbing
On the whole i found this book disturbing. Sometimes i couldn't continue reading it and had to have a break. Read more
Published on 22 Oct 2006 by Ms. W. Overton
dull
The trouble with this book is the unremitting unpleasantness of it all. Yes its bleak, dark and violent, but after 260 pages of this, it tends to become out and out boring. Read more
Published on 28 July 2004 by Mr. K. Reid
a masterpeice
This is the most graphic, desolate book I have read. It is a masterpeice of prose by an obviously very gifted writer.
I simply could not put it down. Read more
Published on 28 Feb 2001
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
