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Stuart: A Life Backwards [Illustrated] (Hardcover)

by Alexander Masters (Author)
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 295 pages
  • Publisher: HarperPerennial; illustrated edition edition (4 April 2005)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0007200366
  • ISBN-13: 978-0007200368
  • Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 14.4 x 3.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 91,222 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #14 in  Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Social Sciences > Social Issues > Illness & Addiction > Drug Addiction
    #40 in  Books > Biography > Social & Health Issues > Alcohol & Drug Abuse
    #53 in  Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Social Sciences > Law & Disorder > Issues > Drugs

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Product Description

Review

'This is a very rare and moral and haunting book, the best of its kind since Alan Bennett's The Lady in the Van. On the way to telling the story of one homeless man, Alexander Masters manages to tell a compelling story about modern Britain, and a new and sometimes funny story about the trials of authorship. A great first book: I think it should replace the Gideon Bible in every hotel room in Britain.' Andrew O'Hagan


Sunday Times

'Not since The Grass Arena has life on the street been catalogued with such candour... unforgettably moving... a gripping read.’
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Customer Reviews

6 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.8 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Gripping, 24 April 2005
By The Fisher Price King "Straight from the gut" (London) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   
This is the biography of a person you've never heard of - a strange but compelling idea. Alexander Masters takes as his subject career criminal Stuart Shorter, and traces his development from grave to cradle, so to speak. In the process he highlights some of the ways that criminality escalates and proliferates: Stuart, a sometime heroin addict and surging muddle of violence, is a chaotic and difficult person, with serious convictions to his name (five years for raiding a post office, for example), but he emerges as a victim of the inadequate criminal justice system, of childhood trauma and of a neglectful educational system. In fact, Stuart, whom Masters paints warts and all, is oddly likeable. This makes the story of his ill-directed life a tragic one, and it's a powerful and timely story too. Moreover, Masters writes in a distinctive and intelligent way; he's not afraid to say things that fly in the face of political correctness, and he's not afraid to show his occasional disgust with Stuart's excesses, but this is a poignant and compassionate book, which deserves to reach a wide audience.
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28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A Masterpiece by Alexander Masters!, 18 May 2005
Alexander Masters has written a very gripping biography - one that almost reads as a novel. An extraordinary friendship develops between Masters, a Cambridge academic, and Stuart, a chaotic, knife-wedding beggar, when the two of them are involved in a campaign to release two charity workers from prison. Masters relates Stuart's life backwards in an attempt to discover how a happy-go-lucky little boy turns into a polydrug-addicted-alcoholic Jekyll and Hyde personality.

Stuart: A Life Backwards not only makes the reader acutely aware of the failings of society but also sense the despair of those who try to make a difference. Masters intelligently and humorously portrays Stuart's life in such a way that one cannot help but like the ex-homeless, ex-junkie psychopath.

Having lived in Cambridge myself during the time of Masters's and Stuart's friendship, I am ashamed to admit that I was blissfully unaware of people like Stuart who made those same streets I walked along their home. For anyone who wishes to have their eyes opened, I highly recommend Stuart: A Life Backwards.

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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Stuart a Life Backwards, 28 Jan 2006
For me “Stuart A life Backwards” was one of the literary highlights of 2005 and was the much deserved winner of the Guardian First Book Award. It is the story of a violent, anti-social drug addict with severe mental health problems, in many ways the ultimate anti-hero. Combining humour and tragedy in equal measure the writer Alexander Masters asks us to step back from our fear and distaste of Stuart (and others like him) and to consider the reasons for his dysfunctional behaviour.

What is most impressive about this book is that it seems so effortlessly written, while it also represents such an innovative approach to the biographical structure you wonder why all biography isn’t written this way.

It is starkly honest, funny and moving but masterfully avoids becoming just another worthy examination of one of society’s less fortunate. As a result its power to challenge your judgement of others is incredibly affecting.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Moving and original
An original take on the ups and downs of an extraordinary life, using the true story of one particular unfortunate individual, in all its various improbabilities, to highlight a... Read more
Published on 30 Jan 2006 by G. L. Haggett

5.0 out of 5 stars Radio 4's presentation
I have not yet read Stuart : A Life Backwards but have been immensely impressed by Radio 4's readings from it (mostly by Masters himself). Read more
Published on 21 Jan 2006 by maggie

5.0 out of 5 stars An unforgettable life
To me, this is the sort of book that can utterly transform how people view or judge a section of society that is too often wilfully ignored, and reads more as something of a... Read more
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