Tasting the Wind
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| |||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £2.50
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in Tasting the Wind for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £2.50, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
Product Description
Product Description
Set against the background of the 1980's movement of people from long-stay 'Mental Handicap' hospitals into the community, this is a unique blend. In 'Tasting the Wind' the thriller meets the 'lad novel' in a story which is dark, gripping, humorous... and above all hopeful.
From the Author
50% of the author's royalties are going to Derian House Children's Hospice.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Allan Mayer's thriller Tasting the Wind writes an excellent portrayal of people with mental difficulties in a care home. I think it works because the author has used his experiences of working with such people, and so you can clearly tell that the book is well researched.
It's a clever book that mixes suspense/thriller with genuine moments of comedy which isn't slapstick but sincere real life comic moments. An uncomfortable read at times, but that's down to the author forcing us to read something that we'd rather not know about - life in a care home.
Loved it!
It's a clever book that mixes suspense/thriller with genuine moments of comedy which isn't slapstick but sincere real life comic moments. An uncomfortable read at times, but that's down to the author forcing us to read something that we'd rather not know about - life in a care home.
Loved it!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I read this book after hearing Allan Mayer read some extracts from it at a conference - and I'm so glad that I did. Anyone who was around during the 'big resttlement' of the 1980s will cringe as they recognise many of the absurdities and contradictions of the time. These are beautifully captured by Mayer in the debates about language and 'real choice', the early experiments at social integration ending in tragi-comic farcical outcomes in pubs and shops and his hilarious minutes of residential home staff meetings. He also gives a riveting portrayal of the utterly, bizarre, other-planetary world of the long-stay hospital: that asylum where people were anything but safe, the hospital were people weren't ill and didn't get treated, the NHS facility where most of the staff were more institutionalised than the patients. If you weren't around at that time then this book will give you a searingly honest portrayal of what it was like, including the mistakes and the new absurdities perpetrated by some of the well-meaning but at times over-zealous 'liberators' who supported people out of the hospitals.
However the book is much more than this. At different times it had me shaking with laughter, welling up with tears and consumed by rage - sometimes within the space of one or two pages. He is a gifted comic writer, but never at the expense of the people of he is writing about and has created a world of believable, rounded people, including the people with severe learning disabilities who are the stars of the novel. Although very, very funny at times this is not a comic novel - it has very serious themes and an underlying poignancy. To have created a thriller in which the stars are two people with severe learning disabilities, one of whom can't talk and the other seems to chant nonsense, is some achievement and gives an identity to people which no amount of worthy 'values' training could ever achieve.
Allan Mayer captures something very important about the post-hospital experience of people with learning disabilities and the people who work with them. However progressive and 'person centred' the thinking, we seem to find ever more ingenious ways of not listening to what people with learning disabilities are trying to tell us, even the most progressive amongst us. Some would say especially the most progressive amongst us.
I share other reviewers experience of the at times bizarre layout of this novel, with strange gaps and rogue paragraphs floating up or down to where they shouldn't be. I believe it arises from this being printed to order rather than in bulk. However for me it somehow reflected the world it was written about - it's the sort of book layout you'd expect to come out of the strange world of the mental handicap hospital.
However the book is much more than this. At different times it had me shaking with laughter, welling up with tears and consumed by rage - sometimes within the space of one or two pages. He is a gifted comic writer, but never at the expense of the people of he is writing about and has created a world of believable, rounded people, including the people with severe learning disabilities who are the stars of the novel. Although very, very funny at times this is not a comic novel - it has very serious themes and an underlying poignancy. To have created a thriller in which the stars are two people with severe learning disabilities, one of whom can't talk and the other seems to chant nonsense, is some achievement and gives an identity to people which no amount of worthy 'values' training could ever achieve.
Allan Mayer captures something very important about the post-hospital experience of people with learning disabilities and the people who work with them. However progressive and 'person centred' the thinking, we seem to find ever more ingenious ways of not listening to what people with learning disabilities are trying to tell us, even the most progressive amongst us. Some would say especially the most progressive amongst us.
I share other reviewers experience of the at times bizarre layout of this novel, with strange gaps and rogue paragraphs floating up or down to where they shouldn't be. I believe it arises from this being printed to order rather than in bulk. However for me it somehow reflected the world it was written about - it's the sort of book layout you'd expect to come out of the strange world of the mental handicap hospital.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
What a book. Sadness, humour, reality, and above all truth. This novel has it all. You will care for the characters as much as Allan obviously does. Well written with deep understanding and care. Don't miss this one...No matter what your taste in genre, Tasting the Wind will appeal to you.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Tasting the Wind
"Tasting the Wind" has two things going for it. The first, and most obvious, is the thriller storyline. Read more
Published 9 months ago by BigAl
Don't start reading it when you're busy!
A well crafted story that gathers momentum as it progresses until it becomes a page-turner. The characters develop nicely through their interaction with each other and the world in... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Becca
Easy read
Had been told that this book was based on a true story - not sure now about that now I have read it. Does give a bit of an insight though
Published 15 months ago by Mrs. Janet O'hare
Recommended Reading
reading this book brought back so many feelings - some nostalgic and some very uncomfortable. Having worked in residential care with adults with learning disabilities in the years... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Mrs. Julie M. Aspin
A legend
If you work for people with learning disabilities I recommend this book. Everything in it is so familiar. It is well thought out. Just read it. Read more
Published on 18 Feb 2010 by Lobby Ludd
Interesting concepts, lost a bit in terms of narrative
I loved the start of this book. I loved the way it captures so well what we can only imagine to be the frustrations of a person with communication methods which are different from... Read more
Published on 8 Jan 2010 by H. D. Doel
Intriguing... if disjointed
This is an engaging and interesting read - it has good characterisation and alot of suspense. Other reviews have covered the essential plot elements, but let me echo their... Read more
Published on 19 Dec 2009 by S. Glover
A Murder Mystery in a Health Care Facility
Allan Mayer's "Tasting the Wind" brought back memories of my visits to a long-term-care facility where my mother had spent some time. Read more
Published on 10 Oct 2009 by Waheed Rabbani
Intriguing story of unforgetable character
Tasting The Wind is an exciting, involving and special book. I wondered about the title and the red balloon fronting the grey forbidding fortress of a building on the cover. Read more
Published on 13 May 2009 by C. Kirby
Fantastic
I bought this wondering how it might fair, but I was so glad I did.
I found the story really gripping, especially some of the more revealing chapters. Read more
I found the story really gripping, especially some of the more revealing chapters. Read more
Published on 22 April 2009 by E. Took
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192198663_.gif){kind=small}
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.
|
