- Hardcover: 288 pages
- Publisher: Atlantic Books; Reprint edition (1 Mar 2008)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1843547287
- ISBN-13: 978-1843547280
- Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 14.6 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 255,380 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Watching the Door: A Memoir 1971-78: A Memoir 1971-1978
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More About the Author
Product Description
James Delingpole, Mail on Sunday
'Dark, witty, grim, caustic, despairing, wise, searingly honest and beautifully written... The best informed and most exciting personal account of the Troubles ever published.'
Review
"'Kevin Myers has produced a book that I couldn't put down... What he's written isn't a good book. It's a bad book, bad and bold and brilliant.' Olivia O'Leary, The Irish Times 'Watching the Door brings it all back: the sounds and the smells. In this bittersweet madeleine of a book, Kevin Myers recreates the moral and political slum that was Belfast, and dispels political illusions with irony and caustic wit. What a way to lose your youth.' Christopher Hitchens"
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
As a 70's child living in England, the troubles in Ireland were something that you were aware of, but unless you were living in London, then they didnt seem to represent an intimate threat to your existence. It wasnt until i had visited my sister in Brighton and saw the damage done by the bombing there, that you kind of got a sense, that no where was perhaps untouchable by this group of people. Step forward to the present though, and thanks to catastrophic errors by this government, the threat of terroism has never been greater. The face of terror may have changed but never its personality.
Reading Kevin Myers book provides an intimate portrayal of the effect that conflict has on individual lives. Lives that were often cut short too soon, leaving many families destroyed forever. Indeed, it is this sense of loss which makes his book for such compelling reading. Who was it that said, 'the first casualty of war, is the loss of innocence'. This is so true, especially his accounts of a family that was wiped out by an IRA car crash.
Like a lot of people i am sure, unless you were there, then the knowledge of what was happening across the shores was limited at best, though as Myers highlights from his own account, you could be there, but still not fully understand the complexity of the situation.
As a novice to the troubles in Ireland, Myers book lends a hand to this lack of knowledge (Loyalists? Who were they?) and reminding you that on all sides of the conflict were there some decent people. Myers book though does have light hearted moments concerning his accounts of his sexual exploits, and some serious drinking in the process. One question though Kevin. How come your liver hasnt gone the way of George Best?
It certainly made for a refreshing read away from some biography by a Z list celebrity, which are in no short supply of these days, and seem to pollute the book shelves at the moment.
Reading Kevin Myers book provides an intimate portrayal of the effect that conflict has on individual lives. Lives that were often cut short too soon, leaving many families destroyed forever. Indeed, it is this sense of loss which makes his book for such compelling reading. Who was it that said, 'the first casualty of war, is the loss of innocence'. This is so true, especially his accounts of a family that was wiped out by an IRA car crash.
Like a lot of people i am sure, unless you were there, then the knowledge of what was happening across the shores was limited at best, though as Myers highlights from his own account, you could be there, but still not fully understand the complexity of the situation.
As a novice to the troubles in Ireland, Myers book lends a hand to this lack of knowledge (Loyalists? Who were they?) and reminding you that on all sides of the conflict were there some decent people. Myers book though does have light hearted moments concerning his accounts of his sexual exploits, and some serious drinking in the process. One question though Kevin. How come your liver hasnt gone the way of George Best?
It certainly made for a refreshing read away from some biography by a Z list celebrity, which are in no short supply of these days, and seem to pollute the book shelves at the moment.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I have read countless books which have used the events of this era as their focus and theme. Having grown up on the fringes of south Belfast myself during the early to late-seventies, I don't think I have ever read such a balanced narrative on "the troubles" and the blinkered tribalism that fuelled them. Even though by the final chapter when Myers writes of "...the darkness of my time there" - and by then we know he means the despair of guilt at possible wrong decisions, a failed love affair which still haunts him, lost friends and general disillusionment at suddenly discovering your twenties are gone - this is nonetheless an uplifting narrative where the writer's appetite for life remains strong. True, for every humorous encounter with, say, a Swedish prostitute ("...how I learnt the "Excuse me" is whorish for goodbye forever...") there are several encounters with terrifying characters such as Rab Brown, the UVF psycopath, and the odious John McGuffin, the bar-room socialist and parasite. This is powerful writing. One gets the feeling that Myers has set out to exorcise his own ghosts. I hope he has succeeded.
21 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I really am not keen on reading about Northern ireland and the Troubles, too depressing and upsetting, but after two friends in publishing mentioned reading it, I gave it a try. I can't express how good this book is - it's about Myers as a young journalist covering the troubles and the sheer horror of the troubles, drinking with Loyalist psychopaths, sleeping with the wife of a Republican psycopaths, watching the insanity of Belfast. shocking and amusing in parts. outstanding. It also has some incredibly informative narratives where he explains, for example, how the British welfare state inadvertatntly funded the troubles. he charts the evils and stupidities of all sides with a healthy disdain for IRA, UVF and the buffoons in Whitehall and Stormont.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Buy it
Hands down, the single most upsetting and amazing book I have ever read. If, like me, you grew up too young to understand the "troubles" in NI but later developed a thirst for... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Fredder
sad, funny and accurate
I have read this book in 2 days and would recommend it for its humour, historical interest and, I believe, accuracy. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Martha Blount
Compulsively Readable
Kevin Myers has a reputation as a serial controversialist, and very few people could agree with all of his views, or even most of them. Read more
Published on 16 July 2009 by defri
Brilliance
Fantastic book, hard to put down. He tells it like it is, the complete truth unlike the accounts a polition would give. Read more
Published on 7 Feb 2009 by Rachael O' Connor
Watching The Door - Brilliant Book
I have read dozens of books on Northern Ireland and this is one of the best. It is very balanced and doesn't lean in any political direction. Read more
Published on 10 Jan 2009 by Louise Sinclair
Outstanding 10/10
Simply excellent... my best book of 2006, Iam back following a re-read and am buying this book for my two best friends for 'early Christmas presents! Read more
Published on 15 Oct 2008 by Eamonn Sullivan
Not worth reading
According to Kevin the conflict had nothing to do with beliefs or politics or discrimination. It seems the British press had it right all those years and the real problem was two... Read more
Published on 20 July 2008 by Matthew Harrison
Barely believable
This is a well constructed and fascinating story. It is only when you consider the likelihood of anyone having been so close to so many deaths and remembering the fine detail of... Read more
Published on 2 Jun 2008 by Roger Odoherty
Amazing!
This is very easy to read but certainlly not void of information and fasinating facts. Terrifying violence and written with amazing passion, it's fantastic.
Published on 29 April 2008 by Dan osbourne
Not for serious readers of Northern Ireland's recent past.
I do wish that I hadn't bought this book. I read only half of it and found that I couldn't continue. It was pure tat, self-promoting and so shallow. Read more
Published on 15 April 2008 by John Johnson
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