Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant, 4 Sep 2001
Make no mistake, this is a brilliant novel. And while most people seem to want to compare it to one of Roddy Doyle's Barrytown works, it more properly belongs alongside Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting. Like Welsh's breakthrough book, conversations are transcribed in local dialect and slang (the Geordie of Newcastle), once you get the rhythm of it, it's lovely. And as in Trainspotting, Tulloch is interested in humanizing the inhabitants of modern Britain's slums and ghettos-here through Gerry and Sewell, two teenage boys living in Gateshead. They play truant from school, wandering aimlessly, joyriding and thieving until they give voice their dream: to save up enough money to buy season tickets for Newcastle United. From that point on, all their half-baked scams and grafting are focused on attaining that prize. In the background is Gerry's impoverished family life: his mother slowly dying, a sister missing on the streets, a baby nephew and grandmother who need caring for, repo men coming for the TV, not enough money for sugar, and always lurking in the shadows, an abusive and alcoholic father who they all must hide from. Rescuing this from being a simple portrait of poverty is the loyal friendship between crafty Gerry and large but slow dog-loving Sewell (bringing to mind Of Mice and Men). The two are minor criminals, but it's hard not to keep rooting for them, even when one of their schemes goes nastily awry. To be fair to the comparisons to Roddy Doyle, Tulloch's narrative is more linear, he doesn't engage in the kind of phantasmigorical pyrotechnics Welsh does, not is it as formless as Trainspotting. Rather, the book is a masterpiece of bittersweet minimalist observation. If Alan Sillitoe had been born 35 years later, this is a book he might have written. Oh yes, and if anyone thinks the portrayal of Gateshead is overwrough, read Danziger's Britain, and prepare to be depressed about the state of modern Britain.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Refreshing and humorous read, 11 Mar 2000
I found this book refreshing, combining a real humour and serious social comment ('observations' might be a better word because there is no preaching of any kind). Jonathan tells his story consistently well. He has caught the atmosphere of the place and the beat of the young people very well. There are some memorably funny moments - I particularly like the way Jonathan has conveyed the crazy humour of the people. I don't want to give any example because the humour is built-up so well, any attempt of mine to explain what made me laugh probably wouldn't succeed. I don't remember reading any book that approached the subject quite like this one does. A good example of this is the way Jonathan uses the presence of nature to create the atmosphere - from the water widening over the tidal mud in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead to getting lost in one of England's biggest forests while on a mission to Kevin Keegan... Jonathan tells a story, and the facts of the story speak for themselves, like the inability of some fans to afford tickets and the difficult family situations that some have to live in. Here the novel is quite bleak. I don't think any novel is 100% true to life, but I for one saw the truth in this book and it made me think, and that's probably a good thing. I look forward to seeing the film.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Tulloch is the Roddy Doyle of Gateshead, 24 Feb 2000
Richard Selfridge's unbelievably wrong-minded review has held sway for too long. However, I must declare an interest: I am Jonathan Tulloch's literary agent. Rather than tell you how impressed I am with Jonathan's stunning literary debut I thought it would be helpful to read what other reviewers have thought if it: "If John Steinbeck had been born in Tynside he would proably have wirtten a book with the same two characters created by Jonathan ... a Geordie version of OF MICE AND MEN" - Glasgow Herald "As funny as Viz, as true as Roddy Doyle" - GQ "THE SEASON TICKET ... is a tender book, a KES for our time, which carefully measures out its humour and its sympathy." - The Times "THE SEASON TICKET is a study of loyalty, love and friendship ... often grimly amusing and sometimes very, very funny" The Independent on Sunday Anyone interested in what is broadly called the human condition should read the book.
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