Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
i wish there were six stars, 12 Jan 2006
By A Customer
This book is astonishing on all levels. For the things it tells, and for the way it tells them. Before this book I'd cross the road to avoid a group of kids like the Shed Crew. Now, I'd probably still cross the road, but at least I know they've probably got poetry in them. At least I know I could know them better and that there's undoubtedly something better to know. Bernard and Urban, hats off to you. Go throw flowers at yersen.
|
|
|
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Everyone should read this book!, 6 Jun 2006
Firstly I would like to say that I believe that everyone has a right to voice their opinions - having said that I was gobsmacked to read reviews on this website that attacked the nature and integrity of this book and it's author. I have NEVER in all my life read a book quite like this. It is incredibly well written, and though the all the characters and events are factuals accounts, the book has the fluidity of an astonishinly brilliant novel. My interpretation is that there are many saviours within the story - Would Bernard Hare have survived without Urban Grimshaw? And where would Urban Grimshaw be without Bernard Hare? Hare helped the people that society deem unfit for help - the lost people of Britain. The people who have no homes, possessions, and in most cases, aspirations. I would agree with the comments that are raised about Hare's own relationship with drugs not being a 'Good Example' in a traditional sense but would argue that it is precisely because Hare has first hand experience of the drug culture that he is fit to offer advice. I believe that Christina Patterson (Independent) sums the importance of the book perfectly on the back cover 'It has real power. Every politician - and every voter - should read it'. To that I would add this - Love it or Hate it but please READ IT! Urban Grimshaw and the Shed Crew will stay with me for a long, long time - and I have nothing but respect for Bernard Hare's patience, understanding and his ability to tell a great story.
|
|
|
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Dickensian Nightmare in inner-city Leeds, 26 Jun 2005
It would be a pity if people didn't pick up this book because they thought it was a kind of gritty social science. In fact the (true) story of Urban Grimshaw reads like fiction of the highest order. The events are, by turn, hilarious and deeply moving. The milieu is similar to Irvine Welsh's 'Trainspotting' but Hare's narrative voice is more accessible and, if anything, more assured. Hare, like James Kelman, has worked and lived with the community he documents; he shares many of their values and, although the book is permeated with a sense of outrage at the destruction of the social fabric caused by the Thatcher years its vitality, energy and sheer comedy give one hope. The 'characters' in the book have much to offer, but they are easy to demonise and, as Hare discovers, hard to help. The question is, who, beyond the level of the individual, is prepared to help in a world where social structures have collapsed.
Although assisted by BBC journalist, Fergal Keane whose 'A Stranger's Eye' visits the same area of inner-city Leeds, Hare has produced a book with much wider appeal. The book is a compelling read which, like all good stories, has its own momentum. I couldn't put it down.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
5.0 out of 5 stars
love or hate
like one of the other readers sais,,,,,love it or hate it,,,approve or disapprove,,,,this book has to be read,,,,it is a rolllercoaster of a read..
Read more
Published on 17 Jul 2007 by C. G. Fletcher
|
|
by Kate Sapin
by Nick Davies
by Tony Jeffs
by Mark Johnson
