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Alan Sillitoe

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner Paperback – 16 July 2007

by Sillitoe (Author)

4.3 281 ratings

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From the author of ‘Saturday Night and Sunday Morning’ come stories of hardship and hope in post-war Britain.

The title story in this classic collection tells of Smith, a defiant young rebel, inhabiting the no-man's land of institutionalised Borstal. As his steady jog-trot rhythm transports him over an unrelenting, frost-bitten earth, he wonders why, for whom and for what he is running.

A groundbreaking work, ‘The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner’ captured the grim isolation of the working class in the English Midlands when it was first published in 1960s. But Sillitoe’s depiction of petty crime and deep-seated anger in industrial and desperate cities remains as potent today as it was almost half a century ago.

ISBN-10

0007255608
ISBN-13

978-0007255603
Edition

1st
Publisher

Harper Perennial
Publication date

16 July 2007
Language

English
Dimensions

22.86 x 15.24 x 3.18 cm
Print length

192 pages
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Product description

Review

‘I have read nothing to compare with it.’ Penelope Mortimer

‘Sillitoe writes with tremendous energy, and his stories simply tear along.’ Daily Telegraph

‘All the imaginative sympathy in the world can’t fake this kind of thing. It must have been lived in, seen, touched, smelled: and we are lucky to have a writer who has come out of it knowing the truth, and having the skill to turn that truth into art.’ New Statesman

‘Graphic, tough, outspoken, informal.’ The Times

‘A beautiful piece of work, confirming Sillitoe as a writer of unusual spirit and great promise.’ Guardian

‘A major writer.’ Malcolm Bradbury

About the Author

Alan Sillitoe was born in 1928 and left school at 14 to work in various factories. He began writing after four years in the RAF, and lived for six years in France and Spain. His first stories were printed in the ‘Nottingham Weekly Guardian’. In 1958 ‘Saturday Night and Sunday Morning’ was published and ‘The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner’, which won the Hawthornden prize for Literature, came out the following year. Both these books were made into films.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper Perennial; 1st edition (16 July 2007)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 192 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0007255608
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0007255603
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 22.86 x 15.24 x 3.18 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 137,114 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 3,535 in British Detective Stories
- 4,783 in War Story Fiction
- 5,972 in Fiction Classics (Books)

Customer reviews:
4.3 281 ratings

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4.3 out of 5

281 global ratings

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Ian Fulcher

Something different.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 21 October 2022

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Slightly disappointed after reading the reviews. That said, as I got into the other stories I found some quite fun and not what I would usually read. Not a life changer, but I finished it.

Helpful

Strong sense of time and place

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 31 October 2017

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I'd heard of this story but had never read it so was curious when it was recommended to me. Firstly I was surprised that the book was short stories, with the titled story being just one of them. I thought that the story could have been much longer without losing any of the impact.
The narrator is serving time in a borstal during the 1950s. His potential for running has been spotted by the governor, so he is being given time out of the establishment to practice and prepare for a prestigious race. Smith is too strong to allow himself to be exploited so he rebels and takes the consequences.
It is a portrait of a particular time in history. It is unlikely that a reader will have been anywhere near a borstal but will be able to understand Smith's feeling of limited freedom as he runs through the frosty morning.
I didn't particularly enjoy the style of the title story as it was very introspective, although found it strangely uplifting in that he was able to fight in his own way. The author's way of writing seemed quite dated but that gave the story a strong sense of time and place which will never be experienced again.
The rest of the stories I found to be much more compelling. The theme of loneliness prevails with a consistent setting of the Nottingham slums. Some are profoundly sad and others took my breath away with their bleakness.

4 people found this helpful

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jinx

Good book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 12 April 2021

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I read this book years ago and saw the film as well. ai found this sad in places but well worth the read.

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Siobhan Lee

Working class life sterotype 1950

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 26 February 2019

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Bought this book as we were doing a short cuorse on Nottinghamshire writers. Read it when I was much younger andthe angry young men were all the rage. Found it really depressing that nothing apart from affluence within the working class has changed. But attitudes have not changed hat much.

One person found this helpful

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Reader

Read it twice to fully understand

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 13 February 2021

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An excellent book, but requires MINIMUM two readings

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Josie Spinks

An Excellent Collection

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 6 March 2014

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of Alan Sillitoe's stories from the 50s. The title story is told in the trenchant, insubordinate tones of the young Borstal offender who lives and runs for himself, not any "pop-eyed, pot-bellied bastards" in Authority. The author creates a very powerful kind of Angry Young Man, a working class criminal, a refusnik, who is oddly sympathetic and even admirable - even after fifty years.

3 people found this helpful

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D Hammond

Four Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 18 August 2017

Verified Purchase

Haven't finished it yet but I like what I have read.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 29 August 2015

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Absolute classic of working class literature. Seems dated in parts but that just adds to its charm.

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