Books we like ... and books we're not too fussed about
Simon Armitage
Penguin 2009
I was expecting something a bit different from this book. I thought it would be a bit like Giles Smith’s Lost in Music, telling the story of the writer’s childhood and adolescence from a musical perspective. There was a fashion for this kind of thing a while ago: usually there were lots of references to old telly programmes, adverts, and long-forgotten chocolate bars “hilariously” thrown in. The only reasons I went for this anyway were that I thought 1) Armitage was probably a decent writer; 2) on the cover of the hardback there’s a picture of him circa 1983 with floppy hair looking moodily into the middle distance just as I was wont to do back then; 3) he’s almost exactly the same age as me. It wasn’t what I expected at all. It’s actually a collection of essays, articles, and poems ostensibly linked by the theme of music (a link that disappears altogether at times). It’s very funny, nicely self-deprecating, and, as I suspected, well-written (although he misspells “conscience” and uses “disinterested” for “uninterested” once (sorry, old English teachers never die)). Wasn’t too keen on the lyrics / poems (even though Armitage’s day job is poet); they seemed a bit like the little slivers of chocolate they used to put in boxes of Dairy Milk to bring them up to the correct weight. Otherwise I thought this was an enjoyable, likeable read from a youthful writer in his prime.
7 March 2010
http://www.simonarmitage.com/
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