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3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
This is the kind of book that sticks with you forever. It really gave me a better understanding of a place I’ve come from but was too young to properly understand. There are some dedicated people out there supporting the most vulnerable and we should all appreciate that a little more
emotional
funny
informative
lighthearted
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Prose: 5
Interesting Content: 5
Perspective Shift: 4
Comments:
There are two main reasons I really love this book…
1) This is one of the funniest books I’ve ever read. Very dark/gallows humour, and so it may not tickle everyone, but I was smiling or laughing out loud every other page.
2) The subject matter is fascinating to me and such an important subject. I feel that we should see and hear much more from these heavily stigmatised and marginalised communities. Also, I found it really interesting reading about the legal processes and day to day workings of the author as well as various professionals mentioned.
Summation:
Vitally important and really really funny. Read it.
Interesting Content: 5
Perspective Shift: 4
Comments:
There are two main reasons I really love this book…
1) This is one of the funniest books I’ve ever read. Very dark/gallows humour, and so it may not tickle everyone, but I was smiling or laughing out loud every other page.
2) The subject matter is fascinating to me and such an important subject. I feel that we should see and hear much more from these heavily stigmatised and marginalised communities. Also, I found it really interesting reading about the legal processes and day to day workings of the author as well as various professionals mentioned.
Summation:
Vitally important and really really funny. Read it.
3.5
This was different because I didn't know very much about this job at all. So it was fascinating to learn more and learn what the job is really about. It's good parts and bad parts. It filled with dark humour that you quickly realise is much needed for the people in this job because some of the people they have to mix with are...not very nice people shall we say who have a penchant for making things harder than they need to be. Infact some of them enjoy making others lives more miserable. And some of them had a real fondness for complaining. I can see why it's a job with a lot burn out and why people don't stay too long in the job. Including the author, who has a lot of compassion and the want to do good, but cannot continue with the job because it's effecting their mental health.
This was different because I didn't know very much about this job at all. So it was fascinating to learn more and learn what the job is really about. It's good parts and bad parts. It filled with dark humour that you quickly realise is much needed for the people in this job because some of the people they have to mix with are...not very nice people shall we say who have a penchant for making things harder than they need to be. Infact some of them enjoy making others lives more miserable. And some of them had a real fondness for complaining. I can see why it's a job with a lot burn out and why people don't stay too long in the job. Including the author, who has a lot of compassion and the want to do good, but cannot continue with the job because it's effecting their mental health.
4 Stars from me
I was captivated by the easy style and dry humour of Nick Pettigrew in this book. It is a tough old subject and although that very much came across, Pettigrew made it entertaining and accessible.
It felt to me like quite an important book as it drew such awareness to this side of life and the people who work in this world - not to mention those who live in this world.
It is liberally peppered with dark comedic moments which are much needed among the daily gloom - I take my hat off to all who do this job, ditto social workers, ditto probation officers.
The nod to the prescription (and non prescription) ways in which he medicated in order to cope with the job was sad but I am very sure true.
All in all, a very clever way of bringing this life to the forefront of people's minds and highlighting the difficulties faced by those tackling this difficult area of employment.
Clever, darkly funny, true to life and and excellent read.
I was captivated by the easy style and dry humour of Nick Pettigrew in this book. It is a tough old subject and although that very much came across, Pettigrew made it entertaining and accessible.
It felt to me like quite an important book as it drew such awareness to this side of life and the people who work in this world - not to mention those who live in this world.
It is liberally peppered with dark comedic moments which are much needed among the daily gloom - I take my hat off to all who do this job, ditto social workers, ditto probation officers.
The nod to the prescription (and non prescription) ways in which he medicated in order to cope with the job was sad but I am very sure true.
All in all, a very clever way of bringing this life to the forefront of people's minds and highlighting the difficulties faced by those tackling this difficult area of employment.
Clever, darkly funny, true to life and and excellent read.
Funny and depressing insight into the life of an ASB officer. Hat's off to anyone who does this work: underpaid, often thankless, sometimes dangerous and often a bit soul destroying.
Exceptional first-person narrative of a broken social system, told with enough acerbity and jokes to keep the reader hooked. The epilogue is worth reading on its own, but the reader understands much more having read the 350 pages before it. The footnotes are in tiny font, but otherwise this is flawless, like Adam Kay's book to which it is compared.
This could have been a really dark memoir, showcasing as it does the people who live life on the sidelines - either in poverty or dancing close to it's borders; drug sellers, drug users, alcoholics, and a good dose of mental health issues thrown into the mix.
But Nick, an ASB officer (ASB stand for anti-social behaviour) has a great sense of humour and injects that into his diary regularly. I would guess that to do this job for any length of time (he did it for 10 years) you'd need a good sense of humour, as well as an abundance of empathy, compassion and common sense, and the ability to hold your temper at times when you're faced with tenants (or customers, or clients, whatever's the current buzzword the council has decided on) who refuse to help themselves even when a helping hand is offered.
There are plenty of people in this book that you'll help feel sorry for - they haven't been dealt a good hand by life, facing challenges that many of us have never had to consider let alone deal with. And there's a good sprinking of nasty. lazy and feckless characters - although even then, many of them have a backstory that rarely failes to elicit a modicum of sympathy for their plight.
At times amusing; at other times an uncomfortable read that will have you questioning why the systems in place don't help (and often hinder), and what we can do as a society and as individuals to "level the playing field" which is what Prime Minister Johnson said he wants to do.
But Nick, an ASB officer (ASB stand for anti-social behaviour) has a great sense of humour and injects that into his diary regularly. I would guess that to do this job for any length of time (he did it for 10 years) you'd need a good sense of humour, as well as an abundance of empathy, compassion and common sense, and the ability to hold your temper at times when you're faced with tenants (or customers, or clients, whatever's the current buzzword the council has decided on) who refuse to help themselves even when a helping hand is offered.
There are plenty of people in this book that you'll help feel sorry for - they haven't been dealt a good hand by life, facing challenges that many of us have never had to consider let alone deal with. And there's a good sprinking of nasty. lazy and feckless characters - although even then, many of them have a backstory that rarely failes to elicit a modicum of sympathy for their plight.
At times amusing; at other times an uncomfortable read that will have you questioning why the systems in place don't help (and often hinder), and what we can do as a society and as individuals to "level the playing field" which is what Prime Minister Johnson said he wants to do.