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3.97 AVERAGE
3.97 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
slow-paced
funny
hopeful
informative
relaxing
slow-paced
This was very difficult to read, but an interesting insight nonetheless.
i really don’t know how to feel about this book. surprisingly i found the first part where he spends his time in walton prison much more interesting than the actual part about him in borstal, i don’t know why. a bit disappointed after having seen the film and also after having read confessions of an irish rebel, which i enjoyed much more than this book. i guess the whole cult around it made me get my expectations up by a lot but it left me kind of hanging. not as funny as i thought it would be (even though some parts made me laugh really hard) and i was often annoyed by brendan and his unfunny lies (the one with the part worn screw) and his whole centrist attitude lmao but all in all it was an interesting and fairly entertaining read. probably bc behan himself was just a really interesting character and i am kind of fascinated by him.
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
lighthearted
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Loved it. Surprisingly warm and with lots of little displays of kindness.
A surprisingly fun-to-read book, the language is great, a wild mix of british isles dialogues, cockney slang, and prison slang, all artfully compared and contrasted.
It's very upbeat for a prison book, and there's not much of a story arc or structure, it's fairly stream-of-consciousness. Some greater truths are very slowly revealed, and Behan grows as a person, but there's not much drama and very few shocks or twists, it's as if he found the monotony and structure of prison relaxing, and prison becomes easier and more pleasurable for him as time passes. He portrays himself in a very flattering light, and while he's self-depricating about his few flaws, it's almost frustrating how everything keeps going his way. He's constantly pandering to both his captors and other inmates, finding common ground to keep everyone happy, which is probably a good strategy for getting through prison, and life in general, but not great for dramatic conflict, ha.
But the book is altogether very enjoyable, I look forward to reading his fiction.
It's very upbeat for a prison book, and there's not much of a story arc or structure, it's fairly stream-of-consciousness. Some greater truths are very slowly revealed, and Behan grows as a person, but there's not much drama and very few shocks or twists, it's as if he found the monotony and structure of prison relaxing, and prison becomes easier and more pleasurable for him as time passes. He portrays himself in a very flattering light, and while he's self-depricating about his few flaws, it's almost frustrating how everything keeps going his way. He's constantly pandering to both his captors and other inmates, finding common ground to keep everyone happy, which is probably a good strategy for getting through prison, and life in general, but not great for dramatic conflict, ha.
But the book is altogether very enjoyable, I look forward to reading his fiction.
The novel was published in 1958, and covers the period when Behan was in prison in England. He got out of Borstal (juvenile detention) in 1941 at the age of 18. The surprising thing is that he portrays the Borstal as rather pleasant, though maybe that's just because you see the prisons first, and it's a relief to get outside. He was at a Borstal where the boys worked a farm. There was plenty to eat, you got outside, you could read all you liked in the library in the evening, and there were no walls. He makes it sound as if the founder was still running it, and that he was a visionary. The Knopf edition I read has a glossary at the back, which was invaluable. The little hoodlums use cockney and Irish slang, some of it rhyming slang, e.g. bird is a prison sentence, from birdlime for time.[return][return]His treatment is disconcerting. He wasn't questioned harshly. The British Empire had its boot firmly on the necks of the "lesser races" at the time, yet a 16 year old who acknowledged his membership in the IRA, and had a pack of explosives and plans to bomb the shipyards during the war, was sentenced to 3 years at an open prison with other boys. In these days of mandatory sentences, and trying juveniles as adults, can you imagine that? Mind you, he also describes some beatings by guards at the prison, though considers them not too serious. He also believes that two IRA men who were arrested for a bombing, convicted and executed were innocent of that crime.