Reviews

Red or Dead by David Peace

celtic67's review

2.0

I loved The Dam United by this author. But this book I did not enjoy. I found the writing dull and reptatative. I struggled with this and I could have used the time to read something I enjoyed

js1512's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

issie_reads's review

informative inspiring slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

poppymaud's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

tucholsky's review

1.0

doesn't give a real insight into a pretty great man. In the back of my mind his words were being narrated by Jim bullseye Bowen not a lively man from Ayrshire. The only hint being calling jock stein John. portrays him as good to his family be a use he feels that is the expected and two faced and malleable with his players

categal's review against another edition

5.0

This was my slow read of the year. Outstanding. Do I know anything about English football? No. Do I know anything about Liverpool Football Club, Bill Shankly, the whole culture? Other than a few Smith songs, no.

This book is relentless, hypnotizing, inspiring, thrilling, all encompassing. I loved it.

rpgw84's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.25

A mammoth of a read. The portrayal of Shankly himself is superb. You can feel his inner thoughts and anxieties. I can imagine the repetitive sentences are not to everyone’s taste though. 

lou1sb's review

5.0

What do I read next? How do I follow up a book like this? A book that stylistically reads like a Wisden Cricketer's Almanack from the Bradman years. A book that spends four pages analysing Bill Shankly washing his car but reduces a whole football season to half a page. A book stylistically unlike any other I've read. Is it fact or fiction? Yes. Did Bill Shankly invent the false nine? No. Did Bill Shankly invent Total Football? No (although I'm not sure if the book claims he did). Is the Anfield Kop populated by gentleman who clap the opposition, while the Stretford End at Old Trafford is populated by bottle and fist-throwing thugs? Probably. Is this all just Liverpool bias talking? Yes, yes I think so.

I'm always suspicious of any book that repaints the life of a great man (never a woman, mind you) in a palette coloured by nostalgia, but this is perhaps a novel as much about the myth of obsessive greatness as it is about the great man himself.

In all serious though, what do I read next?

leerazer's review against another edition

5.0

This is a brilliant book, a towering achievement that I'll recall long after many other books have faded from my memory. I'm only agreeing with a large number of others when I note that it resembles an Homeric epic, though it concerns the manager of an English football club in the twentieth century. And that the unconventional, repetitious writing style mirrors the repetitious march of a football season, training session after training session, match after match, year after year. For an original observation, the style reminds me of Gertrude Stein. "If I told him would he like it. Would he like it if I told him. Would he like it would Napoleon would Napoleon would would he like it." Okay it's not that extreme, but it belongs to the same artistic experimental realm in my head.

I think it very daring of Melville House to publish this in America. As a reader open to challenging, experimental literature, as a huge fan of Liverpool Football Club, I'm the ideal target audience. But there can't be that many of me this side of the ocean. Will many Americans unfamiliar with English soccer culture pick up and enjoy a 700 page challengingly written brick of a novel about Liverpool FC and their manager Bill Shankly in the 1960s and 70s, when the game was still a working class affair even, far from the riches and glitz of the modern English Premier League? Some are, and I hope this novel finds and is enjoyed by many more.

Bill Shankly was a man worth getting to know, and this novel gives one the best possible feel for him that I can imagine a book giving. His drive, his ambition, his love for his fellow man, his obsession with the game to the unfortunate neglect of other parts of life, his difficult transition into retirement, his neediness and his generosity. Brilliant.

A quote from the book here, since it's too long to fit in the 'updates' section:

In his room, his hotel room. Not in his bed, his hotel bed. Bill paced and Bill paced. Bill thinking and Bill thinking. Bill knew failure could become habitual, defeat become routine. Routine and familiar. Familiar and accepted. Accepted and permanent. Permanent and imprisoning. Imprisoning and suffocating. Bill knew failure carried chains. Chains to bind you. You and your dreams. To bind you and your dreams alive. Bill knew defeat carried spades. Spades to bury you. Your and your hopes. To bury you and your hopes alive. Bill knew you had to fight against failure. With every bone in your body. Bill knew you had to struggle against defeat. With every drop of your blood. You had to fight against failure, you had to struggle against defeat. For your dreams and for your hopes. For you and for the people. To fight and to struggle. For the dreams of the people,
for the hopes of the people. (p264)

lem119's review

4.0

I would venture to say that, apart from the obvious fact of the subject itself, the writing style of Red or Dead means that it will be mainly, if not solely, interesting to Liverpool supporters. I would theoretically read a book about Matt Busby (maybe), but I wouldn't want to read a three page description of a time he washed his car or a play by play of every single game he managed for Manchester United. To be honest, there were parts of this book even that I found unbelievably tedious. Bill Shankly this, Bill Shankly that. To an extent it made sense in showing Shankly's fastidiousness, his dedication, his attention to detail, but to a similar extent it just made me skim through to the parts where he wasn't laying out the table for breakfast. Still, though, the book served its purpose, chronicling in novel form the life and career of one of football's greatest, and how he made the people happy. I don't know what kind of research Peace did in writing the book, where he got some of the stories and whether they're anecdotes from fans or made up for dramatic effect, but scenes where Shankly meets a supporter to whom he gave his tie or where he talks to fans on the train one by one are pretty much the epitome of the club's motto and made for a respectful and, for the most part, compelling history of a man who helped put Liverpool on top of the world.