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A review by wunkymatts
Happy Like Murderers by Gordon Burn
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
slow-paced
4.0
This was such a hard going. It was packed with information, which usually allows me to speed through non-fiction books, but it was so relentless bleak and sad.
It's wonderfully written. Burn is an exceptional writer. His prose is lyrical and conversational, but, when coupled with this subject matter, that only serves to highlight the darkness and depravity.
The forward is written by the ever wonderful Benjamin Myers. He praises the writing but also admires the exposure of a desperate, sordid underbelly that exits in ever society. This is no rural idyll. This is the stark portrayal of generations of dysfunction and poverty. There are no excuses made for the Wests, no justifications, but in so many ways they had as little chance as those they abused and murdered.
It's wonderfully written. Burn is an exceptional writer. His prose is lyrical and conversational, but, when coupled with this subject matter, that only serves to highlight the darkness and depravity.
The forward is written by the ever wonderful Benjamin Myers. He praises the writing but also admires the exposure of a desperate, sordid underbelly that exits in ever society. This is no rural idyll. This is the stark portrayal of generations of dysfunction and poverty. There are no excuses made for the Wests, no justifications, but in so many ways they had as little chance as those they abused and murdered.