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A review by lou1sb
Red or Dead by David Peace
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?
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?