The Boy with the Perpetual Nervousness: A Memoir of an Adolescence - Couverture rigide

Caveney, Graham

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 1509830677 ISBN 13 : 9781509830671

Editeur : Picador, 2017

A propos du livre

Revue de presse :

“I haven't loved a book so much in a long time. The way Graham Caveney weaves his story with cultural, political, class stuff is amazing and inspiring to me--all of it fueled by rage, but somehow the rage is clarifying rather than obscuring.  Also: Usually  the presence of the author/mature narrator serves to smooth out the story and make the reader feel safe. Here it is used, brilliantly, to make the stakes even higher--he didn't turn out okay, and he's not holding back on saying so. Also: I loved the simplicity of the chronology, which somehow becomes engine-like rather than boring. Also: the way he just fucking owns his victimhood and mocks it at the same time. Also: the language play, esp. around the molestation itself and the way he gives the act and the headmaster all these different ridiculous names. Hilarious and upsetting and the strongest note of redemption in the book-- he turns his pain into these little dark jokes.” –Claire Dederer, author of Poser: My Life in 24 Yoga Poses

"The Boy With the Perpetual Nervousness is a fascinating book, a hilarious book and a horrifying one. On the surface it is a vivid, funny memoir of growing up in 1970s Lancashire; a wry treatise on the British class system; a hymn to traditions, rituals, ways of life and habits of thought which are already sliding into oblivion. At its core, however, lies something darker, much harder to talk about, and profoundly disturbing. It’s a book which blew me away and shook me to the core." —Jonathan Coe

"Graham Caveney’s enthralling memoir is, in part, about the ambiguous virtues of social mobility... But this book is also about something else that hugely enriches it while deeply unsettling the reader... A gripping read... Despite its subject, this is not a depressing book. It is often bleakly funny and, alongside its troubling main theme, tells a more tender story of adolescent male friendship, unspoken parental love and music’s redemptive power... [Caveney’s] voice on the page is humane, big-hearted and without self-pity... His story... feels as if it had to be written, and it demands to be read." —The Guardian

"Devastating and wonderful. A story that is at times almost unbearable to read except that, in the telling, the story - and the man telling it - somehow, impossibly, become beautiful and whole. Like John Healy’s The Grass Arena, Graham Caveney’s book is an instant classic." —Howard Cunnell

"Fascinating - an honest and funny book about a clever kid growing up in the North and the long ranging effects of trauma." —Cathy Rentzenbrinck

"A powerful, distinct memoir. . . [The Boy with the Perpetual Nervousness] insists that Graham Caveney is here, and that his story is important and that it matters. His open-eyed honesty does himself and his past the justice he was denied at the time." –The Times (UK)

"What Caveney achieves in this powerful, distinctive memoir is the positioning of his repeated sexual abuse into the landscape of an early Eighties adolescence . . . By turns honest, angry, funny, thoughtful, acerbic and desperately sad . . . Caveney impressively resists reaching easy conclusions . . . The book is percussive with black gags, as Caveney attacks the contradictions of his teenage years." –Richard Beard, The Times

"Caveney . . . writes with such robust, defiant attack that he never leaves the reader feeling like a prurient spy. His anger is blistering, any comedy not so much black as bile green . . . Caveney tells the story of his life brilliantly.... you wish there was another one he could have written." –Sunday Times (UK)

"A defiant, important memoir . . . Graham Caveney recounts with great courage and candour how, in the 1970s, as the clever, awkward, nerdy, only child of devoutly Catholic working-class parents in Accrington, Lancashire, he was groomed by a priest at his local grammar school in Blackburn, and then sexually abused by him." –Observer (UK)

"Extraordinary . . . brilliantly detailed, vivid and frequently very funny . . . A remarkable feat." –Editor's Choice, The Bookseller (UK)

Présentation de l'éditeur :

An enthralling, emotional memoir that recounts the ups and downs of coming-of-age, set against the music and literature of the 1970s.

Raised in a small town in the north of England known primarily for its cotton mills, football team, and its deep roots in the “Respectable Working Class,” Graham Caveney armed himself against the confusing nature of adolescence with a thick accent, a copy of Kafka, and a record collection including the likes of the Buzzcocks and Joy Division. All three provided him the opportunity to escape, even if just in mind, beyond his small-town borders. But, when those passions are noticed and preyed upon by a mentor, everything changes.

Now, as an adult, Caveney attempts to reconcile his past and present, coming to grips with both the challenges and wonder of adolescence, music, and literature. By turns angry, despairing, beautifully written, shockingly funny, and ultimately redemptive, The Boy with Perpetual Nervousness is a tribute to the power of the arts—and a startling, original memoir that “feels as if it had to be written, and demands to be read” (The Guardian UK).

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Picador
• Date d'édition: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1509830677
• ISBN 13: 9781509830671
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 320