Reading the 20th Century discussion

Our theme for the RTTC February 2020 group read is....


Working Class Writing

So that's a twentieth century novel by a working class writer, or a book about working class writing.

Please feel free to add a synopsis and why you think it would make a good book to discuss as part of this topic

We've already had some great suggestions in our discussion over at "Welcome to The Midnight Bell (a virtual pub and general discussion thread)". So much so that I can confidently assert that, as usual, we're going to have another embarrassment of riches once the nominations are in

I have decided to nominate a book which I have long wanted to read and which patiently waits on my shelf...

A Kind of Loving (1960) by Stan Barstow

It's a manageable 272 pages.

It has also been translated into a film of the same name, a television series, a radio play and a stage play. A Kind of Loving was the first of a trilogy, published over the course of sixteen years, that followed hero Vic Brown through marriage, divorce and a move from the mining town of Cressley to London. The other two parts are The Watchers on the Shore and The Right True End.

It has 116 customer ratings on Amazon UK with an average score of 4.7 out of 5 stars

Here's the synopsis....

All about love, lust, and loneliness, the book introduces Vic Brown, a young working-class Yorkshireman. Vic is attracted to the beautiful but demanding Ingrid, and as their relationship grows and changes, he comes to terms the hard way with adult life and what it really means to love. The influence of Barstow's novel has been lasting the literary label "lad-lit" was first applied to this book, and over the years it has been adapted for radio, television, and the big screen.

Originally published in 1960, this popular novel about frustrated youth laid the groundwork for contemporary writers such as Tony Parsons and Nick Hornby.




A Kind of Loving by Stan Barstow

NOMINATIONS SO FAR
Nigeyb: A Kind of Loving by Stan Barstow

I will also suggest a novel of a manageable length. 144 pages.

Up the Junction

The girls - Rube, Lily and Sylvie - work at McCrindle's sweet factory during the week and on Saturday they go up the Junction in their clattering stilettos, think about new frocks on H.P., drink tea in the cafe, and talk about their boyfriends. In these uninhibited, spirited vignettes of young women's lives in the shabby parts of South London in the sixties, money is scarce and enjoyment to be grabbed while it can.

Susan wrote: "I will also suggest a novel of a manageable length. 144 pages.

Up the Junction

The girls - Rube, Lily and Sylvie - work at McCrindle's sweet f..."

That looks really good, Susan. It’s not available on Kindle in the US, but there are plenty of used paperbacks available.

Two good nominations so far - I've read A Kind of Loving in the past, and would be interested to read Up the Junction.

I’d like to read Up The Junction too

NOMINATIONS SO FAR:


Nigeyb: A Kind of Loving by Stan Barstow
Susan: Up the Junction by Nell Dunn

I will nominate
Ironopolis by Glen James Brown.

Nominated for The Orwell Prize for Political Fiction.

'Glen James Brown’s first novel is named after a long-gone thriving industrial Middlesbrough. Over five decades, we meet residents of the fictional Burn Council Estate and witness the closure of the area’s coal and steel mills as the estate is fought over and eventually carved up by a housing association.

Clearly a labour of love, this hugely ambitious debut weaves not only six narratives but multiple timelines, narrative voices and forms. In a lesser writer’s hands, this might have felt overworked, but here the estate becomes a character in its own right. Lives overlap, and yet each experience and interaction within that setting is unique.'

The fifty years covered in the timeline of the book start in the 1960s, which dovetails nicely with the other nominations so far. The Steelworks closures were mainly in the early 2000s.

Thanks Val - sounds fab


NOMINATIONS SO FAR:

Nigeyb: A Kind of Loving by Stan Barstow
Susan: Up the Junction by Nell Dunn
Val: Ironopolis by Glen James Brown

I haven't read it myself yet Nigey, but it is one I want to and will set up as a 'buddy read' if it doesn't win. (It is published by a small Welsh press and may be difficult to get hold of outside the UK.)

Good idea Val

Nigeyb wrote: "Perhaps A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines will get nominated for our February 2020 working class writing themed group read?

I read A Kestrel for a Knave very recently and agree with Michael and Jill that it would make an excellent nomination and a great discussion book too.

It's also very short, so easy for everyone to fit it in.

A Kestrel for a Knave (1968) by Barry Hines packs a huge emotional punch.

Here’s my review

5/5

"

I just watched....

Greg Davies: Looking for Kes

...which is currently on iPlayer

It's superb and will either make you want to read the book, or be very glad you have read the book and probably make you want to read it again.

For many youngsters back in the day, Kes was the first end-of-innocence film that they had seen, and as such it was quite a punch to the gut. But many more had already come across its gritty world of betting slips, Barnsley oaths and falconry jesses in class readings of the film’s source novel, A Kestrel for a Knave.

In this warmly engaging look back, comedian Greg Davies visits the stomping ground of its author, Barry Hines, who died in 2016, and meets both his brother Richard, on whom the book’s downtrodden, kestrel-training hero was based, and Dai Bradley, who played him in the film.

Davies also chats to musician Jarvis Cocker, a fellow fan who neatly condenses the book’s appeal: “That symbolism of flight and escape from what’s holding you down”. And to Kes director Ken Loach, who gave such unforgettable expression to that escape – though the production is not without controversy.

But it’s the story’s distinctive South Yorkshire dialect (heard from Richard Hines and, in a lovely archive interview, Barry) that reminds you of the voice it gave to those without hope or prospects. It’s one that reverberates in broken Britain today.

Any one else nominating, or thinking about it?

I don't think I'll nominate this month as I'd like to re-read Barstow. .

I would like to, but haven't thought of anything yet.

The book I would have nominated is already on the list, so I won’t add anything else.

Studs Terkel's Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do. Not sure if it is actually "working class" but it is about workin, an oral history.

The only other work I could think of in this line was Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America.

Jan C wrote: "Studs Terkel's Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do. Not sure if it is actually "working class" but it is about working, ..."
It fits the theme Jan, even if not everyone he spoke to would describe themselves as 'working class'.

Thanks all. Thanks Jan for your nomination - another good one.


Any more nominations? I know Judy is mulling over whether to nominate, anyone else?

NOMINATIONS SO FAR:

Nigeyb: A Kind of Loving by Stan Barstow
Susan: Up the Junction by Nell Dunn
Val: Ironopolis by Glen James Brown
Jan: Working: People Talk about What They Do All Day and How They Feel about What They Do by Studs Terkel

Last chance to nominate


I'll give it another 24 hours and then set up the poll tomorrow - unless anyone says they need more time

Nigeyb wrote: "Last chance to nominate


I'll give it another 24 hours and then set up the poll tomorrow - unless anyone says they need more time"

Going going.....

Only a few choices, but some good nominations - quality rather than quantity this month.

I'll go for English Journey by J.B. Priestley, if that's OK. I've been slightly hesitating because I don't think Priestley himself really counts as working class, as his father was a headteacher. But clearly the book showed the "condition of England", as with Orwell's The Road to Wigan Pier, which was seen as its companion piece.

In 1934, JB Priestley published an account of his journey through England from Southampton to the Black Country, to the North East and Newcastle, to Lincoln, Norfolk and Norwich. In capturing and describing an English landscape and people hitherto unconsidered, he influenced thinking and attitudes and helped formulate a public consensus for change that led to the formation of the welfare state. English Journey expresses Priestley's deep love of his native country and teaches us much about the human condition and the nature of Englishness.

I've been totally spoilt for choice - I also considered nominating The Biscuit Girls by Hunter Davies, about employees at the Huntley & Palmer factory in Carlisle from the 1930s onwards (I don't think this is available in the US, though), or The Country Girls by Edna O'Brien, or Union Street by Pat Barker, or Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson. If you think English Journey isn't suitable I could go for one of those instead.

Thanks Judy. I’ve read it and it’s great. Another fine nomination

Anyone else?

The poll is up


Vote here.....

https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...


NOMINATIONS:

Nigeyb: A Kind of Loving by Stan Barstow
Susan: Up the Junction by Nell Dunn
Val: Ironopolis by Glen James Brown
Jan: Working: People Talk about What They Do All Day and How They Feel about What They Do by Studs Terkel
Judy: English Journey by J.B. Priestley

Pollwatch...


A Kind of Loving - 3 votes, 33.3%
Up the Junction - 2 votes, 22.2%
Ironopolis - 2 votes, 22.2%
Working: People Talk about What They Do All Day and How They Feel about What They Do- 1 vote, 11.1%
English Journey - 1 vote, 11.1%

Voting started on: Nov 23, 2019 12:00AM PST
Ends at: Nov 27, 2019 11:59PM PST

Nigeyb: A Kind of Loving by Stan Barstow
Susan: Up the Junction by Nell Dunn
Val: Ironopolis by Glen James Brown
Jan: Working: People Talk about What They Do All Day and How They Feel about What They Do by Studs Terkel
Judy: English Journey by J.B. Priestley

The poll has closed


We have two joint winners....

A Kind of Loving by Stan Barstow - 3 votes, 33.3%
Up the Junction by Nell Dunn - 3 votes, 33.3%

Ironopolis by Glen James Brown - 2 votes, 22.2%
Working: People Talk about What They Do All Day and How They Feel about What They Do by Studs Terkel - 1 vote, 11.1%
English Journey by J.B. Priestley - 0 votes, 0.0%


A Kind of Loving will be the February 2020 group read
Up the Junction will be the February 2020 Mods choice


I'll sort out the discussion threads and other admin later today

Thanks to everyone who discussed, nominated, and voted

Val mentioned she might set up Ironopolis as a buddy read

Here's to some splendid working class writing themed discussions

Just bought an old Pan paperback edition of....


Up The Junction

...in readiness for our read in February, with this cover art....



The copy I have bought is in slightly better condition than this edition, otherwise this might have swayed me...

The first one makes it look as though she is on a phone to modern eyes :)

I shall set up a buddy read for Ironopolis. It could be paired with novels set in formerly thriving steel towns in USA, Sweden, Australia, etc., if anyone is interested. (As I pointed out earlier, Ironopolis is published by a small press and may be difficult to get hold of outside the UK.)

Thanks Val - I'll add it to the master list. Do you want that one in February too?

Yes please Nigey.

Thanks Val - it's on the list

I've set up the thread for you too Val - here's to another splendid buddy read.

Thanks Nigey.