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Abide with Me

by Ian Ayris (Goodreads Author)

4.48 of 5 stars 4.48 · rating details · 54 ratings · 29 reviews

3rd May, 1975. Eight year old John watches his beloved West Ham win the cup, whilst at the same time, Kenny tumbles out the front door of the house opposite, blood all over his face.Fourteen years later, both boys' childhoods ripped apart in the broken streets of London's East End, John and Kenny find themselves frontin up local gangster, Ronnie Swordfish.John's got a life...more

Paperback, 162 pages

Published March 19th 2012 by Caffeine Nights Publishing (first published March 1st 2012)

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Apr 08, 2012 Chris Rhatigan rated it 5 of 5 stars

To anybody in the crime fiction world, it's no surprise that Ian Ayris is moving up to bigger and better things. His short fiction was all over the internet in 2010 -- raw, powerful stories told in a voice that you will never mistake for anyone else.

So I was pleased to see that his debut novel, Abide With Me, plays to all of Ayris' many strengths. The story is told from the perspective of John, a kid from London's East End. John is one of the most likable characters you'll ever meet -- thoughtfu...more

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Mar 27, 2012 Elizabeth A. rated it 5 of 5 stars

John Sissons is a working class kid growing up in London’s East End during the mid 1970’s. His family doesn’t have a lot, but they do have tremendous love for each other and an undying passion for football (that’s soccer for the American crowd).

Kenny Montgomery is the strange kid who lives across the street. Overweight, socially awkward, and uncommunicative to the point one could mistake him for mute, it seems to be Kenny’s lot in life to be the butt of jokes and target of bullies.

Turns out Kenn...more John Sissons is a working class kid growing up in London’s East End during the mid 1970’s. His family doesn’t have a lot, but they do have tremendous love for each other and an undying passion for football (that’s soccer for the American crowd).

Kenny Montgomery is the strange kid who lives across the street. Overweight, socially awkward, and uncommunicative to the point one could mistake him for mute, it seems to be Kenny’s lot in life to be the butt of jokes and target of bullies.

Turns out Kenny’s abuse doesn’t end when he gets home from school. As John learns firsthand one frightening afternoon when he stops in for tea, both Kenny and his mum are the victims of physical and psychological abuse at the hands of Kenny’s alcoholic father.

A good kid at heart, John takes Kenny under his wing and the two form an unlikely friendship, one that grows for several years until their lives are irrevocably changed by two outbursts of violence.

The first finds all the pain Kenny has suffered and repressed throughout his life erupting in spectacular fashion, while the second results when John, now a dropout, and some friends plan a holdup that goes decidedly sideways. The fallout from those events sends John and Kenny down separate paths in life for the better part of a decade. When they’re finally reunited they discover that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Written from John’s point of view and in the rough-edged vernacular of London’s East End, Abide With Me is as immersive and atmospheric as a novel can get. There’s nothing pretty or sugarcoated about the lives John and Kenny lead, and therein is actually where the true beauty of Abide With Me lies. Author Ian Ayris has an uncanny talent for exquisitely expressing and bringing to life the type of small details and everyday triumphs and tragedies that define our lives. Be it John and his father sharing the joy of their favorite football club’s success or Kenny finding solace in staring at the streetlight outside his window at night, Ayris realizes it’s the little things in life that ultimately make the biggest difference.

And while the plot of Abide With Me is fiction, Ayris has said that the setting and many of the memories and emotions were indeed mined from his own life. That willingness of Ayris to tap directly into his own childhood hopes and dreams, pain and confusion gives John’s voice a clarity and rawness that rings undeniably true. This boy, and later young man, is as real as any person you’ll ever meet. More so, actually, as Ayris takes us into the darkest corners of John’s mind, allowing the reader to share and experience every triumph and humiliation, every ambition and sacrifice in a way one rarely, if ever, gets to share with another person in reality.

That Abide With Me is a debut novel is, quite frankly, stunning. Ayris brings a depth and level of emotion to his writing that most authors strive their entire career to achieve, and which many never do. Never is that more apparent than in the ending Ayris crafts for John and Kenny, one so powerful, poignant, and heartbreaking it actually brought tears to my eyes. If there is even a shred of justice in this world Abide With Me will garner the kind of widespread attention it so richly deserves. (less)

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Mar 24, 2012 Bill Kirton rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is a triumph. Books which you ‘just can’t put down’ come along all too rarely and, for all the pleasure that my other reads this year have given me, I haven’t been able to say that of any until now. If the need to sleep hadn’t intervened, I’d have read it in one sitting. In the event, it took two.

It’s a first person narrative, conveyed by John and featuring the bunch of people around him as he grew up in London’s East End in the 70s and 80s. The voice is haunting and has the power and authe...more This is a triumph. Books which you ‘just can’t put down’ come along all too rarely and, for all the pleasure that my other reads this year have given me, I haven’t been able to say that of any until now. If the need to sleep hadn’t intervened, I’d have read it in one sitting. In the event, it took two.

It’s a first person narrative, conveyed by John and featuring the bunch of people around him as he grew up in London’s East End in the 70s and 80s. The voice is haunting and has the power and authenticity that made such huge hits of Catcher in the Rye and Vernon God Little. It establishes right from the start John’s familial and social situation, and the minute to minute shifts in mood that convey the fact that he’s capable (like the rest of us) of loving his parents, sister and friends (including the strange new neighbour Kenny), and hating them at the same time. It’s solipsism without narcissism. What he writes is exactly what he’s feeling at the moment he writes it.

And yet, as the remarkable descriptions of going to and watching football matches with his dad demonstrate, it’s not egotistical. He’s aware of being part of a clan and of the community to which he belongs, its good and bad aspects. He sees his own elations and depressions shared by others.

Arys has done a terrific job of giving his narrator a clear moral perspective and the ability to judge and be compassionate towards others while at the same time showing how his own impulses and the circumstances in which he finds himself turn him into a time-served criminal. And yet, for all that, John is NOT one of the bad guys. Some of the characters are but even then, the moral climate in which they all live can’t be easily reduced to a set of formulae.

And, to make the achievement even more remarkable, the voice not only maintains its consistency (even as the moods of the character shift back and forth), it also ages as the narrator does. In the early pages, he’s at primary school, being thrilled by getting a bike for Christmas, experiencing the pettiness and pains of playground games but, as he grows into manhood, the language and his emotions mature. Which is not to say that the language ever escapes from the lousy grammar which is characteristic of the particular London vernacular he uses. The authenticity of the whole depends on that being maintained. ‘Bad’ English is an essential part of the fabric of the novel. It’s the way Arys conveys mood, setting and, most of all, character.

But all I’ve said so far is ‘reviewer-speak’. It’s the sort of analysis we do when tease out a novel’s component parts to try to explain why it works,. It conveys nothing of the way this book pulls you into itself, makes the world of John and the rest an intense experience and involves you in its tensions, its laughter and its losses. I think the author’s only problem is how on earth he’s going to follow it up.
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Mar 23, 2012 Steve Porter rated it 5 of 5 stars

I don't like awarding stars to books, especially when I had some personal contact with the author prior to reading it. It became apparent we also share some similar tastes and ideals about writing. But Abide With Me is certainly worth four stars in any company. It gets full marks for a first novel and because Ayris dares to be different, rather than following a more established blueprint for genre fiction. Those qualities come from not setting out to gain mass appeal or trying too hard to corner...more

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Mar 21, 2012 Paul Brazill rated it 5 of 5 stars

Abide With Me is a remarkable début novel about Johnny Sissons,a young boy from the East End of London.

Johnny's family are normal,very likeable and very close. And they are getting by as best they can in sometimes difficult times.

Johnny, like his father, also has an exhilarating love of West Ham football club, a passion that runs through the novel like a heartbeat.

Johnny's neighbour ,Kenny, however, doesn't have such luck - his home-life his heartbreaking grim.

Abide With Me is about their frie...more

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Mar 03, 2012 Nigel Bird rated it 5 of 5 stars

I love the writing of Ian Ayris. His short fiction is outstanding, packed with images and always tapping nerve-ends and ripping at heart strings in ways that many don’t even come close to. I like his work so much that when Chris Rhatigan and I had to think of Deringer nominations from the Pulp Ink anthology, we came to immediate agreement that his story, Surf Rider, should be one of them.

Little wonder, then, that I had high expectations for his debut novel ‘Abide With Me’.

High expectation's prob...more

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Mar 03, 2012 Emma (Em or Emz) rated it 5 of 5 stars

I am not sure I have the words to describe how I feel about this book. For starters I read it in pretty much one sitting as I could not put it down. I immersed myself so thoroughly I almost forgot to stop for lunch! And only then did i stop as i had to walk away from it while I battled with the emotions being evoked!

The characterisation is so special that I really cared for the characters in this book. The 'voice' of John could be clearly heard through the use of East End vernacular (which inclu...more

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Feb 20, 2012 Kath rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book is written in the first person and wholly in East End vernacular and boy does it work well. Reading the book you can actually hear John Sissons' voice and at times it is like you are sat with him in a pub and he is telling the story just to you. The enthusiasm for the things he is interested in comes through in the writing which also makes it very easy to empathise with all the bad stuff. The book itself is gritty and pulls no punches. Yes it does contain some colourful language, but t...more

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Feb 07, 2012 Ignite rated it 5 of 5 stars

On the surface I shouldn't like this book at all. I do like my correct English, spelling and grammar and this book is written in East End vernacular. It also heavily features football, which is of no interest to me at all. I began reading with trepidation but after a page or two I found that instead of reading 'incorrect English' I was listening to Johnny Sissons' voice in my head. It was excellently done and 'hearing' it like that made you feel you were sharing his thoughts.

It's a tale told in...more

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Feb 06, 2012 Richard Godwin rated it 5 of 5 stars

The voice is compelling and totally real from the opening word to the final emotionally charged paragraph.
Abide With Me, short story writer Ian Ayris's debut novel, is an astoundingly simple yet brilliantly written first novel. Ayris writes in the first person narrative vernacular, one of the hardest narrative voices to master. And he has mastered it. The story revolves around two boys growing up in the East End during the seventies and eighties. It is full of memorabilia from that era, artfully...more

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Mar 27, 2012 Darren Sant rated it 5 of 5 stars

Right from the start this novel was a delight to read. The author’s razor sharp perception sees all. He relays every little nuance in the lives of his characters and gets to the very core of family life. Ian’s writing is so grounded this could be a biography, it’s so believable and realistic. The novel is written in the East End dialect from the perspective of John Sissons as he grows up. We see how his attitude changes life gives him blow after blow. At times this can be a heartbreaking novel b...more

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Feb 10, 2013 Manuel rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013

True Brit Grit.

Rite of passage tale and a crime fiction story rolled into one. It’s also a novel about characters and what characters dear God.

After some peer pressure from various quadrants, I’ve finally read “Abide With Me” by Ian Ayris.

I’m glad I did. It usually takes some time for me to tackle a new voice in the book firmament, and in these case, what a voice!! It has a density that is very unusual for a first book. The level of emotional reaction I was experiencing while reading it meant th...more

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Mar 27, 2012 Maureen (Mews) rated it 5 of 5 stars

Like many people reviewing this book have mentioned, it is written in the East End vernacular. But to be honest it only took me about half a page before I got used to this style. I too wondered early on if the swearing was going to bother me, but it didn't in the least. I think John's character wouldn't have come across as realistic and human if the swearing had been cut in any way. It was as if you were just hearing the story in his voice.

I have absolutely no interest in football what so ever,...more

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Apr 07, 2012 Lorraine Versini rated it 4 of 5 stars

I am going to be honest, a few pages in the book, I did wonder if I was going to be able to finish it. I have been known to struggle with "speeches" from locals, accent and all, but to me, as a non-native English speaker, this felt like a whole new language ! But amazingly it worked somehow.
I found it an emotional story. Johnny and Kenny certainly don't have an easy life, and the fact that it was related from a rather cynical point of view (bit like me!) got me engaged with the main character wi...more

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Mar 30, 2013 Keith Nixon added it

Abide With Me is the story of the two fourteen year-old boys, Kenny and John, growing up together in the East End of London during the late 1970’s and into the 1980’s. One is very odd, the other very normal. Inexplicably drawn together their lives eventually take very different turns until fate brings them back together again.

If you’ve read any of my previous reviews you’ll know I favour the genres of crime / thriller / noir (delete as applicable). So to pick up a coming of age novel is somewhat...more
Abide With Me is the story of the two fourteen year-old boys, Kenny and John, growing up together in the East End of London during the late 1970’s and into the 1980’s. One is very odd, the other very normal. Inexplicably drawn together their lives eventually take very different turns until fate brings them back together again.

If you’ve read any of my previous reviews you’ll know I favour the genres of crime / thriller / noir (delete as applicable). So to pick up a coming of age novel is somewhat of a departure. However, I was so blown away by the quality of writing in Ayris’ A Day in the Life of Jason Dean I felt compelled to read this full-length novel. And I’m very glad I did.

Written in the first person from John’s perspective, Ayris immediately paints a strong view of working class London life in a small community with close friends and family – good and bad. John lives reasonably well, not poor, not rich. He’s full of life, loves his football and his school days. His neighbor, Kenny, couldn’t be more different. He comes from an abusive background and it shows. The kid is withdrawn, uncommunicative, and downright weird.

However, John finds himself drawn to protecting Kenny at school and as a result develops friends and enemies that remain in place through this teenage and eventually adult years.

Like A Day In The Life… Ayris pulls the emotional heartstrings very well, it is easy to immerse yourself in this powerful story of two very different children. The characters are highly compelling, the strongest part of Abide With Me. As a reader I really wanted to know what would happen to the pair, particularly when their paths diverged for a period (John ends up in prison and has a pretty brutal seven year stretch) and then ultimately cross paths again. Kenny eventually repays John’s faith in an incredibly emotional final scene.

The prose and dialogue are excellent, locally themed, but this adds to the story, rather than detracts. John’s voice is excellent, it varies throughout the story as he matures and then ends up in trouble. You can feel the character developing through his eyes. Very well done.

This is an excellent debut novel and readers that enjoy strong, compelling, and raw characterization would do well to pick it up.

**Originally reviewed for Books and Pals blog. May have received free review copy.**
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Apr 18, 2012 Kate (sleepy kitten) rated it 4 of 5 stars

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I really enjoyed this book. Set in the mid 70's it avoids nostalgia by showing a gritty reality of how hard life was. When I read the blurb about this book it looked like it was a tale of two boys, for me it was the tale of one boy, John. John was a great character, he looked beyond the surface of things/ people and if you were lucky enough to have his friendship then he would be by your side through thick or thin. The problems for Kenny really started at a key football match and things went dow...more

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Mar 23, 2012 Aunty Janet rated it 5 of 5 stars

Wow, powerful stuff indeed! Written in East End vernacular, peppered throughout with swear words which I normally find off putting, but work in this context. Yes, there is quite a lot of football, which I also hate normally, but hardly noticed as I was reading because I felt so involved with the characters. I would have liked to read more from 'the diary', but in retrospect that would have made the book less tightly constructed.
As I was reading, I was reminded of some of Roddy Doyle's work and a...more

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Jun 11, 2012 Josh Stallings rated it 5 of 5 stars

Ian Ayris is the E.S. Hinton for a new generation. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a YA novel (though I think teens would get so much from the read) It is an adult novel for those of us who came up hard. As young man I never found books or movies or tv shows that in any way related to how it felt to be me. What stunned me about Abide With Me, was how absuluty it connected with me. Separated by a sea and cultural gap, Ayris writes in a honest inornate way that lets his characters speak their truth...more

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Apr 05, 2012 Shaun rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

While the book started off well, I slowly got irritated with the characters. The only sign that the main character was supposed to have 'grown up' is that he swore on nearly every line, which I personally found unnecessary and didn't need it for the colloquial language to work. Sometimes less is more. The other 'main' character Kenny had no redeeming features at all and while I was supposed to feel sorry for him, I didn't which is a shame as he was potentially the most interesting character. But...more

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Jun 08, 2012 Rosemary rated it 5 of 5 stars

I read this book a few weeks ago and have found myself thinking about it a lot since. I read it in one go as it had me hooked from the start, great evocations of time and place and superb characterisation. And speaking as someone who has no interest at all in football, the writing was so good that it totally drew me in and conveyed perhaps what real football fans feel at important matches. You will laugh and you will cry, it would be hard to find a more affecting tale of love and redemption - br...more

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May 02, 2012 Alex rated it 5 of 5 stars

Hi

At the start I found this a bit difficult to read, lots of swearing and its written with an east end accent.

Also at the start I wasn't sure that I like the characters. However the friendship between Jonny and Kenny its quite touching. Kenny seams to of lived through a private sort of domestic hell and Jonny has also had his own hard times.

I read this in one day and it never once felt dull or that there was too much in it to make it fell unbelievable.

Alex

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Apr 01, 2012 Lisa rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

So now I think I should be sporting a new accent and trying some rhyming slang on my co-workers. I really liked this book. I felt so close to the characters that I really could see myself as Johnny's mum or sister. I really wish I had that sort of family to struggle through life with, or at least like the same football team.

Such great writing. I'm sad that I'm finished with the book. I want to check in on everyone and see how they are doing. :-)

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Apr 04, 2012 Amanda Hendsbee rated it 1 of 5 stars

I read two chapters of this and could feel my IQ diminishing. The abundant overuse of profanity does not lend anything to the appeal of a book, and this one didn't really have much else going for it to begin with. Don't waste your time.

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Mar 26, 2012 Patti (Ogre for Hire) rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm disappointed I'll never again be able to read this book for the first time, I enjoyed it so much. Although written in London East End vernacular, the prose was easily accessible and beautifully written. I take great joy in recommending this wonderful book.

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Sep 13, 2012 Ruth Jacobs rated it 5 of 5 stars

Abide With Me has been a pleasure to read, though sad at times. Ian masterfully draws you into the world of the characters from the very first scene, which is something I find essential in getting into a book. The characters are realistic and I cried a couple of times during the book. I won’t say when, as I don’t want to make any spoilers. One thing I have to say is that I am not a football fan, so you really do not have to be into football to love this book. A highly recommended read!

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Apr 16, 2012 Eva rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

My complete review can be found on my blog.
http://vampirekiss1967.blogspot.com/2...

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Jun 01, 2012 Fiona (Titch) Hunt rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: titch-s-50-books-kindle-tree-boo

What a good book. Ian told a great story and the way the East End was portrayed with the language.

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May 13, 2012 Sandra rated it 5 of 5 stars

Mind-blowing! Packed with such energy and sheer fuckin honesty and gets you instantly into the heart and head of John and how he feels about his family and friends so you care and forget to breathe as you read and squeeze your eyes tight shut so you don't cry and fear to see what's coming next.
Wow.

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May 27, 2012 Graham Sharpe rated it 5 of 5 stars

Such a brilliant read. I think Abide With Me is a story about love. Sometimes life throws a load of crap at you, but if you've been loved, if you know deep inside that you're worth something, you find a way to conquer your demons. I hate football, but I loved this book.

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May 03, 2013 Adriana marked it as purchased · review of another edition

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About Ian Ayris

Ian was born in Dagenham, Essex, in August 1969. Having spent most of his childhood more interested in kicking a tennis ball about the school playground with his mates than actually learning anything, he managed to leave the public education system in 1985 with but two O' Levels and a handful of C.S.E.'s,

And a love of writing.

His academic achievements set him up nicely for the succession of low pa...more

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