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Vic Brown Trilogy #1
A Kind of Loving
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.
Originally published in 1960, this popular novel about frustrated youth laid the groundwork for contemporary writers such as Tony Parsons and Nick Hornby.
272 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1960
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 144 reviews
June 25, 2022
"I know I'll be lucky if I find a girl as nice as [my sister] Chris to marry. I'm always kind of half-looking for this girl I'm going to find one day. She'll be everything you could want in a girl: talking, laughing, sharing, making love, and everything...And now I begin to think about Ingrid." "I'm as presentable as the next bloke and I don't see why Ingrid shouldn't think the same way."
"Living and loving and laughing together, every day. It must be wonderful if you can hit it right. You'll have to wait an' see about that till he turns up. How'd you know he hasn't turned up already?" These are Ingrid's thoughts about possible marriage to Vic.
"Vic and Ingrid's bleak dilemma is as compelling today as it ever was..." 1954. Cressley, England. Twenty year old Victor Brown worked as an engineering draughtman weekdays/salesman for TV and gramophones on weekends. He was "one of the lads"...insecure, but cocky. Vic was infatuated with Ingrid, a typist at his office...but...could he initiate a conversation with her? Riding home from work on the same bus, Ingrid provided the necessary fare for an embarrassed Vic whose pockets were surprisingly empty. The needed ice breaker to converse began. Two young, inexperienced young people, started to meet at night in the park.
Ingrid was truly in love. In Vic's case, fascination faded while temptation continued to flame. All it took was one night to turn their world upside down. Vic made his bed, now he chose to responsibly handle the consequences. He felt trapped, the life he planned was on the skids. In the 1960s, unlike today, choices were limited. This reader feels that "making the best of it" was more common. Victor Brown, as narrator, is an unlikeable chap. He relates a compelling story, a work of literary fiction, somewhat dated, that still resonates with readers today! Highly recommended.
Thank you Parthian Books and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
"Living and loving and laughing together, every day. It must be wonderful if you can hit it right. You'll have to wait an' see about that till he turns up. How'd you know he hasn't turned up already?" These are Ingrid's thoughts about possible marriage to Vic.
"Vic and Ingrid's bleak dilemma is as compelling today as it ever was..." 1954. Cressley, England. Twenty year old Victor Brown worked as an engineering draughtman weekdays/salesman for TV and gramophones on weekends. He was "one of the lads"...insecure, but cocky. Vic was infatuated with Ingrid, a typist at his office...but...could he initiate a conversation with her? Riding home from work on the same bus, Ingrid provided the necessary fare for an embarrassed Vic whose pockets were surprisingly empty. The needed ice breaker to converse began. Two young, inexperienced young people, started to meet at night in the park.
Ingrid was truly in love. In Vic's case, fascination faded while temptation continued to flame. All it took was one night to turn their world upside down. Vic made his bed, now he chose to responsibly handle the consequences. He felt trapped, the life he planned was on the skids. In the 1960s, unlike today, choices were limited. This reader feels that "making the best of it" was more common. Victor Brown, as narrator, is an unlikeable chap. He relates a compelling story, a work of literary fiction, somewhat dated, that still resonates with readers today! Highly recommended.
Thank you Parthian Books and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
January 23, 2020
I've read many of the kitchen sink/angry young man novels of the late 1950s and early 1960s (by the likes of Alan Sillitoe, John Braine, David Storey and Keith Waterhouse) and what differentiates A Kind of Loving (1960) is the personality of central character Vic Brown.
A Kind of Loving is a clear eyed, unsentimental and realistic portrait of an intelligent young man who gets trapped in a loveless marriage having got Ingrid, his girlfriend, pregnant. Stan Barstow's genius here is to keep Vic a sympathetic character despite some cynical decisions and bad behaviour.
Unlike Joe Lampton in Room at the Top, Vic is relatively content with his life and prospects and, like his recently married sister, aspires to fall in love and enjoy a happy marriage. Despite a powerful physical attraction to Ingrid he knows he doesn't love her but feels compelled to get married once she falls pregnant.
Although the heart of the novel is an exploration of Vic's confusion and anguish at being trapped in the expectations of respectable working class families at the moment society was starting to change, it is also powerful and effective in its depiction of life in a small Yorkshire town in 1960. It's all so intensely evoked: the pubs, the work places, family life, smoking, cinemas, cafes, dancehalls etc.
This unpatronising portrayal of working class life in northern England in 1960 remains a vivid and powerful read.
5/5
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.
A Kind of Loving is a clear eyed, unsentimental and realistic portrait of an intelligent young man who gets trapped in a loveless marriage having got Ingrid, his girlfriend, pregnant. Stan Barstow's genius here is to keep Vic a sympathetic character despite some cynical decisions and bad behaviour.
Unlike Joe Lampton in Room at the Top, Vic is relatively content with his life and prospects and, like his recently married sister, aspires to fall in love and enjoy a happy marriage. Despite a powerful physical attraction to Ingrid he knows he doesn't love her but feels compelled to get married once she falls pregnant.
Although the heart of the novel is an exploration of Vic's confusion and anguish at being trapped in the expectations of respectable working class families at the moment society was starting to change, it is also powerful and effective in its depiction of life in a small Yorkshire town in 1960. It's all so intensely evoked: the pubs, the work places, family life, smoking, cinemas, cafes, dancehalls etc.
This unpatronising portrayal of working class life in northern England in 1960 remains a vivid and powerful read.
5/5
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.
April 25, 2013
“You can't love a person till you know him or her inside out, until you've lived with them and shared experience: sadness, joy, living - you've got to share living before you can find love. Being in love doesn't last, but you can find love to take its place.”
Stan Barstow's A Kind of Loving seems to have been one of the novels unfairly labelled as part of the so-called Angry Young Men movement of British literature at the beginning of the 1960s. The story of twenty year old Vic Brown is one of frustration, repression of self and mixed emotions but he is a far cry from Arthur Seton or Jimmy Porter railing against the middle classes and the lack of opportunity for young working class men in the north of England after WWII. It's two years in his life as he struggles with becoming an adult and making bad decisions, falling in love and realising what love actually is. In amongst all of this inner turmoil and the folly of youth Barstow sneaks in some of that kitchen sink realism he became synonymous with, making good use of the Yorkshire dialect and astute observations of everyday life in a small mining town.
The lifestyle of Vic is not used as some kind of statement on morals and the racy (for the time) vernacular of the narrative doesn't appear to be solely for shock value like others have aimed for in the past, his "shocking" prose serves one purpose and that is to highlight the reality of the everyday lifestyle faced by his characters. Vic is as much a victim of societal expectations as his own actions and it is his response to these that Barstow focuses on.
It's a much lighter novel than I expected, the voice of Vic Brown one I can sympathise with and his situation is painted vividly and from my own experience quite accurately. It's a bleak time for Vic but this is negativity is not dwelt upon by Barstow, a major choice which differentiates him further from the Osbornes et al, instead driving his narrative towards the positive of trying to grow and "do what's right" in any given scenario. Still it has its charm and empathy throughout and you really can't help but feel sorry for Vic.
An enjoyable read of a supposed "simpler time" in British history, and I look forward to reading more from Barstow, however the comparisons to Nick Hornby are quite apt in that it doesn't really confront the issue at hand or the reader with the full force of the situation. It's not quite the Honrby-esque lit-light that could as easily be labelled chick-lit for men or the rather odd marketing term "lad-lit" but its tone is definitely in that same area which might be OK for some readers but doesn't leave this one as satisfied as if he'd just read a work from Alan Sillitoe for example. I did like this comment on British weather though, so very apt:
Barstow went on to write two more novels about Vic Brown in Yorkshire in the 1960s, he followed A Kind of Loving up with The Watchers on the Shore and completed his trilogy with The Right True End.
Stan Barstow's A Kind of Loving seems to have been one of the novels unfairly labelled as part of the so-called Angry Young Men movement of British literature at the beginning of the 1960s. The story of twenty year old Vic Brown is one of frustration, repression of self and mixed emotions but he is a far cry from Arthur Seton or Jimmy Porter railing against the middle classes and the lack of opportunity for young working class men in the north of England after WWII. It's two years in his life as he struggles with becoming an adult and making bad decisions, falling in love and realising what love actually is. In amongst all of this inner turmoil and the folly of youth Barstow sneaks in some of that kitchen sink realism he became synonymous with, making good use of the Yorkshire dialect and astute observations of everyday life in a small mining town.
The lifestyle of Vic is not used as some kind of statement on morals and the racy (for the time) vernacular of the narrative doesn't appear to be solely for shock value like others have aimed for in the past, his "shocking" prose serves one purpose and that is to highlight the reality of the everyday lifestyle faced by his characters. Vic is as much a victim of societal expectations as his own actions and it is his response to these that Barstow focuses on.
It's a much lighter novel than I expected, the voice of Vic Brown one I can sympathise with and his situation is painted vividly and from my own experience quite accurately. It's a bleak time for Vic but this is negativity is not dwelt upon by Barstow, a major choice which differentiates him further from the Osbornes et al, instead driving his narrative towards the positive of trying to grow and "do what's right" in any given scenario. Still it has its charm and empathy throughout and you really can't help but feel sorry for Vic.
An enjoyable read of a supposed "simpler time" in British history, and I look forward to reading more from Barstow, however the comparisons to Nick Hornby are quite apt in that it doesn't really confront the issue at hand or the reader with the full force of the situation. It's not quite the Honrby-esque lit-light that could as easily be labelled chick-lit for men or the rather odd marketing term "lad-lit" but its tone is definitely in that same area which might be OK for some readers but doesn't leave this one as satisfied as if he'd just read a work from Alan Sillitoe for example. I did like this comment on British weather though, so very apt:
“The days draw out, the weather gets warmer, and it's what we call summer, with a bitter laugh when we've said it.”
Barstow went on to write two more novels about Vic Brown in Yorkshire in the 1960s, he followed A Kind of Loving up with The Watchers on the Shore and completed his trilogy with The Right True End.
October 6, 2022
Published in 1960 and focusing on the those coming of age in the post war north of England, ‘A Kind of Loving’ follows the budding romance of Vic and Ingrid. Despite my coming of age being six or seven years later, this bought all the memories of how relationships developed, and especially the lack of opportunities to young school leavers. For most, there was a certain inevitability to where life could take you, and Vic was one of many that found himself following the same path.
August 19, 2025
Vic Brown, the son of a coal miner in Yorkshire, is slowly inching his way up from his working-class roots through a white-collar job as a draughtsman in a local engineering company. Vic begins to date Ingrid, a typist at the same engineering company, but when Ingrid falls pregnant on the only occasion that they go 'all the way', Vic finds himself trapped into marrying her and moving in with his controlling mother-in-law, a woman who takes an instant dislike to him.
Many readers will undoubtedly regard Vic as a sort of anti-hero but I think that this is being simplistic. Vic is generally sincere, decent and moralistic despite his obvious natural flaws – age, inexperience, lust. Vic makes mistakes; huge mistakes but they aren't malicious or premeditated. Here is a young man with his whole life ahead of him who manages to impregnate his girlfriend at their first tumble. This novel is of course, very much of its time, and Vic, has to do the right thing morally, despite knowing that he doesn’t love Ingrid.
Ultimately I felt frustrated, but couldn’t help but like him. Ingrid naturally inspired sympathy, but her refusal to stand up to her appalling mother also infuriated me. In contrast Ingrid's dad seemed such a thoroughly reasonable, sensitive and decent chap that it seems little surprise that he preferred to work away.
This is a novel that defines a whole generation in a very specific part of England, but the plot is also universal, a tale of unforeseen outcomes to certain actions. We realise that the Vic Browns and the Ingrid Rothwells of the world live all around us. The dialogue is real and gritty but despite not liking to set the norms of today against the standards of yesterday I found the constant referrals to women as 'bints' very uncomfortable reading and marked it down accordingly.
Many readers will undoubtedly regard Vic as a sort of anti-hero but I think that this is being simplistic. Vic is generally sincere, decent and moralistic despite his obvious natural flaws – age, inexperience, lust. Vic makes mistakes; huge mistakes but they aren't malicious or premeditated. Here is a young man with his whole life ahead of him who manages to impregnate his girlfriend at their first tumble. This novel is of course, very much of its time, and Vic, has to do the right thing morally, despite knowing that he doesn’t love Ingrid.
Ultimately I felt frustrated, but couldn’t help but like him. Ingrid naturally inspired sympathy, but her refusal to stand up to her appalling mother also infuriated me. In contrast Ingrid's dad seemed such a thoroughly reasonable, sensitive and decent chap that it seems little surprise that he preferred to work away.
This is a novel that defines a whole generation in a very specific part of England, but the plot is also universal, a tale of unforeseen outcomes to certain actions. We realise that the Vic Browns and the Ingrid Rothwells of the world live all around us. The dialogue is real and gritty but despite not liking to set the norms of today against the standards of yesterday I found the constant referrals to women as 'bints' very uncomfortable reading and marked it down accordingly.
October 28, 2016
Classic lad-lit from 1960
Published in 1960, this book secured Barstow’s place as one of the group of authors writing about the lives of young, working-class men in the industrialised north. Vic Brown is a grammar school boy with an ex-miner for a father, and prospects as a draughtsman in an engineering firm. 20 years old when the book opens, this traces a year when his life changes through his relationship with Ingrid, a young woman from his work typing pool.
What makes this book so compelling (I read it in a single sitting) is Vic’s voice: laddish and yet idealistically romantic, all his shifting emotions, his honesty and his confusion are captured brilliantly. Vic could have been an unsympathetic character and it’s to Barstow’s credit that he’s not: even at his most brutal and callous, his relentless candour keep us on his side.
Apart from the story of Vic and Ingrid, this is also a book which gives a brilliant depiction of the world as it was in 1960 in a small town in Yorkshire: the newfangled television, the innocence of youth, the way a public dance-hall forbids rock’n’roll forcing young couples to waltz instead, people smoking pipes on the bus.
But for all the social-historical interest, this remains so powerful because of the detailed characterisation and the increasing claustrophobia of Vic’s predicament – a book deservedly named a classic, and a superb read.
Published in 1960, this book secured Barstow’s place as one of the group of authors writing about the lives of young, working-class men in the industrialised north. Vic Brown is a grammar school boy with an ex-miner for a father, and prospects as a draughtsman in an engineering firm. 20 years old when the book opens, this traces a year when his life changes through his relationship with Ingrid, a young woman from his work typing pool.
What makes this book so compelling (I read it in a single sitting) is Vic’s voice: laddish and yet idealistically romantic, all his shifting emotions, his honesty and his confusion are captured brilliantly. Vic could have been an unsympathetic character and it’s to Barstow’s credit that he’s not: even at his most brutal and callous, his relentless candour keep us on his side.
Apart from the story of Vic and Ingrid, this is also a book which gives a brilliant depiction of the world as it was in 1960 in a small town in Yorkshire: the newfangled television, the innocence of youth, the way a public dance-hall forbids rock’n’roll forcing young couples to waltz instead, people smoking pipes on the bus.
But for all the social-historical interest, this remains so powerful because of the detailed characterisation and the increasing claustrophobia of Vic’s predicament – a book deservedly named a classic, and a superb read.
June 4, 2022
This look at the life of a young working class man in 1960 in Northern England is hard to read yet hard to look away from. It’s narrated by Vic, he’s casually sexist (all women are bints) but he’s not that unusual for the time and could be a lot worse (he’s not a violent drunk for instance) but being inside his head for the whole novel is pretty bleak. He works hard, he has a nice family (I really liked the parts of the novel set in the family home). It starts with his sisters wedding, a happy counterpoint to the disaster that will be his ‘forced’ marriage to Ingrid. Ingrid works at the same place as Vic and he fancies her straight away, his honest narration makes it quite clear the attraction is all physical after a while, he really has nothing in common with her. The second half of the book is darker and sad in a way, everything just goes downhill in such an inevitable way. Ingrid’s mother is such an awful woman! It ends with a possibility of some hope, but unlikely, making life look pretty miserable. Poor Vic, I feel sorry for him!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 23, 2020
This novel was published in 1960 and, to be honest, I found this more interesting than enjoyable. The central character is Vic Brown, a grammar school boy, working as a draughtsman in an engineering firm. This is a step up from the life of his father, who is a miner, and his mother is proud of her children – daughter Chris, a teacher, and younger brother Jim, the bookworm.
Vic is a young man finding his way in the world and trying to discover his part in it. This involves whether to continue on the path he is on, or whether to change. To take the chance of changing career and to risk love. For this is a young girl in the typing pool, named Ingrid, who Vic is attracted to. However, is attraction enough to base love on?
I found Vic’s thoughts illuminating, as the novel progressed and I enjoyed the social history and the sense of place and time. However, although I found the novel interesting, I do not feel particularly keen to read on in the trilogy.
Vic is a young man finding his way in the world and trying to discover his part in it. This involves whether to continue on the path he is on, or whether to change. To take the chance of changing career and to risk love. For this is a young girl in the typing pool, named Ingrid, who Vic is attracted to. However, is attraction enough to base love on?
I found Vic’s thoughts illuminating, as the novel progressed and I enjoyed the social history and the sense of place and time. However, although I found the novel interesting, I do not feel particularly keen to read on in the trilogy.
August 13, 2014
Read this in English Lit., appropriately, when a boy at school. At the time I thought it was excellent but I remember it seemed really old fashioned. This was in the late 70s and the book was written and set in the 60s.Strange how we perceive time at different times of our lives.
So, not the first book that I enjoyed, but this was the very first book that I dissected and analysed. And I guess that it was the book that started my love of literature. Thank you Mr Wood. I owe you !
So, not the first book that I enjoyed, but this was the very first book that I dissected and analysed. And I guess that it was the book that started my love of literature. Thank you Mr Wood. I owe you !
March 1, 2021
Many have compared Victor Arthur Brown with Arthur Seaton, the hero, or anti hero, of Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. There is a superficial likeness, but only so far. Arthur is a brutal 'don't let the bastards grind you down' kind of guy. Vic is a more caring, perhaps empathic, guy. He's in love with Ingrid, or thinks he is, and tortures his own mind about the efficacy of intimacy. Finally they are intimate, and Vic is tormented by his apparent falling out of love with Ingrid. Contrast this with Arthur's slam bag wallop approach to sex.
They both go to live with Ingrid's mother. This turns into Vic's worst nightmare. He goes back to his parents, but the sympathy he craves is absent. Finally he reunites with Ingrid, to face up to the problems that he in large part has created.
They both go to live with Ingrid's mother. This turns into Vic's worst nightmare. He goes back to his parents, but the sympathy he craves is absent. Finally he reunites with Ingrid, to face up to the problems that he in large part has created.
June 8, 2019
This book, well-written as it is, is such a slow motion train wreck. It was originally published in 1960, I believe, which is about when it's all set, so it's apparent early on just where the story's going. You can see the disaster coming. Vic and Ingrid are both very young and sexually inexperienced, in their first romantic relationship, and of course Ingrid gets knocked up. Of course she does. Both kids do the expected thing and marry, but they're deeply ill-suited and it's all a horrible mess they can't get out of. Truthfully, the relationship should have fizzled out long before it did - they don't know each other that well, and after the first initial flush of infatuation Vic, who is the narrator of the story, figures out that he doesn't actually even like Ingrid that much. He's at pains to point out that it's not because she's a bad person; they just have nothing in common. With a baby on the way, though, that doesn't matter, and they have to rely on maybe developing, in the future, a kind of love to get them through.
It all sounds a bit grim, and it is I guess. What saves it, and makes this book a genuinely likeable read, is that both Vic and Ingrid are decent kids. They've fucked up their lives good and proper, mostly because they're both completely incapable of negotiating an end to a relationship that wasn't really working for either of them, and that relationship dragged on until the point of pregnancy, when it was just too late to turn back. Neither of them are demonised, is what I'm saying. I feel desperately sorry for both of them, and this relationship, though it ends with reconciliation, is clearly on the rocks for the foreseeable future. It's doomed, frankly, but by the final pages it just seems possible that when their marriage truly ends, one day, they'll both still have their self-respect.
It all sounds a bit grim, and it is I guess. What saves it, and makes this book a genuinely likeable read, is that both Vic and Ingrid are decent kids. They've fucked up their lives good and proper, mostly because they're both completely incapable of negotiating an end to a relationship that wasn't really working for either of them, and that relationship dragged on until the point of pregnancy, when it was just too late to turn back. Neither of them are demonised, is what I'm saying. I feel desperately sorry for both of them, and this relationship, though it ends with reconciliation, is clearly on the rocks for the foreseeable future. It's doomed, frankly, but by the final pages it just seems possible that when their marriage truly ends, one day, they'll both still have their self-respect.
January 28, 2016
From BBC radio 4 Extra:
Vic Brown is infatuated with his work colleague Ingrid Rothwell, but how will he manage to break the ice?
Set in Yorkshire, Stan Barstow's iconic 1960s novel is a compelling, poignant and humorous account of 20 year-old Vic's infatuation for Ingrid - which develops into an emotional crisis, thanks in part to her spiteful friend, Dorothy.
1/2: Vic Brown is infatuated with work colleague Ingrid, but is she his perfect match?
2/2:Vic and Ingrid face more than their fair share of issues as their relationship matures.
Dramatised by Stan Barstow's partner Diana Griffiths.
Starring Lee Ingleby as Vic Brown, Rebecca Callard as Ingrid Rothwell, Kate Layden as Mrs Brown and Fine Time Fontayne as Mr Brown
Director: Pauline Harris
First broadcast on the BBC Radio 4 in 2010.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0153tq3
Vic Brown is infatuated with his work colleague Ingrid Rothwell, but how will he manage to break the ice?
Set in Yorkshire, Stan Barstow's iconic 1960s novel is a compelling, poignant and humorous account of 20 year-old Vic's infatuation for Ingrid - which develops into an emotional crisis, thanks in part to her spiteful friend, Dorothy.
1/2: Vic Brown is infatuated with work colleague Ingrid, but is she his perfect match?
2/2:Vic and Ingrid face more than their fair share of issues as their relationship matures.
Dramatised by Stan Barstow's partner Diana Griffiths.
Starring Lee Ingleby as Vic Brown, Rebecca Callard as Ingrid Rothwell, Kate Layden as Mrs Brown and Fine Time Fontayne as Mr Brown
Director: Pauline Harris
First broadcast on the BBC Radio 4 in 2010.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0153tq3
January 1, 2024
Part of the ‘kitchen sink / angry young men’ literature that came out of Britain in the late 1950s and early 60s, (think Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, The Loneliness of the Long Distant Runner, Billy Liar etc).
I absolutely love this novel. The voice of the narrator, Vic Brown, a 20 year old living in a northern town, trying to find his way in the world, is just so honest and authentic, you can’t help but love him. This novel offers us a look at a time when Britain was still very much a post-war nation but the dawn of what would become the swinging Sixties was just around the corner.
I absolutely love this novel. The voice of the narrator, Vic Brown, a 20 year old living in a northern town, trying to find his way in the world, is just so honest and authentic, you can’t help but love him. This novel offers us a look at a time when Britain was still very much a post-war nation but the dawn of what would become the swinging Sixties was just around the corner.
June 20, 2024
Sweet and funny reminds me of my dad and my graggy. Stan Barstow uses the word bint where I would say yat.
August 3, 2016
Compulsive reading. I enjoyed it immensely. I recalled the film with Alan Bates as Victor.
Set in the north of England – very much so. Well drawn characters and super observation/description.
Set in the north of England – very much so. Well drawn characters and super observation/description.
February 22, 2013
I bought this book because I remember reading it at school so many years ago I almost hate to admit it!! It took me right back to the days of growing up in the 60's very nostalgic!! It tells the story of Vic a young Yorkshire lad, son of a Yorkshire miner growing to manhood and trying to make his way in the world, but not quite knowing how to get there. He is caught up in the times when you had to make an honest woman of your girl, which is what he does when his girlfriend Ingrid becomes pregnant.
On the face of it Vic is a right jack the lad who wants to taste life and sow his wild oats without any complications, but the reader is aware that Vic really is good, honest young man with dreams and aspirations that evey young lad has. The tough decisions that he and Ingrid have to make that could make of break them, are ones that thousands of young people went through before contraception and the less severe moral codes of today. A really good story with lovely yorkshire isms throughout!!
On the face of it Vic is a right jack the lad who wants to taste life and sow his wild oats without any complications, but the reader is aware that Vic really is good, honest young man with dreams and aspirations that evey young lad has. The tough decisions that he and Ingrid have to make that could make of break them, are ones that thousands of young people went through before contraception and the less severe moral codes of today. A really good story with lovely yorkshire isms throughout!!
January 17, 2014
A part of me wants to really love this book - it's heartfelt, poignant and achingly real - but somehow it just didn't come alive for me.
I thoroughly enjoyed the first and last quarters, but the middle, with Vic's endless repetitive angst about his feelings for and possible ill treatment of Ingrid, bored me nearly to tears.
Also, to many of the supporting characters seemed to be near caricatures - existing only for the author, via the main character, to showcase his views on "good" culture (classical music, literary books, even films) verses "bad" culture (throw away pop music, trashy reading, television) - as well as at the same time an odd kind of snobbery about thought who REALLY get "good" cultural signifiers (or at least make the effort to try), as apposed to those who simply "pretend" to.
I can see why this is a set text in the National Curriculum in English schools, but I'm rather glad I didn't have to wade through it when I was in my teens.
I thoroughly enjoyed the first and last quarters, but the middle, with Vic's endless repetitive angst about his feelings for and possible ill treatment of Ingrid, bored me nearly to tears.
Also, to many of the supporting characters seemed to be near caricatures - existing only for the author, via the main character, to showcase his views on "good" culture (classical music, literary books, even films) verses "bad" culture (throw away pop music, trashy reading, television) - as well as at the same time an odd kind of snobbery about thought who REALLY get "good" cultural signifiers (or at least make the effort to try), as apposed to those who simply "pretend" to.
I can see why this is a set text in the National Curriculum in English schools, but I'm rather glad I didn't have to wade through it when I was in my teens.
August 25, 2013
The appeal of this book is that it was of its time (1960s) and it covers a situation that was familiar to so many people, including me. When I read it, it reminded me so much of someone in my family that I pictured him as the main character, Vic Brown.
In the 60s, and before, it was not socially acceptable to have a baby out of wedlock. Women could not receive contraceptives unless they were married and therefore becoming pregnant was fairly common. The main issue was that, in working class families, the couple could not afford to fund their home and had to live with their parents.
This is what the story is about. Vic Brown makes the attractive Ingrid pregnant, they get married and move in with her parents. It is a difficult life for him and he realises that he does not have a lot in common with his new wife. Her parents resent him for what he has 'done' to their daughter. He is growing away from her romantically and intellectually and Vic feels trapped.
The theme of the story is how they adapt and try to find a kind of loving that will see them through the difficulties. Barstow achieves this but his greatest success is how he captures a time, place and condition so many young men found themselves in. The two following books in this trilogy fail to reach this level and are simply continuing a story without the depth and poignancy of this book.
In the 60s, and before, it was not socially acceptable to have a baby out of wedlock. Women could not receive contraceptives unless they were married and therefore becoming pregnant was fairly common. The main issue was that, in working class families, the couple could not afford to fund their home and had to live with their parents.
This is what the story is about. Vic Brown makes the attractive Ingrid pregnant, they get married and move in with her parents. It is a difficult life for him and he realises that he does not have a lot in common with his new wife. Her parents resent him for what he has 'done' to their daughter. He is growing away from her romantically and intellectually and Vic feels trapped.
The theme of the story is how they adapt and try to find a kind of loving that will see them through the difficulties. Barstow achieves this but his greatest success is how he captures a time, place and condition so many young men found themselves in. The two following books in this trilogy fail to reach this level and are simply continuing a story without the depth and poignancy of this book.
November 21, 2022
I've never read a character's thoughts that have been as honest as 21 year old Vic Brown's. I feel I've really journeyed along with him through these two pivotal years of his story.
I started out with a strange sort of envy of him; his youth, his cosy home life of tea on the table - firm but unwavering mother - and that stable sort of confidence that afforded him to ponder his sense of self and his interests - a phase of self exploration that I feel seems to sometimes come a little bit easier to young men than young women and JUST vaguely teeters on the border between a smug sort of contentment and egotism. (But as if Stan Barstow doesn't know that)
And then it all comes crashing down. And its a mess of misery and cynicism. Yes Vic was selfish, immature, unfair. But I was rooting for him. GOD it's all just so bitterly honest.
As with all "post-war industrial north" narratives, there's that grain of humour that I really enjoy - and the scene where Vic vomits on Ma Rothwell's carpet is really quite wild. I couldn't believe it haha.
I really really admire the humanness of this story. It's a story I don't think could be written these days. Probably why I like it so much.
I started out with a strange sort of envy of him; his youth, his cosy home life of tea on the table - firm but unwavering mother - and that stable sort of confidence that afforded him to ponder his sense of self and his interests - a phase of self exploration that I feel seems to sometimes come a little bit easier to young men than young women and JUST vaguely teeters on the border between a smug sort of contentment and egotism. (But as if Stan Barstow doesn't know that)
And then it all comes crashing down. And its a mess of misery and cynicism. Yes Vic was selfish, immature, unfair. But I was rooting for him. GOD it's all just so bitterly honest.
As with all "post-war industrial north" narratives, there's that grain of humour that I really enjoy - and the scene where Vic vomits on Ma Rothwell's carpet is really quite wild. I couldn't believe it haha.
I really really admire the humanness of this story. It's a story I don't think could be written these days. Probably why I like it so much.
September 2, 2011
I decided that, for September, I'm going to read (at least) one book for each letter of the alphabet, by author surname. So A Kind of Loving is 'B' (I'm not doing it in order). Mum read it a while ago and gave it to me. It's published by Parthian press, which usually means Welsh fiction, but actually this is from the place where I grew up -- Stan Barstow was born a stone's throw from where I spent my teens. He renders the place well, though most of the focus is on the relationship at the story's centre.
Mostly, it's about a guy -- the narrator -- who likes a girl, thinks he loves her, and though it turns out that he doesn't, he still 'has' to do the decent thing and marry her. The social pressures and so on of the time are explored a bit, and family/social class problems.
Nothing revolutionary, but well enough told.
Mostly, it's about a guy -- the narrator -- who likes a girl, thinks he loves her, and though it turns out that he doesn't, he still 'has' to do the decent thing and marry her. The social pressures and so on of the time are explored a bit, and family/social class problems.
Nothing revolutionary, but well enough told.
May 31, 2021
This book was mesmerizing. I felt sucked into it's world from the first chapter and had trouble resurfacing until it was done. It was bit sickening, funny sometimes, but overwhelming bleak. I cried. Lol tho, i couldn't even spoil this book if I tried, the entire plot was in the back cover blurb.
A few random thoughts I had while reading:
-I now understand the term "lad lit" in all it's mates and beer glory and must say, perhaps not my cup of tea
-Ingrid is the real main character, even if Barstow refuses to give her character, I saw someone through the lines that deserved more attention.
-As I read I liked Vic less and less, but still I was rooting for him till the end?? The internal justifications of domestic violence were sickening, but made him feel like a real person with sickening things inside, like everyone else.
A few random thoughts I had while reading:
-I now understand the term "lad lit" in all it's mates and beer glory and must say, perhaps not my cup of tea
-Ingrid is the real main character, even if Barstow refuses to give her character, I saw someone through the lines that deserved more attention.
-As I read I liked Vic less and less, but still I was rooting for him till the end?? The internal justifications of domestic violence were sickening, but made him feel like a real person with sickening things inside, like everyone else.
March 25, 2012
Times have changed so much since this book was written. All I could think while reading it was that a boy getting a girlfriend pregnant just doesn't seem enough on its own as subject matter. It seemed too thin.
This book was a standard text when I was at school, so someone obviously felt that it was relevant and dealt with important social issues. Nowadays I think this barely works as a time capsule, a historic document.
By the end my feeling was this book is just too flimsy. Only the 'voice' character Vic has any sort of journey, and it's not a very long, involved or dare I say interesting one. Many of the main characters are cliches and others, including an avuncular record shop owner and a brainy younger brother, serve no obvious purpose at all.
This book was a standard text when I was at school, so someone obviously felt that it was relevant and dealt with important social issues. Nowadays I think this barely works as a time capsule, a historic document.
By the end my feeling was this book is just too flimsy. Only the 'voice' character Vic has any sort of journey, and it's not a very long, involved or dare I say interesting one. Many of the main characters are cliches and others, including an avuncular record shop owner and a brainy younger brother, serve no obvious purpose at all.
November 14, 2016
I've read this before many moons ago, but I saw the tatty paperback in a charity shop and decided it was worth another go. A Kind of Loving offers a no-frills snapshot into a young working class man's life in the middle part of the 20th century. Vic Brown tells us his tale and he ensures the reader feels his joy, pain, lust and hatred as it all spills out across the pages. He's just a normal bloke letting us have a year of his life with all its warts and Stan Barstow nails it perfectly. The only negative I can think of is that by the time I was finished most of the pages had fallen out...
November 11, 2013
I read a bowdlerised version of this at school and then the real thing at 16, with a reread at 23. It strikes me now as rather sexist and the frequent references to culture with a capital C get on my nerves.
It's probably still one of the most realistic descriptions I've read of lust without love though, which ain't half bad for a kitchen sink yarn.
It's probably still one of the most realistic descriptions I've read of lust without love though, which ain't half bad for a kitchen sink yarn.
July 20, 2021
Stan Barstow’s Vic Brown trilogy are books I devoured in the early 1970s when I too sought to “get on” from my industrial roots. Time passes and the story now has the mantle of an historical document. The bustling industrial town, large factories and coal mines, are at once familiar - but now long distant. A Kind of Loving sits under a comfort blanket of seemingly permanent rain, fog and smoke – so cloying and repressive to a young man with an eye on a brighter future. The social attitudes - towards class, social mobility, women and morality - and in particular the dire consequences of hanky-panky outside of wedlock - these traditional values and structures are under pressure and are at the heart of Vic’s story.
At first this is just plain charming, a nervous romance building from unconfident exchanges between 20 year old Vic and the younger Ingrid; misunderstandings and missed assignations, and exchanges of letters straight out of Jane Austen, a world away from today’s social networking and smart phones.
Despite Ingrid being a fair approximation to the ideal girl he fantasises about during the first scene at his sister’s wedding, and their mutual enthusiasm for increasingly heavy petting on wet grass in the local park, Vic’s infatuation fades, and the couple grow apart as his horizons expand, helped by Ingrid’s tendency to fall downstairs in high heels which distances her and the temptations of the flesh to the seaside for a period of convalescence. It's when she returns and Vic somewhat churlishly revives their relationship, the emotions cooling whilst the physical benefits intensify, that Vic's selfishness starts to unravel.
Vic and Ingrid share a rather passive outlook on life, very much observers rather than doers – Barstow’s own background forming the base for Vic’s upbringing and experience, if not his character. But whereas Vic’s take on things is a progressively downbeat and self-pitying tirade against his lot in life, Ingrid is content as a gregarious chatterbox, addicted to gossip, trash culture and women’s mags. Vic seems never happier than when laying into Ingrid’s low brow enthusiasms, or turgidly proclaiming his growing love for the popular classics whilst denigrating others' cultural enthusiasms for putting it on. Ingrid may be a bit of an airhead, but very succinctly calls him an “upside-down snob” – reinforcing the feeling that the deflating of the male ego is as much the issue as falling out of love.
Thereafter, the final chapters of the book describe the inevitable pregnancy, Vic’s comeuppance at the hands of Ingrid’s awful mother and some sort of resolution of the societal and family conflicts stirred up by Vic and Ingrid’s relationship. Barstow’s skill is to assemble layers of social comedy and emotion on a very simple tale – and this comes up fresh as paint rereading the book after so many years.
Well, we later find out that a kind of loving isn’t enough for Vic – and in the final part of the trilogy we have a brief glimpse of Ingrid in the 1970’s, remarried with a daughter and happy …. and notably, in contrast to the increasingly alienated Vic, still in regular contact with and affectionately regarded by Vic’s aging parents. I’m hoping that wherever she is in some soot-stained Elysium, Ingrid has found her voice and fulfilment, in the manner of Shirley Valentine and Educating Rita.
At first this is just plain charming, a nervous romance building from unconfident exchanges between 20 year old Vic and the younger Ingrid; misunderstandings and missed assignations, and exchanges of letters straight out of Jane Austen, a world away from today’s social networking and smart phones.
Despite Ingrid being a fair approximation to the ideal girl he fantasises about during the first scene at his sister’s wedding, and their mutual enthusiasm for increasingly heavy petting on wet grass in the local park, Vic’s infatuation fades, and the couple grow apart as his horizons expand, helped by Ingrid’s tendency to fall downstairs in high heels which distances her and the temptations of the flesh to the seaside for a period of convalescence. It's when she returns and Vic somewhat churlishly revives their relationship, the emotions cooling whilst the physical benefits intensify, that Vic's selfishness starts to unravel.
Vic and Ingrid share a rather passive outlook on life, very much observers rather than doers – Barstow’s own background forming the base for Vic’s upbringing and experience, if not his character. But whereas Vic’s take on things is a progressively downbeat and self-pitying tirade against his lot in life, Ingrid is content as a gregarious chatterbox, addicted to gossip, trash culture and women’s mags. Vic seems never happier than when laying into Ingrid’s low brow enthusiasms, or turgidly proclaiming his growing love for the popular classics whilst denigrating others' cultural enthusiasms for putting it on. Ingrid may be a bit of an airhead, but very succinctly calls him an “upside-down snob” – reinforcing the feeling that the deflating of the male ego is as much the issue as falling out of love.
Thereafter, the final chapters of the book describe the inevitable pregnancy, Vic’s comeuppance at the hands of Ingrid’s awful mother and some sort of resolution of the societal and family conflicts stirred up by Vic and Ingrid’s relationship. Barstow’s skill is to assemble layers of social comedy and emotion on a very simple tale – and this comes up fresh as paint rereading the book after so many years.
Well, we later find out that a kind of loving isn’t enough for Vic – and in the final part of the trilogy we have a brief glimpse of Ingrid in the 1970’s, remarried with a daughter and happy …. and notably, in contrast to the increasingly alienated Vic, still in regular contact with and affectionately regarded by Vic’s aging parents. I’m hoping that wherever she is in some soot-stained Elysium, Ingrid has found her voice and fulfilment, in the manner of Shirley Valentine and Educating Rita.
January 11, 2022
All the superlatives. Pick whichever one you like – that is this book.
I know the subject matter, setting, era etc won't be everyone's cup of tea, but I adored this. Real people, real lives, real feelings. For me, it doesn't get better than this. I had to force myself to read slowly so as not to waste a word of it.
OK, you could say not much happens, and normally that would annoy me, but somehow it just worked. A little over a year in the life of a young man in 1950's north of England with all its highs, lows and so-so days. Victor's an ordinary guy doing ordinary things, trying to figure out how he fits in to the world.
Vic's wonderful way of looking at life, love and family was often sprinkled with humour and just made so much sense:
I thoroughly enjoyed this, but would choose carefully who to recommend it to as I couldn't bear someone tearing it apart. It's sexist, times have changed, nothing happens... yes, maybe, but I don't care. I loved this so much.
I know the subject matter, setting, era etc won't be everyone's cup of tea, but I adored this. Real people, real lives, real feelings. For me, it doesn't get better than this. I had to force myself to read slowly so as not to waste a word of it.
OK, you could say not much happens, and normally that would annoy me, but somehow it just worked. A little over a year in the life of a young man in 1950's north of England with all its highs, lows and so-so days. Victor's an ordinary guy doing ordinary things, trying to figure out how he fits in to the world.
Vic's wonderful way of looking at life, love and family was often sprinkled with humour and just made so much sense:
"A wife with as much glamour as an old doormat; house like a pigsty from morning till night with kids bawling and wiping jam and bread on the wallpaper and crapping all over the place. And old Henry's happy on it. And many a bloke with five thousand a year's getting ulcers and worrying himself into the cemetery. It just goes to show."Although I can't say I fully agree with everything that happened, I'm definitely on Vic's side and can see he's a decent bloke trying his best. What more could anyone ask?
I thoroughly enjoyed this, but would choose carefully who to recommend it to as I couldn't bear someone tearing it apart. It's sexist, times have changed, nothing happens... yes, maybe, but I don't care. I loved this so much.
December 17, 2011
Written in 1960, A Kind Of Loving fits into the kitchen sink tradition, prominent in Britain at the time. Deeply rooted in its Yorkshire setting, it is very much concerned with the real people, with their everyday problems, hopes and experiences.
The protagonist, Victor, is a young, bright working class son-of-a-miner, just discovering females, and focussing on one young woman in particular.
The first half is essentially about Victor falling in love, and while the evocation of these feelings is very well done, this section does wear a little eventually. But it is necessary to set up the later sections where things get more complicated for Vic, and the book regained my interest.
It's a very good book - compellingly realistic, with real-world, relatable concerns and well depicted characters. Possibly the most distinctive thing about the book, though, is Barstow's wonderful use of the Yorkshire dialect. In his hands the language is so rich and expressive, it really elevates A Kind Of Loving from an interesting story to a compelling and immersive novel.
The protagonist, Victor, is a young, bright working class son-of-a-miner, just discovering females, and focussing on one young woman in particular.
The first half is essentially about Victor falling in love, and while the evocation of these feelings is very well done, this section does wear a little eventually. But it is necessary to set up the later sections where things get more complicated for Vic, and the book regained my interest.
It's a very good book - compellingly realistic, with real-world, relatable concerns and well depicted characters. Possibly the most distinctive thing about the book, though, is Barstow's wonderful use of the Yorkshire dialect. In his hands the language is so rich and expressive, it really elevates A Kind Of Loving from an interesting story to a compelling and immersive novel.
April 10, 2017
Second time reading - I've managed to get hold of the other two books so going to read in sequence.
A short while ago I read 'Look Back in Anger' - and that book made me think of this. They were written only years apart, and have a very similar dynamic in terms of the relationship between their main characters - yet in terms of their execution I thought this novel made that play seem very heavy-handed. A second read of this book has very much confirmed this.
Okay, it's not perfect - and perhaps time does not look so kindly upon certain elements within the book - but all in all I find it a really admirable book. It manages to evoke so much with ostensibly little and paints the portrait of a man who is, though by no means perfect, is caught between the person he wants to be and the person he is expected to be.
A short while ago I read 'Look Back in Anger' - and that book made me think of this. They were written only years apart, and have a very similar dynamic in terms of the relationship between their main characters - yet in terms of their execution I thought this novel made that play seem very heavy-handed. A second read of this book has very much confirmed this.
Okay, it's not perfect - and perhaps time does not look so kindly upon certain elements within the book - but all in all I find it a really admirable book. It manages to evoke so much with ostensibly little and paints the portrait of a man who is, though by no means perfect, is caught between the person he wants to be and the person he is expected to be.
November 11, 2012
A story set in a seemingly simpler time can really highlight how many of the same emotions have always gone on behind the scenes. Vic shares his thoughts with the reader in a very straight-forward manner. It is really refreshing to have a male lead from this period really dealving into his own feelings. At the same time, many of those feelings are not presented to the outside world,therefore Vic comes across as a kind of villain to some of the other characters in the book. The reader knows that what is really happening is more complicated than this and therefore the complications that are compounded onto poor Vic by society's expectations become even more apparent. A simple boy meets girl scenario, made beautiful by the inner conflicts exposed.
December 26, 2014
This deserves a pretty lengthy review, being so great and all, but I'm typing this on my pad, which I hate, so... And it's hard to say much about it without spoiling everyone. In short, this is a brilliant book about the lack of love. As far as love stories go, it's very refreshing. It's a quick read, partly predictable, but not all the way. Towards the end I really could not stop reading. Don't let the beginning or perhaps first 20% fool you - this is NO cute romance. I just liked it more and more as the angst kept piling up.
Lesson to learn from this? Beware of pretty people who don't read books.
Lesson to learn from this? Beware of pretty people who don't read books.
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