Bruce Beckham's Blog - Posts Tagged "keith-waterhouse"
Here lies Billy
I have just finished reading Billy Liar, and I must say, it is one of the funniest books I have read in a long while.
There is no epic story. It is merely a fantasy-packed day in the life of its hero, Billy Fisher. However, the style and the subject are elegantly crafted together.
And there is enough of a cliffhanger to keep you wanting to know: will Billy go to London (and leave his troubles and his two-and-a-half fiancees behind) or will he stay to face the music?
The narrative is written in the first person (that being Billy), and the author captures with exquisite clarity the complex mind of the compulsive but non-malicious (and thus endearing) dissembler of the truth.
As Billy's web of falsehoods begins to unravel, and more lies are required to fill the gaping holes in his chronicle, the more hilarious the novel becomes.
Set in a fictitious northern English town in the late 1950s, the novel paints a vivid and faithful picture of working class life, values and aspirations of the era - a paradoxically authentic backcloth against which Billy's extensive cast of fibs is played out.
A wee gem.
There is no epic story. It is merely a fantasy-packed day in the life of its hero, Billy Fisher. However, the style and the subject are elegantly crafted together.
And there is enough of a cliffhanger to keep you wanting to know: will Billy go to London (and leave his troubles and his two-and-a-half fiancees behind) or will he stay to face the music?
The narrative is written in the first person (that being Billy), and the author captures with exquisite clarity the complex mind of the compulsive but non-malicious (and thus endearing) dissembler of the truth.
As Billy's web of falsehoods begins to unravel, and more lies are required to fill the gaping holes in his chronicle, the more hilarious the novel becomes.
Set in a fictitious northern English town in the late 1950s, the novel paints a vivid and faithful picture of working class life, values and aspirations of the era - a paradoxically authentic backcloth against which Billy's extensive cast of fibs is played out.
A wee gem.
