WHEN READING A STORY STRIKES A BLOW AGAINST EVIL
I read this story when I was on holiday with my family of three teens in a tranquil part of England during a very pleasant spell of sunny weather. This is how life should be, right? OK a teen is a teen is a teen is a teen. But on the whole my crew are OK. I try to be an OK dad. It is one of life's blessings for a guy to be a dad.
So why do so many men mess it up? Why do so many of us screw up the lives of those we are supposed to nourish and be espaliers to? What makes a man like Richard the vile step-father in Jesamine James acutely beautiful UP THE HILL BACKWARDS turn evil? I guess a shrink might offer a load of reasons with footnotes to all sorts of studies. But the word evil works for me.
UP THE HILL BACKWARDS is not about Richard though and it is not about his evil doings, few of which are detailed. The story is about Jes, his step-daughter, her suffering, intelligence, resilience, defiance, and survival.
I've read and heart a lot about evil men like Jimmy Savile preying on kids recently. If we are honest we all know it has gone on forever. It is one thing to be hurt by a stranger, but when the stranger is a parent, or step-parent. How the hell does a kid live with it? A kid doesn't know how to front down the person who is supposed to defend them not destroy them.
UP THE HILL BACKWARDS shows us how Jes works things out as best she can, how she copes, how she makes her little escapes, and then her big escape, and ultimately takes a very, very big step to deal with the evil man who is her worst enemy.
This is a harsh story. But it is also achingly beautiful because of the insight it gives into a normal kid's spirit. Yes, she does bad things. She sleeps around in a lovelessly casual way to 'dilute' her tormentor's influence on her. She does glue with other messed up kids, at least one of whom dies young. She sneaks INTO a children's home to find friends and solace. And when she is older, Mr.Vodka awaits her .. 'I said, go easy on the mixer!'
The writing in UP THE HILL BACKWARDS is intelligent and matter of fact. It is stripped of sentimentality. The story shoots straight and sparingly. It is coolly and sharply told. No words are wasted. And it is very convincing.
I could see the traces of pink paint in the knot swirls in the long case of bad Richard's collection of clocks. And I could see the wooden lasts burning in the fire before which Jes is sitting in her Northampton trap of a home, burning her leg. The lasts for me were symbols of a more solid time. Naive I admit. But that is what I felt as I read that dab. So, too, later on, Jes bemoans the loss of so many pubs - in part because she wants a drink - but, more significantly because of the loss of community spirit. Perhaps bad things are less likely to happen when we get out from the intensity of our self-contained little worlds. Maybe there is a msg for all of us in this as our online lives see many of us sinking into potentially damaging isolation. For it is not in that isolation that men like evil Richard can flourish?
Jes is not beaten, never beaten spiritually, though she is beaten physically. She plots her escape. This passage of UP THE HILL BACKWARDS was top draw because it made me feel how it was for her, the sheer terror of what she was attempting to do .. to .. just .. get .. on a bus .. and go. And, ach, the pain of how it all goes wrong for her. Yet she persists, this is the point .. she persists. She keeps going. But, o the sadness of how things turn out with her literally on a slow boat back to her tormentor, witnessing the hypocrisy of another man, this time a manipulative youth using religion to get his lustful way, con control.
So I learnt a lot and I thought a lot as I read UP THE HILL BACKWARDS, which I believe will make an excellent piece of drama on a stage or on a screen. I swear to you, it deserves to be on a stage in Northampton where the story is set. That would be something because it would show that Jes, through her art, has triumphed in a creative way over the destroyer who was Richard and over whom she does triumph personally.
I am a middle-aged bloke who's had an OK life. I have never messed anyone up and I was not messed up as a kid. But for anyone who has suffered or is suffering an evil Richard I am certain that UP THE HILL BACKWARDS may well prove a lifeline. So the book deserves to be out there and read because its message is an important msg of survival and a slap for those of us who are complacent or dismissive about the things others less well off have to endure.
So the next thing to do it get it and read it. By reading UP THE HILL BACKWARDS you will be doing something to fight against the evil it shows us is among us. The more Jes succeeds the more the evil recedes.
Ron Askew
So why do so many men mess it up? Why do so many of us screw up the lives of those we are supposed to nourish and be espaliers to? What makes a man like Richard the vile step-father in Jesamine James acutely beautiful UP THE HILL BACKWARDS turn evil? I guess a shrink might offer a load of reasons with footnotes to all sorts of studies. But the word evil works for me.
UP THE HILL BACKWARDS is not about Richard though and it is not about his evil doings, few of which are detailed. The story is about Jes, his step-daughter, her suffering, intelligence, resilience, defiance, and survival.
I've read and heart a lot about evil men like Jimmy Savile preying on kids recently. If we are honest we all know it has gone on forever. It is one thing to be hurt by a stranger, but when the stranger is a parent, or step-parent. How the hell does a kid live with it? A kid doesn't know how to front down the person who is supposed to defend them not destroy them.
UP THE HILL BACKWARDS shows us how Jes works things out as best she can, how she copes, how she makes her little escapes, and then her big escape, and ultimately takes a very, very big step to deal with the evil man who is her worst enemy.
This is a harsh story. But it is also achingly beautiful because of the insight it gives into a normal kid's spirit. Yes, she does bad things. She sleeps around in a lovelessly casual way to 'dilute' her tormentor's influence on her. She does glue with other messed up kids, at least one of whom dies young. She sneaks INTO a children's home to find friends and solace. And when she is older, Mr.Vodka awaits her .. 'I said, go easy on the mixer!'
The writing in UP THE HILL BACKWARDS is intelligent and matter of fact. It is stripped of sentimentality. The story shoots straight and sparingly. It is coolly and sharply told. No words are wasted. And it is very convincing.
I could see the traces of pink paint in the knot swirls in the long case of bad Richard's collection of clocks. And I could see the wooden lasts burning in the fire before which Jes is sitting in her Northampton trap of a home, burning her leg. The lasts for me were symbols of a more solid time. Naive I admit. But that is what I felt as I read that dab. So, too, later on, Jes bemoans the loss of so many pubs - in part because she wants a drink - but, more significantly because of the loss of community spirit. Perhaps bad things are less likely to happen when we get out from the intensity of our self-contained little worlds. Maybe there is a msg for all of us in this as our online lives see many of us sinking into potentially damaging isolation. For it is not in that isolation that men like evil Richard can flourish?
Jes is not beaten, never beaten spiritually, though she is beaten physically. She plots her escape. This passage of UP THE HILL BACKWARDS was top draw because it made me feel how it was for her, the sheer terror of what she was attempting to do .. to .. just .. get .. on a bus .. and go. And, ach, the pain of how it all goes wrong for her. Yet she persists, this is the point .. she persists. She keeps going. But, o the sadness of how things turn out with her literally on a slow boat back to her tormentor, witnessing the hypocrisy of another man, this time a manipulative youth using religion to get his lustful way, con control.
So I learnt a lot and I thought a lot as I read UP THE HILL BACKWARDS, which I believe will make an excellent piece of drama on a stage or on a screen. I swear to you, it deserves to be on a stage in Northampton where the story is set. That would be something because it would show that Jes, through her art, has triumphed in a creative way over the destroyer who was Richard and over whom she does triumph personally.
I am a middle-aged bloke who's had an OK life. I have never messed anyone up and I was not messed up as a kid. But for anyone who has suffered or is suffering an evil Richard I am certain that UP THE HILL BACKWARDS may well prove a lifeline. So the book deserves to be out there and read because its message is an important msg of survival and a slap for those of us who are complacent or dismissive about the things others less well off have to endure.
So the next thing to do it get it and read it. By reading UP THE HILL BACKWARDS you will be doing something to fight against the evil it shows us is among us. The more Jes succeeds the more the evil recedes.
Ron Askew
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