B Movie

by Stan Barstow

The book is set in the fifties; it's about two lads on a holiday in Blackpool; unbeknownst to the other, one of them has mugged and robbed a shopkeeper just before leaving for Blackpool. The book is all in very short chapters, like the short takes of a B-movie.....In 1955, Stan Barstow wrote his first novel. It was a thriller, which went round a few publishers, collecting rejection letters. So he put it away in a drawer. In 1987, he took it out again, dusted it off, and - with nearly thirty years more experience - reworked it into B-Movie. So the B- in the title is also a bit of a pun...

Paperback

First published March 9, 1987

About the author

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Bar...

Reviews

[Alan · Rating 2 out of 5]

another find at the charity do, 5p - not sure if i should re-visit old heroes. His book 'A Kind of Loving' was a fave when i was a teenager in 1968ish, along with others of the British 'kitchen sink' movement (Sillitoe, Storey etc). But I haven't read any since the 70s and this may spoil my rosy view.

It did.

[Lucy Houbart · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book full of action. Great characters. I was gripped. A real page turner. Finished it too quickly.

[Roger Pettit · Rating 3 out of 5]

Along with the likes of Alan Sillitoe, David Storey and John Braine, the perhaps slightly less well-known Stan Barstow was a mainstay of the British New Wave movement which promulgated much greater social realism in fiction in the early 1960s. Much of his work - he wrote novels and short stories - is set in Yorkshire, in a fictional mining town known as Cressley. ‘B-Movie’ features that place but Barstow also strays across the Pennines to Blackpool, where much of the action in this 160-page novel takes place. The story centres on two cousins, Arny and Frank, who, fresh from National Service, decide to spend a week’s holiday together at the Lancashire resort. Both are soon involved in holiday romances but their relationship with each other (and with their respective girlfriends) comes under strain when it becomes clear that one of them has been involved in a serious crime - the violent robbery of a pawnbroker - and that the police may be hot on their heels.

The cover of the paperback edition that I have just read cites an encomium from a review in The Times newspaper. It describes Barstow as “…a master story-teller…a creator of strong and memorable characters”. I think that is a perfect summary of a writer who produced a small body of engaging, realistic, compassionate fiction, the hallmark of which is credible characterisation and plausible dialogue. As its title suggests, ‘B-Movie’ is not major literature. Rather, it is a slight novel (in both tone and substance), but one which is so naturalistic that it makes you feel you are back in the 1960s and living it yourself. Part thriller, part social history, the book is an unsentimental portrayal of British working class life and of post-war aspiration. It’s fascinating, entertaining and very readable. 7/10.

[Alec · Rating 3 out of 5]

Knowing Barstow by his short stories, written with elegant dignity (kitchen sink and all that notwithstanding), I had not expected this, but one should take a work for what it is. And it explicitly declares itself in the title as a B-Movie (which might be an insider for the writer, who purportedly rewrote a 33-y.o. juvenile project of his). It is a gripping bitter thriller set in the bleak black-and-white 50's written in 50 short sharp takes about an orphaned generation coping with its ambitions and aspirations. Well, no, it's actually about a couple of blokes, best friends and cousins, one turned criminal and chased by police, the other a quiet musician out of a job.

There is the general ruthless drive of cinematic takes, and there are some gentle observations, characters painted with a thin, accurate brush, and a lot of sympathy and understanding.

Also, the weirdness of mildly obscene Blackpool jokes at the start of each of the three parts. I don't see the point of that (did noirs of the 50's do that?), but it's somewhat entertaining.

Read most of it on a plane, finished at home over a porridge, don't regret a page.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Borrowed this from my mum, read in one sitting. Characters were convincing, and the story, although predicable, was good. Would recommend if you like post WWII fiction.