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Boy: A Novel
by
Narrated in unflinching language that is both visceral and acute in its observational power, Boy is a shocking book that stays in the mind long after it is read. Unfairly neglected during his lifetime, only recently has this original, uncompromising novelist started to be reappraised as among the finest novelists writing in English in the twentieth century.
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ebook, 186 pages
Published
March 17th 2015
by Open Road Media
(first published 1931)
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My review of this so-so title (<--on topic) may be found in Comment 1.
The banning, deprecation and release only in expurgated form of this novel are all symptoms of the values enmeshed in the power of controllers and their followers – the willingly controlled. Far from being pornographic, only someone with a dirty mind could find it so, and, ironically, where the novel describes several sexual encounters they are horrible, diseased, and related only to flesh exploited as meat, and Power.
The Boy is Arthur Fearon who we first see in school being bullied by his teac ...more
The Boy is Arthur Fearon who we first see in school being bullied by his teac ...more
Jul 21, 2008
Alan
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
novels,
should-be-better-known-novels
Hanley's work is uneven, I find, but this early one is one of the best. Sharp, direct, honest. Very powerful
...more
Sep 23, 2020
Nikolas Koutsodontis
rated it
liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
proletarian-literature
Ανελέητο και άβολο προλεταριακό μυθιστόρημα του 1931 από τον σήμερα ξεχασμένο άγγλο James Hanley// προκλητικό για την εποχή του και κυνηγημένο, καταδικάστηκε σε 400 λίρες πρόστιμο και κάψιμο 100 αντιτύπων, πράγμα που οι υπεύθυνοι της έκδοσης δέχτηκαν για να αποφύγουν την φυλάκιση// ο ήρωας Arthrur Hearon έχει όνειρο να γίνει χημικός, όνειρο εντελώς αντίθετο στην πραγματικότητα και στη θέληση των βάναυσων προλετάριων γονιών του, που τον παίρνουν από το σχολείο στα 13 του χρόνια και ο πατέρας του
...more
When i read this book several years ago I found the prose in places to be simply wrong in places and at times to fall below the line one normally expects from a published author, (just my opinion). However, as years have passed by the odd style in which this book has been written has left a deep impression on my mind and the memory of this book remains vivid to this day.
Very briefly, the book tells the story of a poor working class teenage boy's life torrid homelike, his first job, through to hi ...more
Very briefly, the book tells the story of a poor working class teenage boy's life torrid homelike, his first job, through to hi ...more
Crudely written (Hanley claimed he wrote it in ten days) but absorbing tale of a naive and physically frail boy, Arthur Fearon, who, tiring of his father's brutality, flees his home in Liverpool for a life at sea, stowing away on the ship The Hernian. On ship he is mistreated in every imaginable way by the crew, and yet survives and takes the job of lookout when the sailor in that position dies as the result of an accident. Arthur wants to learn and adapt to his new surroundings, but his tenure
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On page 185 of the book, one of the characters says of the protagonist: "I can't understand this lad at all", a thought that clearly runs through the minds of all the people who come into contact with Boy, Arthur Fearon. This surely must include the readers too.
In fact, more than not understanding him, it seems that, apart from a few ambivalent exceptions, they also all strongly dislike him. And that's hardly surprising. Fearon, as a character, is infuriating: he is foolish, uncooperative (most ...more
In fact, more than not understanding him, it seems that, apart from a few ambivalent exceptions, they also all strongly dislike him. And that's hardly surprising. Fearon, as a character, is infuriating: he is foolish, uncooperative (most ...more
The story left me with a lukewarm feeling.
The first third does a good job of illuminating the boy's circumstances - you do start to feel pity and even compassion when he's treated badly by his dominant father who completely shoves the boy's wishes for his life aside.
But this slight emotional connection degraded to indifference during the rest of the story, which is mainly because the boy is - a failure.
He gives in to his weakness and goes from bad to worse, though the obscenities the book has b ...more
The first third does a good job of illuminating the boy's circumstances - you do start to feel pity and even compassion when he's treated badly by his dominant father who completely shoves the boy's wishes for his life aside.
But this slight emotional connection degraded to indifference during the rest of the story, which is mainly because the boy is - a failure.
He gives in to his weakness and goes from bad to worse, though the obscenities the book has b ...more
I found this a powerful and quite shocking, but not always very convincing, expose of a young boy’s odyssey and his ultimate downfall. Arthur Fearon is a poor working class thirteen-year-old from Liverpool who is forced out of school – where he shows some promise – by his violent father and made to work on the docks. After just one day at the admittedly brutal work he is given, he decides he can’t take it and runs away to sea. But life on board is if anything even more brutal and he is abused by
...more
Apr 12, 2018
Ensoleillé Rimbaud
rated it
liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
books-read-in-2018
I can see why the book caused a stir in the 1930s but it’s rather tame compared to todays standards.
3.49 stars, and my thanks go to Net Galley and Open Road Integrated Media for the DRC.
Boy, a tragic story that reads like a hybrid between Dickens and Melville, was originally published in 1930, and ran into all sorts of censorship. There are passages that contain sex that would not even be considered erotica now, since they avoid much specificity, but for the bourgeoisie of that time period, it was way too much. The censorship fight was where my interest came from, because I don't generally see ...more
Boy, a tragic story that reads like a hybrid between Dickens and Melville, was originally published in 1930, and ran into all sorts of censorship. There are passages that contain sex that would not even be considered erotica now, since they avoid much specificity, but for the bourgeoisie of that time period, it was way too much. The censorship fight was where my interest came from, because I don't generally see ...more
Disappointingly, I fell for the upscale, paperback edition's highminded literary delusions. Boy is little more than a crudely drawn, overtly Romantic tale of a thirteen-year-old boy who loses his innocence (and that!) as a stowaway on a merchant ship heading for Africa. First published in the early 1930s, I guess Hanley's insistence on putting young Arthur through the wringer of life was meant to be British social realism at its most honest, but the novel is fourth-rate, NAMBLA-worthy, sentiment
...more
Oh boy...This book was very disappointing to me. It took me a while to realize I was having trouble finding the voice of the story. Sometimes it would jump from one person's thoughts to another in a very sloppy way. I thought character development was close to none, with the exception of "the boy" (of course) and his parents. I wanted this to be a story about a boy's adventure on the sea (a very romantic idea, very similar to the boy's view of his journey). Instead, the hurt and pain and defeat
...more
Everything I read about this book before I read it said that it was this crazy, shocking book that was banned and rarely read and blah blah blah, and so of course I thought, "Awesome!" It wasn't as shocking as I thought (hoped?) it would be. There are some prostitutes, yes, and the title character does go through some pretty awful things, but all-in-all I was hoping for something darker. It's short and easy to get through, and is fairly gritty, but it didn't blow my mind by any means. Which is t
...more
A good read? Yes. Shocking? Fairly. I enjoy Hanley's style, I enjoyed the plot, I thought it was good, but ultimately it didn't deliver the goods. Something seemed to be missing and I can't quite put my finger on what. It was just something bad happens to the boy, something else bad happens to the boy, something worse happens, things are okay for a second, sailors are really creepy, prostitutes etc. But at least it was written well and it was compelling and a quick interesting read.
...more
3.25? Review to be posted on the blog.
marked down a star bc it was so damn depressing
An incredibly dark, bleak book, but well written and very engaging. It's a compelling, albeit brutal, story.
...more
I read this book many years ago and it is one that I will always return to.
Mar 31, 2020
ALEARDO ZANGHELLINI
rated it
liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
allusively-homoerotic-to-gay-themed
This is a good book that could have easily been better with some judicious changes. Dickensian -- but without the humour -- it does not always succeed in avoiding a melodramatic tone, which unfortunately dulls the power of the story.
There are inconsistencies that should have been ironed out - namely, the boy's age, the length of time he spends working on the docks, the kind of work he does there, etc. Different accounts of these details appear in different parts of the novel and it's clear to m ...more
There are inconsistencies that should have been ironed out - namely, the boy's age, the length of time he spends working on the docks, the kind of work he does there, etc. Different accounts of these details appear in different parts of the novel and it's clear to m ...more
I knew little about this book aside from the fact that it had been well regarded by E. M. Forster (one of my favourite authors) as well as William Faulkner and Anthony Burgess. After finishing I can only wish there were more of Hanley's works readily available in print. Like the title (almost shouted - Boy!) this is short, stark and brutal novel which surpised me with it's style and energy. Underneath the sharply conveyed, almost 'realist' dialogue there is a clever modernist novel which explore
...more
Boy is a dark, depressing, but still eminently readable novel tracing the downfall of a thirteen-year old, Arthur Fearon, as he is withdrawn from school by his impoverished, often abusive parents and set to work. He starts out on the docks cleaning out bilges, but soon runs away to sea with disastrous consequences. This is a hard-hitting novel, so much so that it faced an obscenity prosecution shortly after its original publication in 1931, but it is a forgotten classic that everyone should read
...more
Dec 06, 2020
Federico
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
prestito,
narrativa-straniera
Letto perché menzionato da EM Forster. Si legge velocemente ma certo non è un libro leggero; senz'altro fa ben capire che cosa voglia dire essere solo un "ragazzo"...
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Born in Kirkdale, Liverpool, in 1897 (not Dublin, nor 1901 as he generally implied) to a working-class family, Hanley probably left school in 1911 and worked as a clerk, before going to sea in 1915 at the age of 17 (not 13 as he again implied). Thus life at sea was a formative influence and much of his early writing is about seamen.
Then, in April 1917, Hanley jumped ship in Saint John, New Brunswi ...more
Then, in April 1917, Hanley jumped ship in Saint John, New Brunswi ...more
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“Who put such ideas into your head, boy? What have you been reading at all? I gamble you are quite a romantic young person so far as the sea is concerned. But, my boy, there is something associated with the sea that you have not yet learned. The day you learn it you will know the meaning of slavery. That's all the sea ever was. That's all it is. Slavery. Slavery. Take my advice and keep away from the sea. It'll never do you any good. I'm not here because I like it, but because there is nothing else for me and I have to like it.”
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“Like your mother. That's what you are. Another obstinate pig like your mother. But I'll fix you. We'll see. And if you don't pass that exam next week, by God I'll lame you for life. When I was your age, I had to get up and work. I had to rise at five in the morning and drag a milk cart half round the town for a few shillings a week. Here you get a chance of earning over a pound a week and you stick your nose up at it. I'll fix you. You wait. I have had to work hard for my living and I'll bloody well see that you do the same.”
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