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Runaway
This remarkable book is both the compulsive story of a young girl's stormy passage to maturity and a desperate search for sexual identity after violation. It is an unflinching record of courage, honesty, rebellion and survival - and the price that can be paid for true independence.
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First published May 29, 1986
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
January 16, 2011
So goodreads friend karen just posted a beautiful review of A Visit from the Goon Squad, where she riffs on the power of nostalgia, lost youth, the seeming indestructibility of our youthful bodies and worldviews, how every bad thing is the worst possible bad thing, and every good thing the most powerful good. Goon Squad most probably does all these things, and so does this memoir, at least for me. Published in 1987 and now out of print, Irvine recounts her growing up in early '70's UK and her globetrotting ramblings all over the place, searching for...you know, a vessel for all that youthful, pregnant yearning I was just going on about. If you are a female and ever felt confused with what to do with your intelligent brain, passionate heart and attractive face in a world that provides limited roles for the uses of these attributes, this could be your story. If the structures of school or 9-to-5 are too stifling, but the structure of a psych ward seem almost a relief, and you can acknowledge both the difference and the similarities of those environs, this could also be your story.
But what makes this most definitely Irvine's story is her painfully honest willful inhabitance of her own body. When she stares into the sky through the branches of the Scottish highlands, she is so fully there, in that place and no other, perceiving through every sense her body owns. As she tramps alone through Western Europe, the reader momentarily forgetting she is yet only 15 years old, she is suddenly and viciously raped. Irvine recounts the scene in detail, every moment scraped deeply in her memory, and though the act is repellent, her telling of it is not, as she retains a dignity, a thoughtfulness, a respect for her body that she never retreats from, though she carries the horrid memory like an albatross. She may fade in and out of lucid thought at some points in her life, carried away by "love", fear, misplaced loyalty and assorted overheating passions, she never relinquishes ownership of her body.
And any woman this aware of her own body, who uses it however is necessary to achieve her ends (and I don't mean for intercourse -- that's so banal), well, it's sexy. Lucy Irvine is so damn sexy. Obviously plenty of men in her life felt the same way, too, but she almost never seemed to notice. This is the woman who spent a year of her life on a deserted island with a complete stranger she married to conform to an antiquated cohabitation law. Running around an island in her tanned, wind-swept birthday suit, spearing fish and climbing palms, while you're off having your fantasy, she's observing the tide, praying to the sunset, feeling the sun kiss her skin.
These days I understand she's living in a mudhut somewhere in the Balkans. Well, that's according to her website. You can pay her to edit your manuscript. Email only, no mailing address. I'm waiting for the next memoir -- what to do with all that unconventional, youthful passion when the body isn't quite the masterpiece it once was; when the naked native starts to show its years in the sun; when you're no longer that mysteriously beautiful, sexycrazy nymph, but an older,faded, tired woman looking for a sturdy mattress and a hot cuppa. Lucy, what came next?
But what makes this most definitely Irvine's story is her painfully honest willful inhabitance of her own body. When she stares into the sky through the branches of the Scottish highlands, she is so fully there, in that place and no other, perceiving through every sense her body owns. As she tramps alone through Western Europe, the reader momentarily forgetting she is yet only 15 years old, she is suddenly and viciously raped. Irvine recounts the scene in detail, every moment scraped deeply in her memory, and though the act is repellent, her telling of it is not, as she retains a dignity, a thoughtfulness, a respect for her body that she never retreats from, though she carries the horrid memory like an albatross. She may fade in and out of lucid thought at some points in her life, carried away by "love", fear, misplaced loyalty and assorted overheating passions, she never relinquishes ownership of her body.
And any woman this aware of her own body, who uses it however is necessary to achieve her ends (and I don't mean for intercourse -- that's so banal), well, it's sexy. Lucy Irvine is so damn sexy. Obviously plenty of men in her life felt the same way, too, but she almost never seemed to notice. This is the woman who spent a year of her life on a deserted island with a complete stranger she married to conform to an antiquated cohabitation law. Running around an island in her tanned, wind-swept birthday suit, spearing fish and climbing palms, while you're off having your fantasy, she's observing the tide, praying to the sunset, feeling the sun kiss her skin.
These days I understand she's living in a mudhut somewhere in the Balkans. Well, that's according to her website. You can pay her to edit your manuscript. Email only, no mailing address. I'm waiting for the next memoir -- what to do with all that unconventional, youthful passion when the body isn't quite the masterpiece it once was; when the naked native starts to show its years in the sun; when you're no longer that mysteriously beautiful, sexycrazy nymph, but an older,faded, tired woman looking for a sturdy mattress and a hot cuppa. Lucy, what came next?
August 13, 2016
This is the follow-up book from Lucy Irvine after the success of CASTAWAY. Unlike her first book about life on a desert island, this is more of a prequel, describing her attempts to find herself as a rebellious young adult. Funny, no matter what book she writes, she's always attempting to find herself.
Unlike her first and more successful book, this one doesn't quite take off. She come across as self-entitled and a bit cruel, and I lost any sympathy when she had an incident with an innocent animal. While I bought into her trials and tribulations in CASTAWAY, it left me cold in this book. There's only so much soul-searching one can do before you say 'enough'. Stick with the first book.
Book Season = Summer
Unlike her first and more successful book, this one doesn't quite take off. She come across as self-entitled and a bit cruel, and I lost any sympathy when she had an incident with an innocent animal. While I bought into her trials and tribulations in CASTAWAY, it left me cold in this book. There's only so much soul-searching one can do before you say 'enough'. Stick with the first book.
Book Season = Summer
February 7, 2008
I learned that it is very possible to masterfully describe what it is like to grow up an attractive but confused young girl in 1970's England.
Irvine perfectly describes what it feel like to wrestle with odd feelings and an incomplete undestanding about divorce and your own body's power to attract people.
She does very well at describing some of her scrapes and adventures and tragedies on the way to maturity.
Irvine perfectly describes what it feel like to wrestle with odd feelings and an incomplete undestanding about divorce and your own body's power to attract people.
She does very well at describing some of her scrapes and adventures and tragedies on the way to maturity.
January 27, 2022
Lucy has a beautiful writing style and I thoroughly enjoyed the book, I just can't rate it any higher when compared to classics and outstanding novels. I found her unconventional adolescence fascinating, including her desire and love of travel and willingness to work hard. I particularly understood how she felt when she wrote this;
'I was afraid the doctor was going to attempt to analyse my behaviour, and by defining it kill both the cause and all the feelings arising from it. For all the trouble it gave, I valued that dark region of the mind where thoughts did not come in words. It was the most fiercely living part of me.'
'I was afraid the doctor was going to attempt to analyse my behaviour, and by defining it kill both the cause and all the feelings arising from it. For all the trouble it gave, I valued that dark region of the mind where thoughts did not come in words. It was the most fiercely living part of me.'
October 20, 2017
Really good. Profound in a different way than Castaway.
November 21, 2025
super engels, super fijn en inspirerend
December 14, 2012
An interesting book if (and only if) you read Castaway, Irvine's book about her year on an uninhabited island in the Torres Straits, and wondered "What the **** would possess a woman to up and take off with a man she'd never met before to an island she'd never seen...and marry him?"
Well, a woman like Lucy Irvine might. She left school in her early teens (exactly when depends on how you define 'school') and batted about for the next few years. She hitchiked around Europe, with only minimal funding (for which read "none"); it was on this trip that she was raped in Greece on her way to Israel to work on a kibbutz, and carried the mental scarring for many years afterwards.
Unfortunately, while I'm sympathetic to someone with wanderlust such as Irvine's--there's precious little space in this world for a woman who wants to bum about like this--in this book, she comes across as a bit self-centered. Not surprisingly, since she was writing about her youth, but where Castaway was more outwardly oriented, with details about "G", the island and her surroundings, this one is inwardly directed. And unfortunately, that knocks a star off for me.
Well, a woman like Lucy Irvine might. She left school in her early teens (exactly when depends on how you define 'school') and batted about for the next few years. She hitchiked around Europe, with only minimal funding (for which read "none"); it was on this trip that she was raped in Greece on her way to Israel to work on a kibbutz, and carried the mental scarring for many years afterwards.
Unfortunately, while I'm sympathetic to someone with wanderlust such as Irvine's--there's precious little space in this world for a woman who wants to bum about like this--in this book, she comes across as a bit self-centered. Not surprisingly, since she was writing about her youth, but where Castaway was more outwardly oriented, with details about "G", the island and her surroundings, this one is inwardly directed. And unfortunately, that knocks a star off for me.
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June 10, 2012Read this book over this weekendEnjoyed it, having read Castaway many years ago, I was intrigued about her earlier life.
Seemed to pack a lot on.. Full of young woman angst , self discovery & a search for that romantic love " something"
Will probably read her other books later to complete the journey
Seemed to pack a lot on.. Full of young woman angst , self discovery & a search for that romantic love " something"
Will probably read her other books later to complete the journey
October 24, 2017
this was a sad book
October 24, 2012
Ok book. Read Castaway years ago and saw the film. Her story in this book not as dramatic as I imagined, but more believable than other books read of same ilk.
February 4, 2013
Well-written, but a strange, meandering story.
January 10, 2018
This was a well written story of a young woman's struggle with herself, her choices and the consequences that saw her experience physical, emotional and mental hardship. The way she dealt with her life's ups and downs showed character and a willingness to believe in human goodness.
At times gritty and thought provoking throughout.
At times gritty and thought provoking throughout.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews