What do you think?
Rate this book
Maggie Muggins
Libro usado en buenas condiciones, por su antiguedad podria contener señales normales de uso
- GenresFiction
272 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1982
26 people want to read
About the author
Keith Waterhouse
87 books28 followersKeith Spencer Waterhouse CBE, was a novelist, newspaper columnist, and the writer of many television series.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 15, 2013
I found this as a dog eared paperpack priced 10p in a basket outside a charity shop. In my experience, that's where you find the best books. It's a hilarious, moving and bittersweet novel of a lonely single girl's journey to pick up her post from all the various London houses she's lived in, recounting experiences from her life along the way.
It really captures the feel of shabby-genteel Londoners just clinging on to middle class life, trapped in a world of dead end jobs, bedsits, woodchip wallpaper and partitioned houses: you can almost smell the musty carpets and stale cooking smells. It's a perfect antidote to the glossy rubbish about urban glamour in the media that draws more and more Maggie Mugginses into the capital each year, desperately trying to live the dream.
Even the cover is good, done by the illustrator of Tom Sharpe's 'Wilt' books. The late Mr Waterhouse is one of my all time favourite writers and this is one of his best.
It really captures the feel of shabby-genteel Londoners just clinging on to middle class life, trapped in a world of dead end jobs, bedsits, woodchip wallpaper and partitioned houses: you can almost smell the musty carpets and stale cooking smells. It's a perfect antidote to the glossy rubbish about urban glamour in the media that draws more and more Maggie Mugginses into the capital each year, desperately trying to live the dream.
Even the cover is good, done by the illustrator of Tom Sharpe's 'Wilt' books. The late Mr Waterhouse is one of my all time favourite writers and this is one of his best.
October 27, 2024
Written in the late '80s and first read by me around the same time, the book charts a day in the life of Maggie Muggins, a thirty-something alcohol-dependent drop-out who just manages to keep her head above the waters along the periphery of middle-class suburbia.
In Maggie's world, every room in London was really a half-a-room, a bedsit partitioned off with plywood or pegboard - and Maggie Muggins had woken up in most of them.
On this day, she was doing her 'milk round', picking up stray mail from former addresses - in Islington, the caring borough where everyone was looking after No. 2, in the back end of Shepherd's Bush, where earnest social workers infested Portakabins, and finally in Earl's Court, where the milk round ends. Hanging over her like a dark cloud is the death of her best friend - bitchy, depressive Sean - who had thrown himself under a Tube train, leaving Maggie with nothing but a trail of sardonic postcards.
This is definitely a book of its time. I love all of Keith Waterhouse's writing, but his characters and his prose would probably shock a few Gen Zs and millennials these days, and Maggie Muggins is no exception. Indeed, when I lent a copy of the book to a younger friend of mine, she was stunned by the inappropriateness of the text and not a little disproving of my own tastes, because I was so fond of it.
However, the quality of Waterhouse's writing and the way he handles the bittersweet moments, the disappointment, melancholy and loneliness that underscore Maggie's difficult life, won my friend over in the end. His characterisation of Maggie's vulnerability is both moving and delicate, and it's evident without him ever having to stray too far from his depiction of her outwardly hard and brittle personality.
Every time I read this book, I laugh and cry with it, and despite losing various copies over the years, it has become one of my all-time favourite books. It went out of print quite some time back, but I recently managed to get hold of a copy. This time I'll make sure it's never lost again. Keith Waterhouse's writing - apart perhaps from his famous "Billy Liar", remains an undiscovered delight to many. It can be both achingly funny and achingly sad; Maggie, in particular, is a beautifully drawn character. If you ever decide to investigate his work beyond Billy Liar, this should be where you start.
In Maggie's world, every room in London was really a half-a-room, a bedsit partitioned off with plywood or pegboard - and Maggie Muggins had woken up in most of them.
On this day, she was doing her 'milk round', picking up stray mail from former addresses - in Islington, the caring borough where everyone was looking after No. 2, in the back end of Shepherd's Bush, where earnest social workers infested Portakabins, and finally in Earl's Court, where the milk round ends. Hanging over her like a dark cloud is the death of her best friend - bitchy, depressive Sean - who had thrown himself under a Tube train, leaving Maggie with nothing but a trail of sardonic postcards.
This is definitely a book of its time. I love all of Keith Waterhouse's writing, but his characters and his prose would probably shock a few Gen Zs and millennials these days, and Maggie Muggins is no exception. Indeed, when I lent a copy of the book to a younger friend of mine, she was stunned by the inappropriateness of the text and not a little disproving of my own tastes, because I was so fond of it.
However, the quality of Waterhouse's writing and the way he handles the bittersweet moments, the disappointment, melancholy and loneliness that underscore Maggie's difficult life, won my friend over in the end. His characterisation of Maggie's vulnerability is both moving and delicate, and it's evident without him ever having to stray too far from his depiction of her outwardly hard and brittle personality.
Every time I read this book, I laugh and cry with it, and despite losing various copies over the years, it has become one of my all-time favourite books. It went out of print quite some time back, but I recently managed to get hold of a copy. This time I'll make sure it's never lost again. Keith Waterhouse's writing - apart perhaps from his famous "Billy Liar", remains an undiscovered delight to many. It can be both achingly funny and achingly sad; Maggie, in particular, is a beautifully drawn character. If you ever decide to investigate his work beyond Billy Liar, this should be where you start.
September 11, 2018
This is the tale of Maggie Moon, aka Maggie Muggins, a 29 year old from Doncaster who has travelled to London to get away from a tedious existence at home. But her life in London is a string of temporary relationships, temporary jobs and temporary bed-sits or flats that she moves into and out of at a whim. How she survives at all is a mystery!
I remember reading and enjoying Billy Liar at the time but, thinking back, I don't think the title character was supposed to inspire much admiration but I seemed to remember grudgingly granting him that. Sadly, I can't say that the character of Maggie inspired much in the way of empathy from me, although well-portrayed and embodying quite a lot of subtle humour and sarcasm. Towards the end of the book, Maggie reveals her raison d'etre: 'She was programmed for survival' and the book is simply that - her tale of survival, never really getting anywhere or really trying to, so the whole thing seemed a bit pointless. But perhaps that IS the point?! Only 6/10 for me.
I remember reading and enjoying Billy Liar at the time but, thinking back, I don't think the title character was supposed to inspire much admiration but I seemed to remember grudgingly granting him that. Sadly, I can't say that the character of Maggie inspired much in the way of empathy from me, although well-portrayed and embodying quite a lot of subtle humour and sarcasm. Towards the end of the book, Maggie reveals her raison d'etre: 'She was programmed for survival' and the book is simply that - her tale of survival, never really getting anywhere or really trying to, so the whole thing seemed a bit pointless. But perhaps that IS the point?! Only 6/10 for me.
June 15, 2023
Another very good outing from Waterhouse and keeping on theme with the Angry Young Men - felt grimier than previous books I've read from this group but this was very well done.
It was filled with purposeful torpor if that makes sense. Waterhouse achieved the creation of a character who had the drive to be great at languor with the intention of MM playing to her strengths in a subworld of weaknesses.
What if you are better than your position in life but it's the life you're best suited for?
It was filled with purposeful torpor if that makes sense. Waterhouse achieved the creation of a character who had the drive to be great at languor with the intention of MM playing to her strengths in a subworld of weaknesses.
What if you are better than your position in life but it's the life you're best suited for?
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews