Raw Material

by Alan Sillitoe

Alan Sillitoe is best known for THE LONELINESS OF THE LONG DISTANCE RUNNER. In RAW MATERIAL we meet Sillitoe's impoverished Midlands forebearers and learn why Sillitoe believes family relationships are the basis of all security, love and perhaps all truth. For him, these relationships are the artistic "raw material" of his work; thus the family becomes not only the edifice of his life, but also grist for his mill.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography

189 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

Alan Sillitoe was an English writer, one of the "Angry Young Men" of the 1950s (although he, in common with most of the other writers to whom the label was applied, had never welcomed it).
For more see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Sil...

Reviews

[Debumere · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I have been a little too generous with star awards lately, and I am toning it down a little. Raw Material was an interesting read, I particularly liked the story of Burton and then the last few pages. There was a long piece on the Great War and I couldn't get into that. Military reading isn't for me.

Not bad but not what I'd expected.

[J.C. Greenway · Rating 4 out of 5]

Raw Material is far from a straightforward telling of the author’s life, it is the story of where all the lads and lasses in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning have come from. It features tales of his parents’ and grandparents’ days that move between guns trained on troops by their own officers on the Somme and the rural backgrounds dimly remembered by the inhabitants of the industrial cities. Raw Material takes the motives for Sillitoe’s anti-authoritarian stance away from sheer bloody-mindedness and marks them as an essential fight for survival: they don’t give a s--- about you and your miserable life, the bosses, so why would you care for them?

Read my full review - and many more! - at my site ten million hardbacks 

[Harry Burnside · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed it as it was part history, part family genealogy but most importantly was his section on the futility of war and how some of his family had died because of it.

[Hiller · Rating 2 out of 5]

okay, kinda rambly. some good bits about truth, many dozen pages about WWI.

[Wayne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wonderful thoughts on World War 1. A tough read for me with tales of his family history.

[Richard Atkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the parts on the First World War and excerpts of family history very enjoyable, classic pungent grumpy Sillitoe. The long rambling ruminations on truth made me glaze over a bit, though.