Notebooks of a Naked Youth

by Billy Childish

By daring to give everything of himself, his most painful and secretive thoughts, Billy Childish has broken through to a whole new level of expression.
Highly personal and uncompromising, Notebooks of a Naked Youth is narrated by one William Loveday, an acned youth, possessed of piercing intelligence, acute self-loathing and great personal charm. Haunted by intense sexual desires, the ghosts of childhood and a 7,000-year-old mummified Bog Man, William Loveday leads us on a naked odyssey from the 'rust belt' of industrial North Kent to the sleazy sex clubs of Hamburg's Reeperbahn - a twilight world of murderous pimps and tattooed hermaphrodites - and a final descent into an expressionist hell.

Genres: Music, Fiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published November 28, 1997

About the author

Born Steven John Hamper, he is a cult figure in America, Europe and Japan. Billy Childish is by far the most prolific painter, poet, and song-writer of his generation. In a twenty year period he has published over 40 collections of his poetry, recorded over 100 full-length independent LP’s and produced over 2000 paintings.
Billy Childish left Secondary education at 16, an undiagnosed dyslexic. Refused an interview at the local art school he entered the Naval Dockyard at Chatham as an apprentice stonemason. During the following six months (the artist’s only prolonged period of employment), he produced some six hundred drawings in ‘the tea huts of hell'. On the basis of this work he was accepted into St Martin’s School of Art to study painting. However, his acceptance was short-lived and before completing the course he was expelled for his outspokenness and unorthodox working methods. With no qualifications and no job prospects Childish then spent some 12 years ‘painting on the dole’, developing his own highly personal writing style and producing his art independently.

Reviews

[Harry Whitewolf]

The best of Childish's "novels" that I've read so far: brilliantly written with unique observations and deadly descriptive prose, perfectly examining the troubled mind of an adolescent with all its self-loathing, arrogance, insanity, paranoia and lust. It's the funniest of Childish's books too. Billy's an original alright.

[Forest Juziuk]

The legitimately nutso protagonist had me on the edge of my seat for most of the book. Split into only three sections, it's actually quite a breeze to plow through. It's easy to picture many of the scenes vividly, sometimes to genuine horror. Recommended.

[Alvin]

The narrative voice of this novel is so tiwstedly brilliant and wry and unique (though there are echoes of the guy from Dostoevski's Notes from Underground) that I was immediately hooked. The first two thirds, when he's bombing around rust belt Brittain, were spot on perfect, but the last third, when he goes to Germany and goes into a fit of self-loathing while visiting a prostitute, are somewhat confuddled and less satisfying. By the time I'd finished, though, I was ready to ad Billy Childish to my roster of top notch contemporary British writers right next to Jake Arnott, Julie Burchill, Jon Ronson, and Hanif Kureishi.

[gillian]

this was fantastic. it made me feel as sick and hideous as the narrator. first fell in love with childish's music but fell into idolatry with this book.

[James Barker]

This is a brave and outlandish book, the narrator a rather crazed (schizophrenic) and misanthropic character first detailed in the book My Fault. The naked youth of the title, William Loveday, is a victim of child abuse and the power of the book is in the portrayal of the damage such a childhood produces. The problem I had with it is its repetitive nature. Childish certainly achieves great things in producing an authentic voice, but the voice is so jarring against the world that the terse and shocking language and ideas become oppressive and then strangely rather dull. I found the strengths to be the descriptions of the often isolated characters (mostly the elderly) with whom Loveday interacts. In between the venom the narrator holds for them there is understanding and humanity.

The shift in the third part of the book from Kent to Hamburg signals the opportunity for more quirky smut but by then I was just counting the pages till the end. That isn't to say I wouldn't read more of Billy Childish's works- he is daring with his tone and subject matter and that's to be applauded. The book is incredibly difficult to categorise or explain and for that alone I would encourage people to read it. All I would say is brace yourself for discomfort and be aware you might, at times, not know whether to laugh or cry.

[B. zee]

So far the first notebook was pretty slow moving and not veery interesting. I've started the second but I'm losing interest. In fact, I've put the book down in favor of 'How to Read Comics' and "Men of Tomorrow'. Mr. Childish has a knack for 3 penning great 3 minute garage tunes but is he a novelist?

[Erin]

I have been trying to remember this book for the longest time now. I've been running over certain parts of it in my head hoping the title would come back to me and finally I got it! I'm so psyched I'm definitely going to order it and read it again ( since I originally borrowed it ).
This is fantastic. Really.

[David]

He's not brilliant in the novel writing. But this book is worth reading.

[Nacho Saski]

menudo gusano

[Zack]

http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-83...

[Jeff Ereverock]

A schizophrenic artist muddles his way through a life of depravity.

[Mia]

i found this book painful to read, frankly.

[Elizabeth]

I like his poetry. This had also the arresting images and delightful filth, but became repetitive.