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La solitudine del maratoneta
La solitudine del maratoneta, che minimum fax ripubblica nel cinquantesimo anniversario della sua prima uscita, deve la sua fama in parte a una suggestiva trasposizione cinematografica del racconto che dà il titolo alla raccolta - un lungo e inarrestabile fiume in piena di sessanta pagine che ripercorre, al ritmo dei suoi passi durante una maratona, i pensieri agitati del protagonista - ma soprattutto allo stile innovativo, e ancor oggi modernissimo, di Alan Sillitoe. Il suo ritratto di un'Inghilterra proletaria, frustrata o ribelle, si delinea attraverso una serie di personaggi che, nella loro quotidianità, restano tuttavia figure emblematiche di uno dei periodi più fecondi della cultura britannica del Novecento.
223 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1959
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About the author
Alan Sillitoe
115 books144 followersAlan 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...
For more see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Sil...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 635 reviews
August 18, 2019
Un libro de relatos que se inicia con el que le da título, el más famoso de todos ellos. Un gran cuento que debió tener una fuerte repercusión en el momento que se escribió por el carácter novedoso del personaje y de la historia y que sigue teniendo una gran fuerza y vigencia hoy en día.
En el prólogo de Kiko Amat se define perfectamente al personaje:
"La paradoja y contradicción sempiterna de estar orgulloso de donde naciste, y jamás permitir que nadie lo menosprecie ni se burle de ello, pero a la vez desear con todas sus fuerzas largarte de allí a toda prisa... La desaparición de la ética del trabajo, la rectitud moral y el esfuerzo productivo, y la aparición sorpresiva de un nuevo grupo de adolescentes cabreados y desposeídos...Sí: escapar. Escapar a su destino mediante la desobediencia salvaje, la mejora personal y el sabotaje individual a sus expectativas... La rebelión más emotiva de la historia de la literatura. Colin gana perdiendo"Gana, sí, Pero es una victoria triste, porque realmente lo único que consigue es elegir la forma de perder, una forma rápida y brutal. Como también dice Amat en el prólogo, el personaje es un antecedente del No Future (muere joven y deja un bonito cadáver). Rompe con el mundo de trabajo, penurias y alienación de sus padres sin tener nada que lo sustituya. La televisión te vende un mundo lleno de superficialidad, de comodidades vacías al que tampoco podrás llegar por mucho que te esfuerces con las herramientas a tu alcance. En cualquier caso, renuncias a intentarlo y la mejor manera de vendértelo a ti mismo es siendo la zorra que desprecia a esa gente que lo intenta y al mundo en el que viven. La lucha es individual, no buscas solidaridad, ni refuerzo de grupo, ni parches sociales, no hay solución, únicamente correr, correr y correr... solo.
"Todo lo que yo sabía es que tenías que correr, correr, correr, sin saber por qué estabas corriendo en realidad"
Del resto de relatos, todos buenos, destaco dos: El cuadro del barco de pesca, por la ternura que envuelve la tragedia, y Una tarde de Sábado, por su humor negro.
June 11, 2016
"I didn't like him trying to accuse me of something he wasn't sure I'd done."
"They can spy on us all day to see if we're pulling our puddings and if we're doing our 'athletics', but they can't make an X-ray out of our guts to find out what we're telling ourselves."
If you're thinking this is a sports book from the title, think again. It's a compendium of short stories about lives lived in the mind-numbing milieu and despair of lower-class urban industrial Britain after WWII in the '40s and '50s. It is full of life and anger and sadness. And the voices are vibrant even as they sound tired and resigned. This comes right off the pages, in an intimate way.
Written in the vernacular and speech patterns of the locals. These are honest and sad stories: enlightening, heartbreaking, thought-provoking. Some of them have a wicked, subtle wit. This is a splendid collection. A great way to learn about that time, that place and its people.
The eponymous first story is one of the best things I've ever read. A lower-class Brit punk without one shred of remorse for his crimes ruminates on life and class and the social order as he runs across the countryside while under lax watch from prison authorities who are grooming him for a track event. He co-opts it to turn the idea of victory on its head, to gain revenge against the system and "win" in his own way. He sticks it to the MAN. And plenty of irony at the end. Written freely and it flows like a dream.
This sums up the runner's attitude: "I didn't like him trying to accuse me of something he wasn't sure I'd done."
Published in 1959, this is prime-time stuff of the "angry young man" Brit school of the period; the title story was shortly thereafter made into a great film.
These are all beautiful stories of loneliness, poignant resignation and longing among the working class. Alan Sillitoe was and is an underrated master, and this maintains its place among my top-10 favorite books.
-------------
(KevinR@Ky, with slight adds in 2016)
"They can spy on us all day to see if we're pulling our puddings and if we're doing our 'athletics', but they can't make an X-ray out of our guts to find out what we're telling ourselves."
If you're thinking this is a sports book from the title, think again. It's a compendium of short stories about lives lived in the mind-numbing milieu and despair of lower-class urban industrial Britain after WWII in the '40s and '50s. It is full of life and anger and sadness. And the voices are vibrant even as they sound tired and resigned. This comes right off the pages, in an intimate way.
Written in the vernacular and speech patterns of the locals. These are honest and sad stories: enlightening, heartbreaking, thought-provoking. Some of them have a wicked, subtle wit. This is a splendid collection. A great way to learn about that time, that place and its people.
The eponymous first story is one of the best things I've ever read. A lower-class Brit punk without one shred of remorse for his crimes ruminates on life and class and the social order as he runs across the countryside while under lax watch from prison authorities who are grooming him for a track event. He co-opts it to turn the idea of victory on its head, to gain revenge against the system and "win" in his own way. He sticks it to the MAN. And plenty of irony at the end. Written freely and it flows like a dream.
This sums up the runner's attitude: "I didn't like him trying to accuse me of something he wasn't sure I'd done."
Published in 1959, this is prime-time stuff of the "angry young man" Brit school of the period; the title story was shortly thereafter made into a great film.
These are all beautiful stories of loneliness, poignant resignation and longing among the working class. Alan Sillitoe was and is an underrated master, and this maintains its place among my top-10 favorite books.
-------------
(KevinR@Ky, with slight adds in 2016)
December 7, 2017
Alan Sillitoe burst onto the British literary scene in the late 50s & early 60s writing tough and gritty stories predominantly set in the Midlands amongst the working class poor, and dole recipients of a Britain in decline in the post war years. Anyone familiar with the films of either Ken Loach or Shane meadows will know of the political messages, social issues, and harsh urban realism they deal with, and deal with brilliantly, Sillitoe does the same, only on paper. 'The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner' was also a movie from 1962, and based on his steely short story, it's narrated by Colin Smith, a young rebellious petty criminal who struggles to stay on the straight and narrow growing up in the poverty hit City of Nottingham. Life is bleak, with little prospects for a decent future, and after being caught stealing from a bakery he is sent to a borstal (Reform School). To escape the restrictive circumstances of his existence he takes to running, long distance, and is really, really good at it, barely breaking into a sweat. Sillitoe uses running in his story as a means of isolation. Running is a solitary action and therefore allows Smith to begin to understand and become aware of the class divisions in Britain at the time. The governor of the institution, who he dislikes, hopes to make an honest lad of him and knows he has it in him to win the Borstal cross country race. But Smith has a different understanding of honesty than the governor and has no intention of letting him bask in his own reflected glory. Smith knows he can win, easy, but doesn't play ball. He never regrets his actions, believing it strengthened his independence and mind, even though it results in soul-destroying manual labour.
This story was one of a few included in this collection, all deal along the lines of how Class issues divided a Nation, you could even argue these stories are just as relevant today. The writers in the 'angry young men' movement (Sillitoe, Kingsley Amis and others) were angry because although living standards for the poor had increased drastically, the power was still in the hands of the elite.
Crime was used as a weapon to gain power, police were thought of as the enemy, They used oppression against criminals to continue to hold power and enforce the divisions of class. Characters like Sillitoe's Smith were born into a working class culture that accepted and produced a criminal activity. The welfare state brought down the poverty rate this led the working class to often commit crimes out of choice rather than necessity. Smith commits crimes to make a statement against the societal norms in Britain during the post-war period.
At the end of the day, a criminal is a criminal, so it's difficult to be fully in Smith's corner, he wasn't mentally ill, thus it's a life of his own choosing. But circumstance does come into play, If I were in his shoes, would probably have ended up the same way. What other options were there left?. These stories feature the sort of situations a Brit will truly understand, politically speaking, Sillitoe really dug his claws into me, making me realize just how strugglesome places in England were at the time. Unfortunately, problems still exist now, a housing crisis, the NHS at breaking point, and Mrs May is still all lost at sea over Brexit. One can only hope for a decent outcome.
This story was one of a few included in this collection, all deal along the lines of how Class issues divided a Nation, you could even argue these stories are just as relevant today. The writers in the 'angry young men' movement (Sillitoe, Kingsley Amis and others) were angry because although living standards for the poor had increased drastically, the power was still in the hands of the elite.
Crime was used as a weapon to gain power, police were thought of as the enemy, They used oppression against criminals to continue to hold power and enforce the divisions of class. Characters like Sillitoe's Smith were born into a working class culture that accepted and produced a criminal activity. The welfare state brought down the poverty rate this led the working class to often commit crimes out of choice rather than necessity. Smith commits crimes to make a statement against the societal norms in Britain during the post-war period.
At the end of the day, a criminal is a criminal, so it's difficult to be fully in Smith's corner, he wasn't mentally ill, thus it's a life of his own choosing. But circumstance does come into play, If I were in his shoes, would probably have ended up the same way. What other options were there left?. These stories feature the sort of situations a Brit will truly understand, politically speaking, Sillitoe really dug his claws into me, making me realize just how strugglesome places in England were at the time. Unfortunately, problems still exist now, a housing crisis, the NHS at breaking point, and Mrs May is still all lost at sea over Brexit. One can only hope for a decent outcome.
November 28, 2023
Classic short story about working class rebellion against an unfair system. Smith lives in borstal. Because he has a talent for long-distance running and the governor of his institution wants him to win an important race, he is in a position of power. However, Smith chooses personal autonomy over collusion. Fantastic writing.
May 9, 2018
Superb collection of short stories. Their power lies in the manner in wich they give you the satisfaction of reading, of constructing a story and give you the impression they have all the qualities a full novel should have. There is a lot told in them without seeming over hasty. A great contempt for all aspects of writing. And yet they are so misguiding simple.
September 23, 2022
Сборникът ме накара да се поразровя за ситуацията във Великобритания след края на Втората световна война. Бавното икономическо възстановяване, купонната система, задържала се дори през следващото десетилетие, тепърва прохождащата социална държава са фактори не улесняват ежедневието на британците от работническата класа. Това е средата на „сърдитите млади хора.“
Но социалната тема не бива да ни заблуждава, разказите не са популистки, тоест написани от външен за тази среда човек, който отправя привилегировано изследователско око към „обикновените труженици“ от бедните нотингамски предградия. Напротив, гласът на автора е като на един от тях, максимално изчистен, малко огрубен, а емоциите и сантиментът са изтикани в периферията на историите, както и от живота на градските бедни.
В разказите се усеща онова напрежение, което обичайно гарантира трагедия на финала, но интересното е, че в много от тях тя така и не се материализира. Обичайният ход на живота е достатъчно мъчителен, че да няма нужда от пушката, която гръмва във финалната сцена.
И не, не става дума просто за материална бедност, макар че има доволно гладуващи хлапета и вдигащи тежка десница бащи, а за онази безизходица, която днес наричаме „ниска социална мобилност“, обреченото циклене в прослойката по рождение, липсата на житейски перспективи отвъд ежедневното оцеляване. Бедността е и самота, задушаваща и срамна, както е в „Чичо Ърнест“, или бягство в болезнени фантазии като в „Мистър Рейнър, учителят“.
Всъщност, разказът, който най-малко ми хареса, беше този, който дава заглавието на сборника. Антисистемността и озлоблението на героя ми се видяха самоцелни и антипатични, макар че стремежът да запази достойнството си, така както той го разбира, заслужава уважение.
Следващите разкази коригираха първоначалното впечатление и вълнуват, без въобще да го целят. Силитоу пише много искрено и живо и този живец се е предал на героите му. Хубав сборник.
September 18, 2022
I read this story by Alan Sillitoe along with some other short stories of his.
These stories are about the grimy depths of English society in the middle of the 20th Century where people can't afford to eat properly, buy warm clothing for the winter, and can never escape their existence. These are real working class people living in dark towns with heavy industry as their near neighbour - almost like 2022 in fact!
The younger men in particular are almost forced to indulge in petty crime to obtain money to survive - they can see no other way. They accept they may get caught and sent to Borstal but it won't stop them from re-offending when they are released.
The main aim of the Long-Distance Runner is not to conform to the expectations of those in positions of seniority and to fight back in as many ways as possible, even if it means not doing himself justice in terms of his natural abilities. This is something I can't understand myself, but sometimes it's about showing others you're unwilling to accept their terms and conditions, even if you know you will be punished.
Some aspects of these stories are difficult to read because of certain male attitudes of the characters depicted but I won't say more as that could be deemed a spoiler. It made me think seriously about not reading any more of Alan Sillitoes's books.
These stories are about the grimy depths of English society in the middle of the 20th Century where people can't afford to eat properly, buy warm clothing for the winter, and can never escape their existence. These are real working class people living in dark towns with heavy industry as their near neighbour - almost like 2022 in fact!
The younger men in particular are almost forced to indulge in petty crime to obtain money to survive - they can see no other way. They accept they may get caught and sent to Borstal but it won't stop them from re-offending when they are released.
The main aim of the Long-Distance Runner is not to conform to the expectations of those in positions of seniority and to fight back in as many ways as possible, even if it means not doing himself justice in terms of his natural abilities. This is something I can't understand myself, but sometimes it's about showing others you're unwilling to accept their terms and conditions, even if you know you will be punished.
Some aspects of these stories are difficult to read because of certain male attitudes of the characters depicted but I won't say more as that could be deemed a spoiler. It made me think seriously about not reading any more of Alan Sillitoes's books.
September 27, 2022
This is a collection of short stories. All these stories take place in England around the time of WWII and deal with the workingman.
As with any collection of short stories there are stories that I really enjoy and some I do not. That was the case here. Usually I give a collection of short stories a three star rating but unfortunately I could not do that with this one. I believe the problem is that I never really connected with any character in any of the stories. If you ask me in a week's time to name a character I would probably fail. I do believe the author does a terrific job with the mood and the bleakness he was trying to display. That does pop out from the pages. Whether it is a prisoner rebelling because he is in prison for theft because of hunger or whether it is a character attempting suicide because of no hope I got a sense of the bleakness of the time with no problem. I just wish I could have connected to the characters more. Maybe I could not connect with them because of the time frame this book was written.
This is not my favorite collection of short stories I have read. There are a couple of good stories but overall it was not my cup of tea. I was impressed by the talent of the author as this is the first offering I read by the author. He does have a way with the written word as his desire to portray the mood of the time is prevalent throughout. He just did not capture me with the characters and that could have been more on me than the author.
As with any collection of short stories there are stories that I really enjoy and some I do not. That was the case here. Usually I give a collection of short stories a three star rating but unfortunately I could not do that with this one. I believe the problem is that I never really connected with any character in any of the stories. If you ask me in a week's time to name a character I would probably fail. I do believe the author does a terrific job with the mood and the bleakness he was trying to display. That does pop out from the pages. Whether it is a prisoner rebelling because he is in prison for theft because of hunger or whether it is a character attempting suicide because of no hope I got a sense of the bleakness of the time with no problem. I just wish I could have connected to the characters more. Maybe I could not connect with them because of the time frame this book was written.
This is not my favorite collection of short stories I have read. There are a couple of good stories but overall it was not my cup of tea. I was impressed by the talent of the author as this is the first offering I read by the author. He does have a way with the written word as his desire to portray the mood of the time is prevalent throughout. He just did not capture me with the characters and that could have been more on me than the author.
April 11, 2020
Каква прекрасна книга.
Бях попадала на нея като заглавие, като споменаваме на книга в други книги (последно в "4321" на Пол Остър), но никога пътищата ни не се бяха пресичали сериозно. До миналата седмица, когато на път за зеленчуци, си купих една торба стари книги от много мил дядо. "Самотният бегач" беше първата от тях, която започнах, и докато четях първия разказ (по-скооро едноименната новела, даваща заглавие на сборника), ми се обади баща ми, защото видял, че съм споделила цитат от нея. Каза ми, че преди 30 години я е чел. Поне три пъти. И си казах "добре, тук ще имаме нещо голямо, баща ми е книжната централа, тя никога не бърка". И се оказах права.
"Самотният бегач на дълго разстояние" излиза на английски език през 1959 година, а нейният автов Алън Силотоу е представител на т.нар. поколение на "ядосани млади хора". Да живееш и пишеш в средата на миналия век в Англия със сигурност е било немалка причина да си ядосан на себе си, на света, на системата, на войната. Но въпреки това, въпреки че всеки един от разказите носи горчилка, разочарование и усещане за нищета (главно материална, но понякога и душевна), цялата книга е пропита с чуството за лекота и свобода. Дори в най-дълбоките социални и емоционални дъна героите нс Силитоу запазват себе си и не падат. А и да паднат, стават.
Историите в сборника носят неизбежен автобиографичен характер. Силитоу напуска училище 14-годишен, по-късно постъпва в армията и е изпратен в Малая, но се завръща, защото заболява от туберкулоза. През годините, които прекарва в болница, пише стихове. Чете през цялото време. Книгите са един от основните (но тихи) персонажи в разказите.
Смятам, че освен Дино Будзати и Реймънд Карвър (също поет, между другото) не съм попадала на друг автор на разкази, който да ме кара да се чувствам толкова комфортно в реализма на битието (оф, това прозвуча ужасно). Обаче това, което искам да кажа, е, че тези хора успяват да ти поставят пред очите ми обикновени ситуации и герои, от чиито преживявания да се замисля и изпитам необикновени неща. Разбира се, при Будзати сюжетите надскачат доста реалистичното на моменти.
Любимият ми разказ от "Самотният бегач на дълго разстояние" е "Картината с рибарската лодка". Боже мой. Така плаках накрая. И той се нарежда до "Напразни покани" на Будзати като двата разказа в моя живот, които ме смазват емоционално по най-силния и красив възможен начин.
Баща ми беше прав за пореден път.
Бях попадала на нея като заглавие, като споменаваме на книга в други книги (последно в "4321" на Пол Остър), но никога пътищата ни не се бяха пресичали сериозно. До миналата седмица, когато на път за зеленчуци, си купих една торба стари книги от много мил дядо. "Самотният бегач" беше първата от тях, която започнах, и докато четях първия разказ (по-скооро едноименната новела, даваща заглавие на сборника), ми се обади баща ми, защото видял, че съм споделила цитат от нея. Каза ми, че преди 30 години я е чел. Поне три пъти. И си казах "добре, тук ще имаме нещо голямо, баща ми е книжната централа, тя никога не бърка". И се оказах права.
"Самотният бегач на дълго разстояние" излиза на английски език през 1959 година, а нейният автов Алън Силотоу е представител на т.нар. поколение на "ядосани млади хора". Да живееш и пишеш в средата на миналия век в Англия със сигурност е било немалка причина да си ядосан на себе си, на света, на системата, на войната. Но въпреки това, въпреки че всеки един от разказите носи горчилка, разочарование и усещане за нищета (главно материална, но понякога и душевна), цялата книга е пропита с чуството за лекота и свобода. Дори в най-дълбоките социални и емоционални дъна героите нс Силитоу запазват себе си и не падат. А и да паднат, стават.
Историите в сборника носят неизбежен автобиографичен характер. Силитоу напуска училище 14-годишен, по-късно постъпва в армията и е изпратен в Малая, но се завръща, защото заболява от туберкулоза. През годините, които прекарва в болница, пише стихове. Чете през цялото време. Книгите са един от основните (но тихи) персонажи в разказите.
Смятам, че освен Дино Будзати и Реймънд Карвър (също поет, между другото) не съм попадала на друг автор на разкази, който да ме кара да се чувствам толкова комфортно в реализма на битието (оф, това прозвуча ужасно). Обаче това, което искам да кажа, е, че тези хора успяват да ти поставят пред очите ми обикновени ситуации и герои, от чиито преживявания да се замисля и изпитам необикновени неща. Разбира се, при Будзати сюжетите надскачат доста реалистичното на моменти.
Любимият ми разказ от "Самотният бегач на дълго разстояние" е "Картината с рибарската лодка". Боже мой. Така плаках накрая. И той се нарежда до "Напразни покани" на Будзати като двата разказа в моя живот, които ме смазват емоционално по най-силния и красив възможен начин.
Баща ми беше прав за пореден път.
November 17, 2025
Deeply rewarding collection of short stories in the "angry young man" tradition. Aparently Sillitoe didn't like the term, but that must be due to specifics of its use at the time, because it is clearly what unites these tales of working class masculinity in the era and aftermath of the second world war.
The title story, about a young man in a juvenile delinquent facility who is offered a form of freedom that may just be another form of exploitation, is the most famous and the longest, and inspired the film of the same name. I expected the other pieces to be padding, but by and large they were excellent too. "Uncle Ernest" is about a man so befuddled by the war that decades elapse without his noticing, and how his chance to come back to life is thwarted, "The Fishing-boat Picture" follows an unorthodox relationship between a separated man and wife, "Noah's Ark" features a poverty-fuelled trip to a fun-fair, where a pleasure ride becomes a frightening chase. "The Decline and Fall of Frankie Buller" is an autobiographical piece about the play-war and real-war and the limits of community. The stories are populated with angry fathers on the brink of rage, dour nihilists, possible perverts, clever young boys who might make it out, or probably won't. But by and large the atmosphere isn't grim, its scrappy. The tone, about modern Britain, and the upper classes, and punishment and authority, is scathing.
I've been enjoying reading short stories the last few months. And these are wonderful: many are quite simple, but there's always an element or surprise, and a strong voice, and a vividly realized community that even sixty years later hardly appears in fiction.
The title story, about a young man in a juvenile delinquent facility who is offered a form of freedom that may just be another form of exploitation, is the most famous and the longest, and inspired the film of the same name. I expected the other pieces to be padding, but by and large they were excellent too. "Uncle Ernest" is about a man so befuddled by the war that decades elapse without his noticing, and how his chance to come back to life is thwarted, "The Fishing-boat Picture" follows an unorthodox relationship between a separated man and wife, "Noah's Ark" features a poverty-fuelled trip to a fun-fair, where a pleasure ride becomes a frightening chase. "The Decline and Fall of Frankie Buller" is an autobiographical piece about the play-war and real-war and the limits of community. The stories are populated with angry fathers on the brink of rage, dour nihilists, possible perverts, clever young boys who might make it out, or probably won't. But by and large the atmosphere isn't grim, its scrappy. The tone, about modern Britain, and the upper classes, and punishment and authority, is scathing.
I've been enjoying reading short stories the last few months. And these are wonderful: many are quite simple, but there's always an element or surprise, and a strong voice, and a vividly realized community that even sixty years later hardly appears in fiction.
May 18, 2021
un relato corto que me ha gustado bastante, en momentos me ha recordado a Ignatius Reilly de la conjura de los necios por el protagonista y la narrativa del texto, y lo que mas me ha fascinado del titulo, es que no encontramos aquí un final feliz donde triunfa lo moralmente aceptado de la sociedad o lo que debería de ser, sino el principio de individualidad ya que ¿que es el bien? si no lo que nos hace sentir conformes a nosotros mismos.
"En cuanto a mí, la única vez que cruzaré esa cinta será cuando esté muerto y me espere al otro lado un ataúd bien cómodo, hasta entonces soy un corredor de fondo que cruzo los campos completamente solo sin importarme lo mal que me sienta."
"Así que voy a herirle donde mas le duela, y él hará todo lo que pueda por vengarse, ojo por ojo y diente por diente, aunque yo lo gozaré más porque fui el primero en pegar y porque llevo más tiempo planeandolo."
"En cuanto a mí, la única vez que cruzaré esa cinta será cuando esté muerto y me espere al otro lado un ataúd bien cómodo, hasta entonces soy un corredor de fondo que cruzo los campos completamente solo sin importarme lo mal que me sienta."
"Así que voy a herirle donde mas le duela, y él hará todo lo que pueda por vengarse, ojo por ojo y diente por diente, aunque yo lo gozaré más porque fui el primero en pegar y porque llevo más tiempo planeandolo."
July 11, 2020
I decided to take a look at ‘proletariat’ fiction in the 1950s. Stories that captured the working class told by people who grew up in that class. Alan Sillitoe’s ‘Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner’ seemed like a good place to start, and it turned out to be a welcome choice. There is both a simplicity and richness to it, and it transported me back to the world I grew up in, right down to the aspidistra in the living room.
August 20, 2011
I'd say three stars for the title story, but two for most of the rest.
The title story, a long narrative by an angry, alienated young British man who’s been sent to a Borstal--a juvenile detention center intended to reform or educate juvenile criminals. He is so full of rage that he deliberately makes a choice that is inimical to his own interests. For me, it was a captivating story, although the telling of the story seemed old-fashioned and slightly off-putting. For instance, the author’s decision to have the narrator unrealistically address the reader directly tended to break the spell that had held me to the story.
The rest of the stories are shorter and, to me, mostly not very interesting except as a kind of literary sociology and an introduction to British idioms I’ve never encountered elsewhere. (To sling one’s hook, it seems, means simply to leave a place, and in the Derby-Nottingham area, one mashes tea instead of brewing it.) The author spells out dialect, a la Mark Twain, but for those who are not accustomed to the kind of speech these characters use, that’s also a negative because it separates the unknowing reader from the story.
The characters are working poor, or often non-working poor. They generally engage in casual violence against women or children and often in casual theft as well as the not-so-casual kind. Theft in these stories is not so much out of need or even out of the envy for glitzy consumer goods we hear about in America today, but for matters that are not forward-looking-- candy or a ride at the carnival. Sillitoe may be attempting to show the desperate straits of these people by showing us what he believes to be the consequence of the desperation--self-destructive acts rather than purposeful attempts to do better. One trouble for me is that he does not really show the connection between living on the dole and the rage, or why his characters cannot engage in purposeful acts, even if they fail.
The stories seem to me to involve a lot of telling or narrative summary. In some cases Sillitoe seems bent on avoiding actually showing us scenes that have a big impact and taking us as far from the drama as possible. In one scene we never see, we’re told that they fought like tigers. In “The Disgrace of Jim Scarfedale,” Jim’s wife leaves him, a turning point for Jim, but we see almost nothing of why she might have done so. She reads books and wants to talk and he doesn’t, but we really don’t see this acted out. It might be tempting to think Jim was too limited sexually--when he’s hungry, she refuses to cook for him, but invites him to crawl under the table and “I’ll give you something.” But if this line is meant as a sexual reference, it’s not enough by itself to show that Jim is failing to perform sexually. On the other hand, at the very end, without any preparation, we find that Jim does something to ten-year-old girls, presumably something sexual; but this drama is so underplayed, referenced rather than played out, we can only guess what it is that Jim has done.
The same story illustrates other things Sillitoe does repeatedly to keep the reader from being too involved. He tells his story as a frame story. “Disgrace” is told by an observer, a younger boy, who overhears conversations. So Jim’s story is filtered through the narrator’s report of what Jim said rather than putting us in the scenes of Jim’s married life. Perhaps for Sillitoe the real point isn’t the drama of Jim’s unhappiness and crimes but the story of the narrator, who takes a lesson from it all the he’ll leave home soon’s possible. The trouble is that we hardly know the young narrator except as the eavesdropper, so his stated intent has no impact at all. If that’s the center, it is a soft center. If, on the other hand, Jim is the center, why separate us from the immediacy of Jim life?
The stories add up to a dispiriting account of human beings who make little or no effort to deal with their lives in a way that would be useful for themselves. “The Fishing Boat Picture” explicitly makes the sad point that the narrator looking back had failed to live, and it is to me the most successful story here after the impressive title story.
I do not think Americans who read contemporary stories are likely to find most of these stories of interest; but don’t take my word for it, because others still regard him as “one of the most important British writers of the postwar era.” (That from the Guardian’s obit in 2010.) And he wrote some 53 volumes of fiction, plays, poetry and other items. I cannot help but think, though, that some of the praise was based on appreciation for the social and political content. Whatever you think of the writing itself, he certainly addressed himself to the lives of the downtrodden in post-war northern England.
The title story, a long narrative by an angry, alienated young British man who’s been sent to a Borstal--a juvenile detention center intended to reform or educate juvenile criminals. He is so full of rage that he deliberately makes a choice that is inimical to his own interests. For me, it was a captivating story, although the telling of the story seemed old-fashioned and slightly off-putting. For instance, the author’s decision to have the narrator unrealistically address the reader directly tended to break the spell that had held me to the story.
The rest of the stories are shorter and, to me, mostly not very interesting except as a kind of literary sociology and an introduction to British idioms I’ve never encountered elsewhere. (To sling one’s hook, it seems, means simply to leave a place, and in the Derby-Nottingham area, one mashes tea instead of brewing it.) The author spells out dialect, a la Mark Twain, but for those who are not accustomed to the kind of speech these characters use, that’s also a negative because it separates the unknowing reader from the story.
The characters are working poor, or often non-working poor. They generally engage in casual violence against women or children and often in casual theft as well as the not-so-casual kind. Theft in these stories is not so much out of need or even out of the envy for glitzy consumer goods we hear about in America today, but for matters that are not forward-looking-- candy or a ride at the carnival. Sillitoe may be attempting to show the desperate straits of these people by showing us what he believes to be the consequence of the desperation--self-destructive acts rather than purposeful attempts to do better. One trouble for me is that he does not really show the connection between living on the dole and the rage, or why his characters cannot engage in purposeful acts, even if they fail.
The stories seem to me to involve a lot of telling or narrative summary. In some cases Sillitoe seems bent on avoiding actually showing us scenes that have a big impact and taking us as far from the drama as possible. In one scene we never see, we’re told that they fought like tigers. In “The Disgrace of Jim Scarfedale,” Jim’s wife leaves him, a turning point for Jim, but we see almost nothing of why she might have done so. She reads books and wants to talk and he doesn’t, but we really don’t see this acted out. It might be tempting to think Jim was too limited sexually--when he’s hungry, she refuses to cook for him, but invites him to crawl under the table and “I’ll give you something.” But if this line is meant as a sexual reference, it’s not enough by itself to show that Jim is failing to perform sexually. On the other hand, at the very end, without any preparation, we find that Jim does something to ten-year-old girls, presumably something sexual; but this drama is so underplayed, referenced rather than played out, we can only guess what it is that Jim has done.
The same story illustrates other things Sillitoe does repeatedly to keep the reader from being too involved. He tells his story as a frame story. “Disgrace” is told by an observer, a younger boy, who overhears conversations. So Jim’s story is filtered through the narrator’s report of what Jim said rather than putting us in the scenes of Jim’s married life. Perhaps for Sillitoe the real point isn’t the drama of Jim’s unhappiness and crimes but the story of the narrator, who takes a lesson from it all the he’ll leave home soon’s possible. The trouble is that we hardly know the young narrator except as the eavesdropper, so his stated intent has no impact at all. If that’s the center, it is a soft center. If, on the other hand, Jim is the center, why separate us from the immediacy of Jim life?
The stories add up to a dispiriting account of human beings who make little or no effort to deal with their lives in a way that would be useful for themselves. “The Fishing Boat Picture” explicitly makes the sad point that the narrator looking back had failed to live, and it is to me the most successful story here after the impressive title story.
I do not think Americans who read contemporary stories are likely to find most of these stories of interest; but don’t take my word for it, because others still regard him as “one of the most important British writers of the postwar era.” (That from the Guardian’s obit in 2010.) And he wrote some 53 volumes of fiction, plays, poetry and other items. I cannot help but think, though, that some of the praise was based on appreciation for the social and political content. Whatever you think of the writing itself, he certainly addressed himself to the lives of the downtrodden in post-war northern England.
June 3, 2025
Die raue, ungeschliffene Sprache baut keine Atmosphäre auf.
Wirkte auf mich stumpf.
Form und Inhalt stehen sperrig einander gegenüber. Das innere Erleben wird nicht in die Sprache hinein geholt. Das Wie stimmt nicht mit dem Was überein.
Wirkte auf mich stumpf.
Form und Inhalt stehen sperrig einander gegenüber. Das innere Erleben wird nicht in die Sprache hinein geholt. Das Wie stimmt nicht mit dem Was überein.
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September 8, 2024Öykülerin hepsi okura bir yumruk indirmek için fırsat kolluyor. Yazar hayatın çatallanan yollarına sokuyor. Özellikle seçkiye adını veren öykü müthiş bir trajedi barındırıyor. Hazmetmesi zor detaylarla epey ilginç öyküler. Aslında konuları ilginç gelmeyecektir gündemi takip edenlere. Ama şok edici bir katılıkla yazılmış.
February 8, 2014
This is one of the best collections of short stories, by an artist I'd never heard of, that I have ever read. Sillitoe was born and raised in Nottingham, England, in a working-class family. At the age of 14 he left school and went to work with his father in a local bicycle factory. The stories in this collection mostly deal with families like Sillitoe's - poor factory workers living in cramped, dirty houses where the noise, soot and grime of the nearby factory is a constant part of their lives.
The title story is about a young man (Colin) who robs a bakery and is sent to a borstal, a sort of part youth prison, part reform school. The governor (warden) of the borstal gives him the opportunity to run cross-country meets for the prison track team; Colin is a good runner, and the governor thinks he will help him to win against a posh private school and get the borstal some good publicity. Throughout the race against the private school, Colin is way in the lead, but he stops running shortly before the finish line, intentionally losing the race to show the governor he is in charge of his own life.
"Uncle Ernest" is about a veteran of World War I who has suffered a mental breakdown due to his experiences in the war. There is an almost childlike innocence to him; when he meets two young girls at a diner, obviously poor and hungry, he offers to buy them something to eat. He continues to meet the girls at the diner, and the older of the two begins taking advantage of his innocence, getting him to buy them other things. Unfortunately, Ernest's motives are misunderstood by other patrons of the diner; they (and the police) assume he is a pervert, and warn him away from the girls.
I enjoyed all the stories in this volume, but I think my favorite was "The Decline and Fall of Frankie Buller". Frankie is a young man of about twenty, who has the mental capacity of a younger boy; he acts as general (though he prefers to be called sergeant-major) in the neighborhood boys' skirmishes with other groups of boys. World War II is approaching, and Frankie assumes that when the war starts, he'll go to join his father's regiment; obviously, when the war does begin, he is rejected for service and ends up assisting the local civil defense patrols. This story is obviously at least partially autobiographical; Frankie addresses the narrator as "Alan", and Alan is a writer of stories about his old neighborhood. Sillitoe uses the story to reminisce about his own childhood and to express regret over having "moved on" to be a well-known writer who seems to have lost touch with his roots.
Reviewers have compared this book to The Catcher in the Rye, calling Colin a "British Holden Caulfield". It's easily one of the best collections of short stories I've ever read.
The title story is about a young man (Colin) who robs a bakery and is sent to a borstal, a sort of part youth prison, part reform school. The governor (warden) of the borstal gives him the opportunity to run cross-country meets for the prison track team; Colin is a good runner, and the governor thinks he will help him to win against a posh private school and get the borstal some good publicity. Throughout the race against the private school, Colin is way in the lead, but he stops running shortly before the finish line, intentionally losing the race to show the governor he is in charge of his own life.
"Uncle Ernest" is about a veteran of World War I who has suffered a mental breakdown due to his experiences in the war. There is an almost childlike innocence to him; when he meets two young girls at a diner, obviously poor and hungry, he offers to buy them something to eat. He continues to meet the girls at the diner, and the older of the two begins taking advantage of his innocence, getting him to buy them other things. Unfortunately, Ernest's motives are misunderstood by other patrons of the diner; they (and the police) assume he is a pervert, and warn him away from the girls.
I enjoyed all the stories in this volume, but I think my favorite was "The Decline and Fall of Frankie Buller". Frankie is a young man of about twenty, who has the mental capacity of a younger boy; he acts as general (though he prefers to be called sergeant-major) in the neighborhood boys' skirmishes with other groups of boys. World War II is approaching, and Frankie assumes that when the war starts, he'll go to join his father's regiment; obviously, when the war does begin, he is rejected for service and ends up assisting the local civil defense patrols. This story is obviously at least partially autobiographical; Frankie addresses the narrator as "Alan", and Alan is a writer of stories about his old neighborhood. Sillitoe uses the story to reminisce about his own childhood and to express regret over having "moved on" to be a well-known writer who seems to have lost touch with his roots.
Reviewers have compared this book to The Catcher in the Rye, calling Colin a "British Holden Caulfield". It's easily one of the best collections of short stories I've ever read.
December 11, 2017
Se qualcuno ha avuto l'ardire di leggere la mia recensione dei "Nove Racconti" di Salinger, saprà che non mi sono trovato d'accordo con gli elogi riservati a quel libro, né -al di là di apprezzare l'eleganza della scrittura- ho capito l'insensata mancanza di logica delle trame dei suddetti.
Con una certa malizia vi invito a leggere questo libro di Sillitoe, composto -fatalità!- proprio da nove racconti: non lo scopro certo io, ma dai commenti letti negli anni molti recensori si dilungavano sul brano che dà il titolo alla raccolta (simpatico, ma non il mio preferito a onor del vero), senza dare il giusto spazio alle altre otto piccole gemme contenute nel volume.
"Il quadro del peschereccio", ad esempio, mi ha lasciato una fortissima impressione di dignitosa solitudine, quasi come se mi trovassi davanti alla narrazione di un dipinto di Hopper.
"L'arca di Noè" è una picaresca e nostalgica narrazione di piccole bravate infantili, con qualche eco sia di Dickens, sia del Pinocchio di Collodi.
"Zio Ernest" è un racconto che sarebbe stato benissimo, per tematiche ed atmosfere, nelle raccolte di Malamud.
Ecco, da oggi questi di Sillitoe saranno per me i veri "Nove Racconti".
Con una certa malizia vi invito a leggere questo libro di Sillitoe, composto -fatalità!- proprio da nove racconti: non lo scopro certo io, ma dai commenti letti negli anni molti recensori si dilungavano sul brano che dà il titolo alla raccolta (simpatico, ma non il mio preferito a onor del vero), senza dare il giusto spazio alle altre otto piccole gemme contenute nel volume.
"Il quadro del peschereccio", ad esempio, mi ha lasciato una fortissima impressione di dignitosa solitudine, quasi come se mi trovassi davanti alla narrazione di un dipinto di Hopper.
"L'arca di Noè" è una picaresca e nostalgica narrazione di piccole bravate infantili, con qualche eco sia di Dickens, sia del Pinocchio di Collodi.
"Zio Ernest" è un racconto che sarebbe stato benissimo, per tematiche ed atmosfere, nelle raccolte di Malamud.
Ecco, da oggi questi di Sillitoe saranno per me i veri "Nove Racconti".
April 28, 2013
Some of these stories of working class lives in the first half of the 20th century almost made me cry. This is one of the saddest books I have ever read; not because it contains so much misery but rather because it is so brilliantly described that it feels so real.
Reading this book it's also amazing to think how much life in Britain has changed over the past fifty years. From leaving school at fourteen to get a series of jobs in factories, to playing with sticks and stones and climbing walls because there were no toys or anything else to do, to having to join the army to fight in WWII, the lives of the characters in these stories seem a million miles away from my own, and yet in reality they were just just my grandparents' and parents' generation. It did make me wonder about the way my parents grew up, and also if my childhood will prove to be so distant and unknown to the next generation.
Reading this book it's also amazing to think how much life in Britain has changed over the past fifty years. From leaving school at fourteen to get a series of jobs in factories, to playing with sticks and stones and climbing walls because there were no toys or anything else to do, to having to join the army to fight in WWII, the lives of the characters in these stories seem a million miles away from my own, and yet in reality they were just just my grandparents' and parents' generation. It did make me wonder about the way my parents grew up, and also if my childhood will prove to be so distant and unknown to the next generation.
March 18, 2021
This book surprised me, quite honestly.
I came into it not really expecting it to be much of anything, perhaps even a bit of a snore.
Admittedly, I wasn’t giving it much of a chance right out the gate, and for no real reason.
And much to my surprise, I was completely enamored with the first couple stories which were definitely five star stories. The third was a bit creepy and weird, but then back to being enamored by the fourth story about a couple and a painting.
This was such a great read, I honestly recommend it to anyone interested in classics.
The first two stories were definitely five star stories.
The entire book has a hint of darkness and sorrow, but characters through out that you come to love, care about and identify with so quickly.
4.5/5 stars and a recommend from me.
I came into it not really expecting it to be much of anything, perhaps even a bit of a snore.
Admittedly, I wasn’t giving it much of a chance right out the gate, and for no real reason.
And much to my surprise, I was completely enamored with the first couple stories which were definitely five star stories. The third was a bit creepy and weird, but then back to being enamored by the fourth story about a couple and a painting.
This was such a great read, I honestly recommend it to anyone interested in classics.
The first two stories were definitely five star stories.
The entire book has a hint of darkness and sorrow, but characters through out that you come to love, care about and identify with so quickly.
4.5/5 stars and a recommend from me.
February 5, 2014
The 1962 film "Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner" is my favorite of the British New Wave, which is why a friend lent me this short story collection. I love the Northern accent and slang, so I often read very slowly in order to absorb as much as I could. This volume was a perfect encapsulation of a specific time and place, northern England before and a bit after the war. The language was evocative and I could picture everything perfectly. It's a wonder more of these stories weren't translated to film or TV.
I'm going to rate each story individually.
"Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner" 5 stars. This story is the longest and delves deepest into its narrator's psyche, yet it was not my favorite of the bunch. The main difference between this story and the film is that in the story we are told immediately that Smith is going to throw the race. Viewing the film, we do not know for sure this will happen, and as a bourgeois audience we often side with the people in charge at Borstal, who we think may not be quite as bad as Smith believes, and we see the runners from the public school as not a bad lot, and we want Smith to overcome his circumstances (a very bourgeois attitude indeed). I feel that this compromises the original intent of the story, but the story and film are both great on their own divergent terms.
"Uncle Ernest" 4 stars. A quick, sad little story about a lonely man who gives too much attention to a couple of hungry girls.
"Mr. Raynor the Schoolteacher" 3 stars. Sort of a one-note story: the teacher can't discipline his class because he is distracted by the young ladies working at the shop across the road. There is a pretty good twist, however.
"The Fishing Boat Picture" 5 stars. Portrait of a discarded marriage and a coveted picture over the years. We see the wife on the decline, but we, and the ex-husband, view her with a degree of detachment that prevents us from getting too sad, a very neat trick on the author's part.
"Noah's Ark" 5 stars. A story of action with little time for pondering. Our narrator is the less experienced of two boys go to a local fair on the cheap. Filled with suspense, and the author is as adept at navigating the physics of carnival rides as the more experienced boy. Completely took me back to that age when I was venturing further from home with daring and adventure.
"On Saturday Afternoon" 5 stars. One of my favorite short stories of all time. It had me cracking up, though I wonder how funny the author intended it to be. I have a rather dark sense of humor. A boy in his mid to late teens tells a story about when he was 10 and tried to help a man commit suicide. The boy can be quite blunt due to his innocence, yet is also quite world wise, or world weary, due to the harsh nature of his home life, the harshest of which is the congenitally depressive and temperamental personality of his family. On a deeper level, the story also asks whether the state grants a poor person the liberty to do with his life as he wishes.
"The Match" 3 stars. Rather obvious portrait of two marriages in different phases of their life cycles. Correct me if I'm wrong.
"The Disgrace of Jim Scarfedale" 5 stars. Another terrific story told from the point of view of a young lad with a wry sense of humor, this time coming for the close quarters of his street and lack of privacy, making his viewpoint more observational than editorial. Although he does say a lot of "I could have told him THAT," which makes me laugh. It's kind of hard not to laugh at one's neighbors when one is always aware of them.
"The Decline and Fall of Frankie Buller" 5 stars. I don't know why this hasn't been made into a film. A great story about an oversize (20 to 25 year old) kid who leads battle against the housing development meant to relocate slum families out of the city, right as WWII is about to start. The beautiful ending to this story also acts as a sad farewell to this collection.
I was going to give this book 4 stars because not every story was 5 stars, but after reviewing each story, I have to give it 5. This is in my top 5 short story collections, for sure.
I'm going to rate each story individually.
"Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner" 5 stars. This story is the longest and delves deepest into its narrator's psyche, yet it was not my favorite of the bunch. The main difference between this story and the film is that in the story we are told immediately that Smith is going to throw the race. Viewing the film, we do not know for sure this will happen, and as a bourgeois audience we often side with the people in charge at Borstal, who we think may not be quite as bad as Smith believes, and we see the runners from the public school as not a bad lot, and we want Smith to overcome his circumstances (a very bourgeois attitude indeed). I feel that this compromises the original intent of the story, but the story and film are both great on their own divergent terms.
"Uncle Ernest" 4 stars. A quick, sad little story about a lonely man who gives too much attention to a couple of hungry girls.
"Mr. Raynor the Schoolteacher" 3 stars. Sort of a one-note story: the teacher can't discipline his class because he is distracted by the young ladies working at the shop across the road. There is a pretty good twist, however.
"The Fishing Boat Picture" 5 stars. Portrait of a discarded marriage and a coveted picture over the years. We see the wife on the decline, but we, and the ex-husband, view her with a degree of detachment that prevents us from getting too sad, a very neat trick on the author's part.
"Noah's Ark" 5 stars. A story of action with little time for pondering. Our narrator is the less experienced of two boys go to a local fair on the cheap. Filled with suspense, and the author is as adept at navigating the physics of carnival rides as the more experienced boy. Completely took me back to that age when I was venturing further from home with daring and adventure.
"On Saturday Afternoon" 5 stars. One of my favorite short stories of all time. It had me cracking up, though I wonder how funny the author intended it to be. I have a rather dark sense of humor. A boy in his mid to late teens tells a story about when he was 10 and tried to help a man commit suicide. The boy can be quite blunt due to his innocence, yet is also quite world wise, or world weary, due to the harsh nature of his home life, the harshest of which is the congenitally depressive and temperamental personality of his family. On a deeper level, the story also asks whether the state grants a poor person the liberty to do with his life as he wishes.
"The Match" 3 stars. Rather obvious portrait of two marriages in different phases of their life cycles. Correct me if I'm wrong.
"The Disgrace of Jim Scarfedale" 5 stars. Another terrific story told from the point of view of a young lad with a wry sense of humor, this time coming for the close quarters of his street and lack of privacy, making his viewpoint more observational than editorial. Although he does say a lot of "I could have told him THAT," which makes me laugh. It's kind of hard not to laugh at one's neighbors when one is always aware of them.
"The Decline and Fall of Frankie Buller" 5 stars. I don't know why this hasn't been made into a film. A great story about an oversize (20 to 25 year old) kid who leads battle against the housing development meant to relocate slum families out of the city, right as WWII is about to start. The beautiful ending to this story also acts as a sad farewell to this collection.
I was going to give this book 4 stars because not every story was 5 stars, but after reviewing each story, I have to give it 5. This is in my top 5 short story collections, for sure.
December 8, 2017
I found this to be a rough go. Excellently done but comes off strangely dated.
November 4, 2018
Alla fine è per tutti un’infanzia “schifa"
C’è un ragazzino che corre attorno ai gelidi campi di un riformatorio inglese di prima mattina, e ogni mattina. Si prepara per la gara che il direttore del riformatorio gli ha raccomandato di vincere: “per il suo bene”. Il direttore vuole dimostrare
C’è un ragazzino che corre attorno ai gelidi campi di un riformatorio inglese di prima mattina, e ogni mattina. Si prepara per la gara che il direttore del riformatorio gli ha raccomandato di vincere: “per il suo bene”. Il direttore vuole dimostrare come il proprio istituto sappia correggere i ragazzi, portandoli sulla via dell’onesta, del buon esempio, e lo fa dandogli una pacca sulla spalla.
Il ragazzo allora corre e pensa, e maledice tutto il corpo di polizia e il direttore stesso, e mentre alterna i piedi sul selciato si guarda attorno e respira a pieni polmoni gli alberi e il freddo della prima alba e l’odore dell’erba e racconta come ci è finito in quel luogo, per nulla autentico e “riformativo”, per un furto commesso col suo amico di merende e per non aver più voglia di stare a guardare ogni sera la TV con cui tanto si è divertito in famiglia, togliendo l’audio e mettendo alla berlina i personaggi televisivi con le loro smorfie mute, per ridere e non pensare alla miseria sua e dei suoi genitori, e del padre morto dissanguato nel salotto, per un tumore all’intestino, che ha inguacchiato il pavimento come fosse una mattanza... e mentre corre e pensa anche a sua madre che ha tradito un po’ con tutti suo padre, che è stato spesso sul punto di picchiarla ma come lui si è messo sempre in mezzo per evitarle le botte dopo tutto meritate... e pensa alla sua vita bastarda e al desiderio solo di fregare la gente, a non voler mai lavorare per ottenere pochi spiccioli, come sua madre e suo padre che ora è morto dissanguato in casa per aver rifiutato il ricovero in ospedale, per non morire nell’inferno ecc ecc …
Il ragazzino organizza così la sua unica vera vendetta, contro un viscido direttore di riformatorio e contro tutto il corpo di polizia e l’istituzione intera, ed essendo il più veloce corridore dell’istituto penitenziario e forse dell’Inghilterra intera o di tutto il mondo, e avendo riposto il direttore ogni fiducia sulla sua vittoria, in barba a quest’ultimo e a tutta la sua balorda schiera di amici "senza mento" e dagli occhi di bue, il ragazzo decide di perdere la corsa e far vincere l' avversario, frenando il suo procedere rabbioso e infallibile proprio sul finale...
La rabbia del piccolo maratoneta di Stillitoe ricorda il cinismo ingenuo di Huckleberry Finn, e l’uso della prima persona e di uno slang senza tregua, quasi un flusso di coscienza, ricorda il parlare istintuale del più famoso ragazzino disadattato d’America, l’Holden Caulfield, con la differenza che quest’ultimo insieme ai suoi vari fratellini "filosofi", è un figlio della borghesia e non un delinquentello figlio della danneggiata classe operaia inglese.
Alla fine però è per tutti un’infanzia “schifa”…
C’è un ragazzino che corre attorno ai gelidi campi di un riformatorio inglese di prima mattina, e ogni mattina. Si prepara per la gara che il direttore del riformatorio gli ha raccomandato di vincere: “per il suo bene”. Il direttore vuole dimostrare
C’è un ragazzino che corre attorno ai gelidi campi di un riformatorio inglese di prima mattina, e ogni mattina. Si prepara per la gara che il direttore del riformatorio gli ha raccomandato di vincere: “per il suo bene”. Il direttore vuole dimostrare come il proprio istituto sappia correggere i ragazzi, portandoli sulla via dell’onesta, del buon esempio, e lo fa dandogli una pacca sulla spalla.
Il ragazzo allora corre e pensa, e maledice tutto il corpo di polizia e il direttore stesso, e mentre alterna i piedi sul selciato si guarda attorno e respira a pieni polmoni gli alberi e il freddo della prima alba e l’odore dell’erba e racconta come ci è finito in quel luogo, per nulla autentico e “riformativo”, per un furto commesso col suo amico di merende e per non aver più voglia di stare a guardare ogni sera la TV con cui tanto si è divertito in famiglia, togliendo l’audio e mettendo alla berlina i personaggi televisivi con le loro smorfie mute, per ridere e non pensare alla miseria sua e dei suoi genitori, e del padre morto dissanguato nel salotto, per un tumore all’intestino, che ha inguacchiato il pavimento come fosse una mattanza... e mentre corre e pensa anche a sua madre che ha tradito un po’ con tutti suo padre, che è stato spesso sul punto di picchiarla ma come lui si è messo sempre in mezzo per evitarle le botte dopo tutto meritate... e pensa alla sua vita bastarda e al desiderio solo di fregare la gente, a non voler mai lavorare per ottenere pochi spiccioli, come sua madre e suo padre che ora è morto dissanguato in casa per aver rifiutato il ricovero in ospedale, per non morire nell’inferno ecc ecc …
Il ragazzino organizza così la sua unica vera vendetta, contro un viscido direttore di riformatorio e contro tutto il corpo di polizia e l’istituzione intera, ed essendo il più veloce corridore dell’istituto penitenziario e forse dell’Inghilterra intera o di tutto il mondo, e avendo riposto il direttore ogni fiducia sulla sua vittoria, in barba a quest’ultimo e a tutta la sua balorda schiera di amici "senza mento" e dagli occhi di bue, il ragazzo decide di perdere la corsa e far vincere l' avversario, frenando il suo procedere rabbioso e infallibile proprio sul finale...
La rabbia del piccolo maratoneta di Stillitoe ricorda il cinismo ingenuo di Huckleberry Finn, e l’uso della prima persona e di uno slang senza tregua, quasi un flusso di coscienza, ricorda il parlare istintuale del più famoso ragazzino disadattato d’America, l’Holden Caulfield, con la differenza che quest’ultimo insieme ai suoi vari fratellini "filosofi", è un figlio della borghesia e non un delinquentello figlio della danneggiata classe operaia inglese.
Alla fine però è per tutti un’infanzia “schifa”…
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 20, 2021
The Loneliness of the Long-distance Runner
We were marching to war and I was part of his army, with an elderberry stick at the slope and my pockets heavy with smooth, flat, well-chosen stones that would skim softly through the air, and strike the foreheads of the enemies.
Published in 1959, this book is a collection of nine short stories. Many of the stories including the title story are about teenage and young adult angst in post-war Britain.
While all of the stories here are quite good, there are four that are close to perfect, in my opinion.
1. The Loneliness of the Long-distance Runner - a well known story about a smart-ass bloke who gets sent to reform school for a burglary. He is a naturally gifted athlete but equally obstinate young man who does not want the school or any authority to get credit for his running prowess. To the point that he would rather lose. Just an excellent story about the rebellious nature that lives within all of us.
2. The Fishing-boat Picture - the only story with an older protagonist. He reflects twenty years back to his relationship with a love interest who asked if she could have a painting of his. Several days later he found she sold the painting to a pawn shop so he bought it back and gave it to her again. There is a sadness in that we don’t always know those close to us and there is a realism to this story that affected me.
3. On Saturday Afternoon - a young protagonist encounters a man who is trying to hang himself. A dark story to be sure.
4. The Decline and Fall of Frankie Buller - a story about an odd and sometimes violent twenty-something who rallies a group of younger boys in the neighborhood to form a gang. They alternate between practicing war games and vandalizing and terrorizing the neighborhood. Then the real war comes to Britain.
5 stars
We were marching to war and I was part of his army, with an elderberry stick at the slope and my pockets heavy with smooth, flat, well-chosen stones that would skim softly through the air, and strike the foreheads of the enemies.
Published in 1959, this book is a collection of nine short stories. Many of the stories including the title story are about teenage and young adult angst in post-war Britain.
While all of the stories here are quite good, there are four that are close to perfect, in my opinion.
1. The Loneliness of the Long-distance Runner - a well known story about a smart-ass bloke who gets sent to reform school for a burglary. He is a naturally gifted athlete but equally obstinate young man who does not want the school or any authority to get credit for his running prowess. To the point that he would rather lose. Just an excellent story about the rebellious nature that lives within all of us.
2. The Fishing-boat Picture - the only story with an older protagonist. He reflects twenty years back to his relationship with a love interest who asked if she could have a painting of his. Several days later he found she sold the painting to a pawn shop so he bought it back and gave it to her again. There is a sadness in that we don’t always know those close to us and there is a realism to this story that affected me.
3. On Saturday Afternoon - a young protagonist encounters a man who is trying to hang himself. A dark story to be sure.
4. The Decline and Fall of Frankie Buller - a story about an odd and sometimes violent twenty-something who rallies a group of younger boys in the neighborhood to form a gang. They alternate between practicing war games and vandalizing and terrorizing the neighborhood. Then the real war comes to Britain.
5 stars
May 3, 2022
Rappelé cette lecture d'il y a 40 ans, qui avait passionné le coureur amateur et sans ambition de chrono de semi-marathon, auquel je m'étais mis. Superbe ressenti de ce coureur, de sa souffrance, de ses joies et de son énorme solitude. Tenté plusieurs fois la commande en librairie ces dernières années, en vain, mais je vais relancer ces recherches, tant j'avais lu et relu cet ouvrage remarquable avant un prêt terminé par un non-retour. Repensé a ce bouquin au moment d'entamer "De la marche", écrit par Henry David Thoreau.
July 23, 2019
Este libro logró que nuevamente me volvieran a gustar los cuentos. Magnificos todos!
August 5, 2022
Rightly considered a landmark in post-war English fiction. Sillitoe never took to the label of "Angry Young Man", although alongside Storey, Braine, Osborne and Wain, he is the perfect symbol of the problem facing a profoundly class-ridden society: what happens when the sons and daughters of the proletariat learn to read and write, learn to expand their minds and get to think for themselves - something that their illiterate parents and grandparents never got to benefit from? The eruption of these voices in the two decades after the war highlights not only the stultifying nature of English society as it was then (one could easily argue, as it is still is now), but also the frantic desire of those at the bottom to get out from under the dead boot of the Establishment, leave behind the factories that broke them and the mines that killed them and make something else of their lives, whether through petty crime or military service or even through foreign exile.
When your innate intelligence and hard work count for little, when all your ambitions are stymied, when all paths to advancement are blocked through accident of birth, when the simple act of opening your mouth marks your place in the social order - what do you do then? How do you react? Sillitoe's men and women, their "choices" and their fates reveal some of these answers. Not for nothing did the author himself choose to live in Majorca for a long stretch at a key point of his life.
What this book represents above all else is frustration - a howling scream of protest at the rank injustice of the System, a system that was built on the bodies of the working class at home and the bodies of millions more black and brown people in the colonies. The vast wealth of those colonies looted at gunpoint and funneled through the system, only to benefit a very narrow class at the top; the overwhelming majority of the British working class would gain nothing from it, would continue to live out narrow, constricted lives of back-breaking toil, would continue to die early inhaling the black smoke of the grim industrial towns that pockmarked this island, their only entertainment down at the football ground on Saturdays, and in the public house slightly more often than that.
Some themes stood out for me:
* Sillitoe's staunch anti-monarchist sentiments - the Royal Family doesn't get much facetime but when it does, it is in highly unflattering terms (King George's Nob)
* his absolutely incandescent loathing of the Tories, more broadly his uncompromising enmity towards the upper (and even the middle) classes
* his escapist fantasies - fleeing the soul-deadening boundaries of this shabby island come back as a glancing idea in several of the stories
* a nod to the effects of the Great War on the working class in the person of Uncle Ernest, and by extension, Sillitoe's militant anti-militarism - see the ditty about "Tory wars" in distant lands
* the effect on working-class bodies of unsafe, unregulated toil over many years - for example, in the sad fate of Kathy's housepainter beau in The Fishing Boat Picture
* the impact of this coarse and brutish existence not just on the men - mute and frustrated - but also on their families, their wives and children - the repeated explosions of anger and very often violence, most notably in The Match
* the leavening of humour, often very grim humour at that - for example, the suicide attempt in Saturday Afternoon, or the sorry fate of mother-pecked Jim Scarfedale
* the absolute stylistic perfection of Sillitoe's prose, when the rough-hewn language of the satanic mill towns transmutes into sheer poetry in a story like Noah's Ark
* the three best stories in this collection, in which there is not a single weak link, are the title story, the afore-mentioned Noah's Ark, and for my money The Fishing-Boat Picture, which in its 20 brief pages manages to say more about the irreducible despair of working-class existence in 20th-century Britain than any number of sociological tomes ever could
Finally, the wider politics of Empire, which is broadly absent from working-class consciousness if these stories are any guide, which also leads me naturally to wonder how their grown-up children might have voted when Thatcher rose to the top - did they side with the miners in the 1980s or did they dive headlong into Falklands tub-thumping and Right-to-Buy fantasies of instant wealth? And how did those same kids and grandkids vote in 2016, and in 2019? Weren't these the same people who took Britain out of the EU, out of displaced anger and misplaced pride, weren't they the same folks who gave Boris his 80-seat majority, and are they not also the ones who will suffer most horrendously, in their food-banks and their Amazon delivery vans, when the economic horror of the next decade fully hits? So what DID they learn? What would Sillitoe have made of these last few years? A pity he isn't around to give his verdict ... I for one would have loved to read this take.
When your innate intelligence and hard work count for little, when all your ambitions are stymied, when all paths to advancement are blocked through accident of birth, when the simple act of opening your mouth marks your place in the social order - what do you do then? How do you react? Sillitoe's men and women, their "choices" and their fates reveal some of these answers. Not for nothing did the author himself choose to live in Majorca for a long stretch at a key point of his life.
What this book represents above all else is frustration - a howling scream of protest at the rank injustice of the System, a system that was built on the bodies of the working class at home and the bodies of millions more black and brown people in the colonies. The vast wealth of those colonies looted at gunpoint and funneled through the system, only to benefit a very narrow class at the top; the overwhelming majority of the British working class would gain nothing from it, would continue to live out narrow, constricted lives of back-breaking toil, would continue to die early inhaling the black smoke of the grim industrial towns that pockmarked this island, their only entertainment down at the football ground on Saturdays, and in the public house slightly more often than that.
Some themes stood out for me:
* Sillitoe's staunch anti-monarchist sentiments - the Royal Family doesn't get much facetime but when it does, it is in highly unflattering terms (King George's Nob)
* his absolutely incandescent loathing of the Tories, more broadly his uncompromising enmity towards the upper (and even the middle) classes
* his escapist fantasies - fleeing the soul-deadening boundaries of this shabby island come back as a glancing idea in several of the stories
* a nod to the effects of the Great War on the working class in the person of Uncle Ernest, and by extension, Sillitoe's militant anti-militarism - see the ditty about "Tory wars" in distant lands
* the effect on working-class bodies of unsafe, unregulated toil over many years - for example, in the sad fate of Kathy's housepainter beau in The Fishing Boat Picture
* the impact of this coarse and brutish existence not just on the men - mute and frustrated - but also on their families, their wives and children - the repeated explosions of anger and very often violence, most notably in The Match
* the leavening of humour, often very grim humour at that - for example, the suicide attempt in Saturday Afternoon, or the sorry fate of mother-pecked Jim Scarfedale
* the absolute stylistic perfection of Sillitoe's prose, when the rough-hewn language of the satanic mill towns transmutes into sheer poetry in a story like Noah's Ark
* the three best stories in this collection, in which there is not a single weak link, are the title story, the afore-mentioned Noah's Ark, and for my money The Fishing-Boat Picture, which in its 20 brief pages manages to say more about the irreducible despair of working-class existence in 20th-century Britain than any number of sociological tomes ever could
Finally, the wider politics of Empire, which is broadly absent from working-class consciousness if these stories are any guide, which also leads me naturally to wonder how their grown-up children might have voted when Thatcher rose to the top - did they side with the miners in the 1980s or did they dive headlong into Falklands tub-thumping and Right-to-Buy fantasies of instant wealth? And how did those same kids and grandkids vote in 2016, and in 2019? Weren't these the same people who took Britain out of the EU, out of displaced anger and misplaced pride, weren't they the same folks who gave Boris his 80-seat majority, and are they not also the ones who will suffer most horrendously, in their food-banks and their Amazon delivery vans, when the economic horror of the next decade fully hits? So what DID they learn? What would Sillitoe have made of these last few years? A pity he isn't around to give his verdict ... I for one would have loved to read this take.
June 12, 2015
Runner
Very bleak stories dealing with loneliness and desperation. They are beautiful and well-rounded stories that at times reminded me of Winesburg, Ohio.
A young man takes to long distance running to escape life in juvenile detention. The officials praise how his participation has turned him around, but the runner proves they can't control him.
An old man buys lunch for two girls just so he won't be alone. An ex-wife keeps asking for her husbands favorite picture, just to see him buy it back from a pawn shop. Other stories of youths trying to break away out of their poverty only to end up in worse circumstances. Some find small victories, the runner finds freedom when he is alone like he is the last man on earth, another lives in a fantasy world where he leads his troops into battle, but they are only schoolboys.
All heartbreaking stories but almost all find a way where they have their freedom, something that cannot be controlled, their will.
...winning means the exact opposite, no matter how hard they try to kill or kid me, means running right into their white-gloved wall-barred hands and grinning mugs and staying there for the rest of my natural long life of stone-breaking anyway, but stone-breaking in the way I want to do it and not in the way they tell me. P 45
I was born dead, I keep telling myself. Everybody's dead, I answer. So they are, I maintain, but then most of them never know it like I'm beginning to do, and it's a bloody shame that this has come to me at last when I could at least do with it, and when it's too bloody late to get anything bad from it. Then optimism rides out of the darkness like a knight in armour. If you loved her...(of course I bloody-well did)...then you both did the only thing possible if it was to be remembered as love. Now didn't you? Knight in armour goes back into blackness. Yes, I cry, but neither of us did anything about it, and that's the trouble. P 99
Very bleak stories dealing with loneliness and desperation. They are beautiful and well-rounded stories that at times reminded me of Winesburg, Ohio.
A young man takes to long distance running to escape life in juvenile detention. The officials praise how his participation has turned him around, but the runner proves they can't control him.
An old man buys lunch for two girls just so he won't be alone. An ex-wife keeps asking for her husbands favorite picture, just to see him buy it back from a pawn shop. Other stories of youths trying to break away out of their poverty only to end up in worse circumstances. Some find small victories, the runner finds freedom when he is alone like he is the last man on earth, another lives in a fantasy world where he leads his troops into battle, but they are only schoolboys.
All heartbreaking stories but almost all find a way where they have their freedom, something that cannot be controlled, their will.
...winning means the exact opposite, no matter how hard they try to kill or kid me, means running right into their white-gloved wall-barred hands and grinning mugs and staying there for the rest of my natural long life of stone-breaking anyway, but stone-breaking in the way I want to do it and not in the way they tell me. P 45
I was born dead, I keep telling myself. Everybody's dead, I answer. So they are, I maintain, but then most of them never know it like I'm beginning to do, and it's a bloody shame that this has come to me at last when I could at least do with it, and when it's too bloody late to get anything bad from it. Then optimism rides out of the darkness like a knight in armour. If you loved her...(of course I bloody-well did)...then you both did the only thing possible if it was to be remembered as love. Now didn't you? Knight in armour goes back into blackness. Yes, I cry, but neither of us did anything about it, and that's the trouble. P 99
September 8, 2016
Тази година добрите книги идват от Мила.
"Самотният бегач на дълго разстояние" е най-хубавото нещо, което съм чела през последната година и половина. Говоря за новелата, защото тя наклони везните и ги обърна, и ги строши. Някои книги ни връщат към нас си.
Вярно, права е Кремена, като пише, че философията е по детски инатлива и опърничава. Но на мен все пак ми хареса, сигурно, защото тайно не желая да пораствам, а да си правя каквото поискам: да къмпингувам на пода в хола, да ходя боса по нагрятия от слънцето асфалт, да се смея много високо, когато ми е много смешно, да разполагам с цялото време на света. Колко дълго обаче можеш да бъдеш такъв?
— Бягай! — крещяха изнежените им гласчета. — Бягай!
Но аз бях глух, ням и сляп, не мърдах от мястото си, дъвчех кората и все още плачех като детенце, плачех вече от радост, че най-сетне ги победих.
Разказите също са много добри. Мрачни и гневни, те показват човешката тъга в различните й измерения и несправедливостите, които водят до нея. Същевременно не са потискащи, като че ли са просто "такива, каквито са", което за мен е супер. :) Особено одобрих "Мистър Рейнър, учителят", "Картината с рибарската лодка", "Събота следобед", "Позорът на Джим Скарфидейл". Последният, най-дълъг разказ - "Упадъкът и залезът на Франки Бълър" - ми напомни на "Амиши" от Андрю Портър. Та си рекох, да взема да препрочета и нея, а?
"Самотният бегач на дълго разстояние" е най-хубавото нещо, което съм чела през последната година и половина. Говоря за новелата, защото тя наклони везните и ги обърна, и ги строши. Някои книги ни връщат към нас си.
Вярно, права е Кремена, като пише, че философията е по детски инатлива и опърничава. Но на мен все пак ми хареса, сигурно, защото тайно не желая да пораствам, а да си правя каквото поискам: да къмпингувам на пода в хола, да ходя боса по нагрятия от слънцето асфалт, да се смея много високо, когато ми е много смешно, да разполагам с цялото време на света. Колко дълго обаче можеш да бъдеш такъв?
— Бягай! — крещяха изнежените им гласчета. — Бягай!
Но аз бях глух, ням и сляп, не мърдах от мястото си, дъвчех кората и все още плачех като детенце, плачех вече от радост, че най-сетне ги победих.
Разказите също са много добри. Мрачни и гневни, те показват човешката тъга в различните й измерения и несправедливостите, които водят до нея. Същевременно не са потискащи, като че ли са просто "такива, каквито са", което за мен е супер. :) Особено одобрих "Мистър Рейнър, учителят", "Картината с рибарската лодка", "Събота следобед", "Позорът на Джим Скарфидейл". Последният, най-дълъг разказ - "Упадъкът и залезът на Франки Бълър" - ми напомни на "Амиши" от Андрю Портър. Та си рекох, да взема да препрочета и нея, а?
February 14, 2016
"The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner" is an outstanding short story collection. The stories here take place in working class England in the immediate pre and post WWII era. The characters are all in unhappy and near inescapable circumstances. They feel crushed by their lives and are only able to assert their freedom in the smallest and often most self-destructive ways. Sillitoe does a great job of capturing the humanity in these characters without reducing them to caricatures. This book serves as a great antidote to the sort of elitist upper class short story collections that totally dominate publishing today.
February 25, 2019
Way better and more vivid than i ever expected. Loved the first story and the writing in several of these shorts-really good stuff.
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