Tommy Rhattigan

I was loaned this book by a friend and it is with some trepidation that I write this review as I have just seen that the author makes a practice of arguing with people who don't give it 5 star reviews, so has obviously never heard the advice not to do that sort of thing.

This is meant to be a humourous tale of the lives of a poor family dragged up in the slums of Manchester in the early 60s, in an area that was being demolished and suffering total deprivation. The humour is unrelentingly based upon cruelty to humans and animals, with umpteen stock characters - ugly nuns with various deformities and disabilities, a drunken priest - and came across as being like a series of sketches from the late comedian Dave Allen's show but far less funny.

The undertone of abuse of the daughters of the family by the character's father finally became overt, though despite the viewpoint character's constant harping on genitalia, he didn't seem to 'get' what was going on when his father took various daughters into the bedroom, even when some of them fought back on one occasion, which stretched the suspension of disbelief too far. The situations became less and less convincing and the final nail in the coffin was a reference to Captain Scarlet sweet cigarettes - totally impossible in 1963, as that programme didn't begin to be broadcast until the second half of 1967. Presumably it was put in to add versimilitude - but instead, it jarred badly enough to make me doubt the rest of the narrative. A shame, because the chilling final section about the narrator's encounter with the Moors Murderers was well written. If the whole book had been written in that more serious tone, I would have found it far more convincing.

Now waiting to see what comments my honest review will incur. However, I didn't enjoy the book so can only award it a 2 star rating.… (más)