Book: Paperback | 129 x 198mm | 224 pages | ISBN 9780141033525 | 05 Feb 2009 | Penguin
Rated:
Reviewed by Gina Hobson
Jun 29, 2009
"'We found there was a lot to talk about when discussing this book with varying impressions and views making for a lively debate.
We all agreed that it was an original and extraordinary debut novel but many wouldn''t agree that the word ''comic'' on the jacket applied to the book as a whole. The behaviour of the ''towns''seemed accurate and funny but the overall feeling was one of menace and foreboding. I think that we all felt from the moment of the incident with the chicken that Sam is unable to control his anger and things were going to get darker.
Some were divided on the character of Sam. The majority had a lot of sympathy for this young man who was physically, socially and emotionally isolated from his family and the rest of the world. We discussed whether he perhaps suffered from Aspergers, AHD or would be described as a sociopath. He seemed to be more in tune with the natural world and animals than he was with human beings with whom he found it difficult to communicate. Some of us found the final chapters very sad and moving.
We all liked the language and even if we weren''t familiar with the words we still didn''t find this a handicap or spoil our enjoyment. The sound of words like ''glishy'' or ''skiffling'' suggest their meaning although one sceptic was suspicious of Raisin''s acknowledgement to the Yorkshire Dictionary of Dialect in the back of the book.
We felt we couldn''t warm to any of the other characters especially the girl Josephine but most of us felt that the book stayed with us long after we''d finished it and was very thought provoking.
One member of the group who hadn''t read the book but listened to our discussion said the book sounded similar to a book she''d recently read called ''BOY A''.
Thank you Penguin for the books. We really appreciated it.'"
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