Shield's author's new book The Disillusioned

[Stephen Crane]

http://www.less10.com/Books/History/Gen ... _id=631792

more readers have reviewed in the online shopping link above, get the book, its a great laugh, and heartbreaking too....

Lots of stories in here about growing up in Shields, drinking and scoring with 'trim', picture of Marsden Rock and the author on the cover circa 1994 - loved it

Here's the book's blurb and review

The Disillusioned is a ruthlessly honest memoir of a young man who writes both searingly and disarmingly about the highs and lows, the perils and promise of our times.

The Disillusioned encompasses three decades, beginning with the impressionable child indoctrinated with the propaganda of Thatcher's Britain, a lack of role models and any sense of belonging. It is a gripping story of obsessive ambition, discrimination, scams, suicidal impulses, alcoholism, the search for love, loss and the quest for redemption in New Zealand. It is David Scott's story, but also the story of a disillusioned silent majority; the story of young people bogged down with debt and disillusionment; the story, too, of the increasing dangers facing our children in a materialistic world where family bonds and values are sacrificed for higher incomes and status.

"The Disillusioned is a surprisingly compulsive read about what I call the Misfit Generation - the one beguiled at first by the challenge of rational economics and then bewildered by its effects. David Scott's odyssey is to find self-worth, to discover basic human values among the detritus of modern life. At the end you can't be sure he's made it. But his story matters and despite his lack of education he tells it with the pace and directness of a pro." - Gordon McLauchlan, writer and book critic.

[rossinisbird]

Isn't William H Macy a great actor. I think he's brilliant.

[little_tata]

Sean Penn is a wonderful actor.

[robpapE2]

thanks for the tip off ...will try and reserve it at the library ..many thanks

[Kellan]

I read this and found thew description of Alice Street in the first chapter to be inaccurate and I was worried about how accurate the rest was. I was born in John Williamson Street a little earlier than the author and had friends who lived in Alice Street and they were no 2 roomed upstairs flats - all the ones I was in (including the one I was born in in JWS) had 3 rooms. If Scotts flat had 2 rooms they would have been very large and not 12 x 16 feet as described. Otherwise it is an interesting read.

Kellan