Deadkidsongs - Softcover

Litt, Toby

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0241140706 ISBN 13: 9780241140703

Publisher: Hamish Hamilton, 2001

Synopsis

In the tradition of THE CEMENT GARDEN and THE WASP FACTORY, this is a compelling and shocking journey into the dark heart of boyhood, as four boys play war games deep in the English countryside. With the death of one of Gang (as they call themselves), the war games escalate, directed now against the adults they hold responsible for the loss of one of their soldiers. Like Toby Litt's previous novel CORPSING, DEADKIDSONGS is unputdownable, highly original and deeply thought-provoking.

About this title

Review:

With his novels Corpsing and Beatniks, young Brit Lit gunslinger Toby Litt showed he had mastered the essentials of the trendy bestseller. With this poignant, odd, confusing, moving, heartfelt, troubling book he's tried to do an even trickier thing: extend his range and readership upmarket.

The tenor of deadkidsongs is Just William meets Lord of the Flies with a nod to the latter-day works of Nick Hornby, which gives you some idea of what a different-but interesting-book it is. The story concerns four pre-pubescent boys, all members of a gang called Gang, growing up in darkest Devon in the 70s. Against a background of Cold War rumours and Last War memories they play their conkers and cowboys an' injuns, their war and show-us-yer-willy games. Then their clumsy and wistfully innocent Arcadia is overturned when one of them dies; from there the narrative unravels until the reader is not sure who is telling what to whom, nor quite how reliable the teller might be.

To recapture a lost childhood is ambitious enough; Litt's aim is to do that and then some: he wants to say profound things about masculinity, nostalgia, violence and nationhood. Whether he succeeds or not is moot; anyone sincerely interested in the modern British novel will want to read this to decide for themselves. --Sean Thomas

Review:

Litt's third novel sees him moving away from the studied cool of his previous work. The English countryside in the 1970s substitutes for the glamorous, quirky or violent aspects of modern Britain depicted in Corpsing and Beatniks. The four schoolboys at the centre of the book call themselves "Gang" and spend their time preparing for what they see as the imminent invasion by the Russians as well as arming themselves against the hostile adult world around them. This feeling intensifies after the death of one of the boys, a tragedy which the Gang blames on their families and causes them to seek revenge. Devoid of sentimentality or cuteness, Deadkidsongs conveys the real and imagined fears of childhood in an occasionally affected but ultimately convincing prose style.

About this edition

• Publisher: Hamish Hamilton
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0241140706
• ISBN 13: 9780241140703
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 402