Grass Arena Autobiography Introduction Colin by Healy John (1 results)

FIRST EDITION. Half title; edges sl. toned. Orig. black cloth. Black, green & red pictorial d.w., unclipped. A lovely bright copy. One of the great memoirs of the twentieth century, but no Bright Young Things here. The Grass Arena chronicles Healy's life as a homeless alcoholic and is told in a fast, fragmented style, to utterly absorbing effect. Unnervingly episodic, the narrator cannot see beyond the next bottle, fight, or doorway to sleep in, and consequently nor can the reader. The arena of the title is the drinkers' park in which most of the (largely horrifying) action takes place. While in prison, Healy learns chess from a cellmate and becomes so obsessed by the game (which he initially sees as a proxy for violence) that he gives up drinking and devotes his life to it, becoming a highly accomplished player who can defeat four opponents simultaneously while blindfolded. The book was initially an enormous success, and earned comparisons to Burroughs and Genet which, while accurate in terms of vitality and talent, were wide of the mark in other ways. Burroughs and Genet were afforded degrees of decadent glamour, while Healy (whose prose is harder and sparer in any case) was only briefly in favour with the literary establishment. In a dispute over royalties, he allegedly threatened to attack Robert McCrum (then director of Faber) with an axe, and the book was declared out of print. A troubling and essential work. Readers are further directed to Paul Duane's 2011 documentary, Barbaric Genius.