Room at the top - Hardcover

Braine, John

3.69

2,415 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0416006019 ISBN 13: 9780416006018

Publisher: Methuen, 1980

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"Remember the name John Braine. You'll be hearing quite a lot about him. Room at the Top is his first novel and it is a remarkable one . . . it's a long time since we heard the hunger of youth really snarling and it's a good sound to hear again." - Sunday Times

"The most discussed, debated and lauded first novel of the year." - New York Times

"This novel is brilliant . . . The observation is shrewd and the emotion and the comedy are so true it hurts." - Daily Express

Brought up amid squalor and poverty in a dead, ugly small town, young Joe Lampton has one ambition: to escape the anonymous, defeated crowd of "zombies" and make it to the top. Everything seems to be going according to plan when he moves to a new city, finds a good job and new friends, and inspires the love of a pretty girl with a rich father. Only one thing holds him back: his passionate affair with an older married woman. Forced to choose between true love and his ruthless pursuit of wealth and success, Joe will have to make a terrible decision, with violent and tragic consequences.

Room at the Top (1957), the first novel by John Braine (1922-1986), earned widespread critical acclaim and was a runaway bestseller in England and America, running into dozens of printings and spawning a sequel and an Oscar-winning film adaptation. Still explosive more than half a century later, Braine's classic of the "Angry Young Men" movement returns to print in this edition, which features a new introduction by Janine Utell and the original jacket art by John Minton.

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About the Author:

John Gerard Braine (April 13, 1922 - October 28, 1986) was an English novelist. Born in Bradford, Yorkshire, Braine left St. Bede's Grammar School at sixteen and worked in a shop, a laboratory and a factory before becoming, after the war, a librarian. Although he wrote twelve works of fiction, Braine is chiefly remembered today for his first novel, Room at the Top (1957), which was also turned into a successful film (1959). Braine is usually associated with the Angry Young Men movement.

From AudioFile:

The screen version of this 1957 novel remains a celebrated classic of the "Angry Young Man" school. A working-class Yorkshireman tells the story of his ruthless social climbing. As impersonated by Paul McGann, he is one dull guy. McGann reads intelligently but with a dearth of expressiveness. He comes to life a bit during passages of dialogue, but otherwise drones. Y.R. � AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine-- Copyright � AudioFile, Portland, Maine

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