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Synopsis
/ 1862070032 / English literature / Engels / English / Anglais / Englisch / hard cover / dust jacket / 22 x 15 cm / 245 .pp /
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Review
Blake Morrison attended the 1993 trial of two 10-year-old boys in Liverpool, England, who were accused of killing a 2-year-old; he wrote about the case for the New Yorker. Three years later, the case was still haunting him, so he returned to the subject to examine its impact on a more personal level.
More than anything, Morrison wanted an answer as to why the murder happened. He had started out (naively) believing that this was a question the trial would answer, and was dismayed to find that it was the one issue the court never addressed. Do the boys themselves know why? "I don't think they'll ever know," Morrison writes. "The further they go from it and the more they talk to therapists, the more they will develop a story about what happened. But whether that's a true story is very debatable... There isn't going to be the single answer that we all crave."
And so Morrison turned inward to look for answers, mulling over his own experiences of being a child and being a parent. As If (named from the expression he hears his children using to express skepticism) is an extended personal essay on the nature of childhood, including aggressive and sexual feelings that children have and those that other people have toward children. With its flurry of quotations and ruminations, this book won't be to everyone's taste, but it does illustrate an intriguingly personal approach to understanding a crime. --Fiona Webster
About the Author
Blake Morrison was born in Skipton, Yorkshire. He is the author of two collections of poetry, Dark Glasses and The Ballad of the Yorkshire Ripper; of a children's book, The Yellow House; of critical studies of the movement and Seamus Heaney; and is co-editor of The Penguin Book of Contemporary British Poetry. His bestselling memoir And when did you last see your father? won the Waterstone's/Esquire/Volvo Award for Non-Fiction, and the J.R. Ackerley Prize for Autobiography in 1993. He lives in London.
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- PublisherGranta Books
- Publication date1997
- ISBN 10 1862070032
- ISBN 13 9781862070035
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number1
- Number of pages245
- Rating
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As If
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Granta Books, United Kingdom, London, 1997
ISBN 10: 1862070032
ISBN 13: 9781862070035
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Paperback
Seller: WorldofBooks, Goring-By-Sea, WS, United Kingdom
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Paperback. Condition: Very Good. This volume seeks to expose the hollowness of condemnation divorced from understanding in relation to the Bulger murder trial. People have almost become desensitized to random murder. It is often explained away by madness, sexual fantasy or rejection. One murder in recent times reduced every person to silence: the abduction and beating to death of a helpless infant by two ten-year-old boys. How and why did two innocent boys kill another? Is childhood innocence a myth? And what punishment could fit such a crime, assuming that children are fit to stand trial for murder? Blake Morrison went to the trial in Preston, and discovered a sad ritual of condemnation with two bewildered children at the centre. He looked for possible explanations in the boys' families, their dreary environment, their fantasies, their exposure to violent films. He evokes the worst feats of parents through candid and raw memories of his relations with his own children, and delves into his own childhood to reveal the worst thing he has ever done, to show how easy it is to go along with cruelty. Blake Morrison is the author of two collections of poetry, "Dark Glasses" and "The Ballad of the Yorkshire Ripper", and is co-editor of "The Penguin Book of Contemporary British Poetry". His memoir, "And When Did You Last See Your Father?" won the Waterstone's/Esquire Award for non-fiction and the J.R. Ackerley Prize for Autobiography in 1993. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. Seller Inventory # GOR001552663
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Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. 1st printing. Binding tight; pages clean; spine slightly cocked. Unclipped (£14.99) DJ shows a touch of overall shelfwear. Autographed by Morrison on title page. Kirkus Reviews: "Literary journalist Morrison's reportage of the infamous 1993 child-murder of James Bulger turns into a semi-confessional meditation on illusory childhood innocence and collective guilt." 245 pages. Signed by Author(s). Seller Inventory # 6883
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Published by
Granta Books, 1997
ISBN 10: 1862070032
ISBN 13: 9781862070035
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First Edition
Seller: Loretta Lay Books, London, United Kingdom
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Hardcover / Hardback. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. First edition. Hardback. We've grown almost desensitised to horror. We can even explain the causes of random murder to ourselves: madness, sexual fantasy, rejection. But one event 20yrs ago reduced every person to silence: the beating to death of the infant James Bulger by two 10yr old boys. All over the world the images on the murky video film of the two children leading the toddler by his hand looped uselessly in peoples' minds. How and why did two innocent boys kill another? Is childhood innocence a myth? And what punishment could fit such a crime - assuming that children are fit to stand trial for murder? At the trial in Preston, the author discovered a sad ritual of condemnation with two bewildered children at its centre. For a month, policemen and witnesses told the How of it. The truth of the Why lay elsewhere. The author went to Liverpool, and sought explanations in the boys' families, and looked at the violence that saturated the minds of modern children. He delved deep into his relations with his own kids, and from his own childhood remembered how easy it was to go along with cruelty. He gives a devastating portrait of the majesty and impotence of the law when faced with a tragedy that wrecked three families' lives. A book that exposes the hollowness of condemnation divorced from understanding. 245pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. With loosely inserted newspaper cutting relating to Denise Bulger's attack on the book's contents. F. in F. dw. Seller Inventory # 15576
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