Saturday Night and Sunday Morning - Alan Sillitoe

 

Came across this 1950's book in a kinda roundabout way, via Ray Davies talking about it in the most recent Kinks book that I read. Apparently, the Davies brothers appreciated Sillitoe's rowdy, life-loving, boozin', womanizin', well dressed, pre-Mod, sorta Teddy Boy-ish main character as well as his expressive writing style.

Seemingly at least partially autobiographical, Sillitoe's Arthur loves drinkin'n'women in the evenings, and works hard doing piece work in a bicycle factory during the day, a job that he actually doesn't mind all that much since it is one he can basically do automatically and let his mind roam free while earning the cash for his more earnest activities.

Sillitoe's style is truly engaging, with a great attention to detail while maintaining a fun and flowing storyline. On occasion his British-isms and phonetic depictions of their accents can be a bit much, but nothing that takes away from the story and while Arthur may have some character flaws (he drunkenly vomits over two strangers and beds another man's wife as you first meet him), he comes across as an intelligent, likable bloke who knows his place in the world and does his best to enjoy his lot in life.

Of course, there's plenty of drama - he gets his mistress pregnant, gets a fairly daft recommendation on how to handle it (that somehow works, although there doesn't appear to be any medical reason why it should have), and immediately bed's his mistress' sister, thereby getting numerous soldiers after him simultaneously! Of course, much more goes on, excitement mixed with daily trudgery, as Arthur's life kinda sorts itself out for him.

Great style and an engaging story about "real" people living real lives. I'm going to look more into Sillitoe's writings.