The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner - Alan Sillitoe

 I really enjoyed Sillitoe's writing style in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and wanted to visit more of his works, and this was the first that I found (others apparently are available, that I will have to research). This is a compilation of short stories that follow in his oeuvre, with conversational story-telling mixed with plenty of visual details, told in a highly engaging manner.

This opens with the title story, the runner being a convict who trains with vigor but purposely loses the race that the warden is counting on (and bets on) just to teach him a (somewhat vague) lesson. He paints a picture of Britain in the mid-20th century and the various characters that inhabit it, from a lonely upholsterer, a slightly perverted school teacher and his daydreams, a divorced couple's odd relationship (as told through a painting), a couple of kids' adventures at a fair, another youngster who witnesses an attempted suicide, a finely detailed tale of two individuals watching a soccer match, along with a couple of other random people with stories to tell.

Sillitoe has a down-to-earth approach to his writing - somewhat Bukowski-ish, in a way, in that he brings to life folks from the poorer parts of town, with plenty or particulars, and all of their foibles in the foreground, whether it be drinking, gambling, carousing, fighting, stealing, or other vices'n'virtues. He brings to life his fiction, in a way that pulls you in. 

This is another author that I can imagine getting hooked on. I'll have to see what else there is to find from this gent. Totally recommended!