New and Collected Stories - Alan Sillitoe

 I've really been appreciating Sillitoes' writing since I found out about Saturday Night and Sunday Morning via a book on the Kinks and discovered this collection after reading The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. It seems that the stories from that book are all collected here, as well, so I supposed I should have gotten this first, if I had known, but there is a lot more in this tome.

Sillitoe describes the lives of working class Brits in the 50's and 60's, normal folks, although often with a tendency towards the petty criminal and away from the straight'n'narrow, boring, everyday lives. Plenty of loose sex, adultery, drinking, fighting and pilfering going on throughout the tales and told in the dialects in conversational tones. In a way, Alan kinda reminds me a little of Bukowski in basic style and tone, but with his own mannerisms, of course, and with Britishisms peppered throughout the narrative.

Most of the stories are stand-alones that end whenever they seem fit, but Sillitoe does indulge in a sequel to one of the tales included, and there is at least one that is much more elaborate than most of the tales of ordinary goings-ons, but still very well told, even if sometimes it is left up to you to imagine how the story concludes or what happened to who. Murder is brought into the fold more than once in this collection, which is sorta unusual for him as he tended towards more mundane subjects in previous stories.

At over 600 pages, this is a fairly huge compilation, but the stories are all compelling and will keep you reading'n'coming back for more. I'm not sure what else is left of his to discover, although I've heard of a couple of autobiographies that I might have to peruse at some point. Fine writing!