A START IN LIFE

by Alan Sillitoe ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1971

Out of Fielding by way of modern Nottingham comes Michael Cullen, a cheeky, cheery, working-class bastard, with the story of his life and travels. And a perfect picaresque it is, careening along by mad chance and hasty necessity from his first provincial fumbles with sex and crime and on into the international underworld and an assortment of borrowed beds. For all that he's a tender-hearted sort, and in his travels -- overland in a moulting sedan when his first oats begin to sprout, or over the channel with a coat lining full of gold bars -- he meets some outrageous mates, most with stories of their own to tell. There's Jack Leningrad who runs a smuggling ring from his iron lung, and the fellow on the plane who tips him off to some real estate which he'd buy himself if he weren't set to murder his wife. And there's the novelist, whose mistress and manuscript Michael has dabbled with rather freely, who turns out to be his long-lost father. . . ""just one more experience for me to mull over from time to time."" That's the spirit, and after all the scrapes and potholes in his route of least resistance it comes out tidily right at the end for him and his friends -- on that aforementioned bit of real estate. A headlong tour de force for Sillitoe.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1971

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Scribners

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1971

Categories: FICTION