Reading the 20th Century discussion

A thread to discuss books written by, or about, the working class during the twentieth century

I just listened to a fascinating episode of the Fresh Air podcast with Jack Goldsmith, author of a book called....

In Hoffa's Shadow: A Stepfather, a Disappearance in Detroit, and My Search for the Truth

As a young man, Jack Goldsmith revered his stepfather, longtime Jimmy Hoffa associate Chuckie O’Brien. But as he grew older and pursued a career in law and government, he came to doubt and distance himself from the man long suspected by the FBI of perpetrating Hoffa’s disappearance on behalf of the mob. It was only years later, when Goldsmith was serving as assistant attorney general in the George W. Bush administration and questioning its misuse of surveillance and other powers, that he began to reconsider his stepfather, and to understand Hoffa’s true legacy. In Hoffa’s Shadow tells the moving story of how Goldsmith reunited with the stepfather he’d disowned and then set out to unravel one of the twentieth century’s most persistent mysteries and Chuckie’s role in it. Along the way, Goldsmith explores Hoffa’s rise and fall and why the golden age of blue-collar America came to an end, while also casting new light on the century-old surveillance state, the architects of Hoffa’s disappearance, and the heartrending complexities of love and loyalty.

Anyone tempted by this book?

Is it a British or American podcast, Nigeyb? I only ask, as a quick look, shows it is only out in hardback here. It sounds interesting, even though I know nothing about the subject matter.

It's an American podcast, done by NPR, which stands for National Public Radio....


https://www.npr.org/podcasts/38144490...

I'm guessing NPR is like BBC Radio but I'm not sure. It certainly has advertising so that's one difference.

Susan wrote: "It sounds interesting, even though I know nothing about the subject matter"

Hoffa comes up in books and films.

He's in James Ellroy's American Tabloid and doubtless many others. I think Jack Nicholson was in a film about him. He lead the Teamsters union, and funded some Mob activities which meant he was prosecuted. He mysteriously disappeared in 1975, presumed murdered, and that was front page news for weeks in the USA.

I know the name, but not the facts. Sounds a fascinating read.

It's an amazing era - at least in my fevered imagination. The mob, the unions, the birth of the TBI, the corruption etc.


Martin Scorcese's next film The Irishman has Al Pacino playing Jimmy Hoffa.

The Irishman is the story of Frank Sheeran, a mob hitman and World War II vet who develops his skills during his service in Italy. Now an old man, he reflects on the events that defined his career as a hitman, particularly the role he played in the disappearance of labor leader Jimmy Hoffa, his longtime friend, and his involvement with the Bufalino crime family.

It's get a cinematic release soon and will then be streaming on Netflix from 27 November 2019.

If you want to buddy read the book, I'd be happy to join you. Or are you going to wait for NetFlix (off to work now, so forgive me if I don't reply to your post for a while).

Thanks Susan. I'm certainly intested but it's very expensive at the moment so let's keep it as a maybe and see if it gets a paperback and/or kindle release.

On working class writing more generally here's a few favourites off the top of my head that I heartily recommend:


London Belongs to Me - superb

The Road to Wigan Pier - interesting though tales off

Down and Out in Paris and London - essential

Of Mice and Men - excellent

The Grapes of Wrath - heartbreaking, and we're currently reading it

Love On The Dole - interesting with loads of great period detail

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists - interesting

The Lowlife - gripping

King Dido - pre WW1 life in the East End of London - memorable

Rain On The Pavements - great account of ordinary lives in Hackney, London during the 1930s

It Always Rains on Sunday - awash with atmospheric period and location detail of London life

Journey Through A Small Planet - working-class Jewish childhood in the East End, unsentimental and vital - stunning


There's doubtless loads more I will think of later


What about you?

What do you recommend?

What would you like to read?

I keep meaning to read A Taste of Honey: A Play as I have
Tastes of Honey: The Making of Shelagh Delaney and a Cultural Revolution on my reading list.

Goodreads has a genre page for Labor. I came to it because I vaguely remembered a book from years ago, Working: People Talk about What They Do All Day and How They Feel about What They Do by Studs Terkel. I have not read it, but as the subject was still with me over 40 years later, it just may be that one day I'll turn to it.

I started not to post. But then I found myself wandering while eating my breakfast cereal. I turned to the lists on that genre page and found Childbirth in Fiction. It seems not everyone has the same definition for "Labor".

Susan wrote: "I keep meaning to read A Taste of Honey: A Play as I have Tastes of Honey: The Making of Shelagh Delaney and a Cultural Revolution"

The film version of A Taste of Honey: A Play is on Talking Pictures at 8 pm on Saturday 19th October 2019. My recorder is set.

Thanks for letting me know, Nigeyb.

I hope you enjoy it Susan. I can't really remember it so am looking forward to watching it.

I am quite intrigued by Tastes of Honey: The Making of Shelagh Delaney and a Cultural Revolution. My library has a single copy. It's out at the moment and has two reserves from readers who also want to borrow it. If I enjoy the film, I might well be up for a buddy read.

Nigeyb wrote: "The film version of A Taste of Honey is on Talking Pictures at 8 pm on Saturday 19th October 2019. My recorder is set"

I watched it last night and loved it. I was very surprised at just how weird it is. Especially given it was so successful and won quite a bit of mainstream acclaim.

Earlier this week I able to catch up on some TV I had recorded, in 2017! This programme was about the erecting of a statue of Friedrich Engels in Manchester UK.
Engels has spent 20 years or so in Manchester, a place often seen as the birth place of the modern working class movement, which inspired his work Condition of the Working-Class in England. I'll give this a read and see what if anything has changed, and compare it to 20th century writings.

Apologies if you've all already seen it, but the 3rd and final episode of the BBC Novels that Shaped Our World documentary (different content from the book list) was about class:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode...

Possibly of tangential interest:
https://aeon.co/essays/why-working-cl...
The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes by Jonathan Rose
(NB not a nomination. I would love to read this book, but in practice not sure when I would get round to it.)

Thanks Michael, and thanks Antonomasia

Antonomasia wrote: "Apologies if you've all already seen it, but the 3rd and final episode of the BBC Novels that Shaped Our World documentary (different content from the book list) was about class:
https://www.bbc.co..."

The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes had a huge impact on me when I first read it. I would welcome the chance to revisit it. Perhaps it could be a buddy read some point next year.

I feel afternoon in Manchester with my camera taking photos of statutes, from Queen Victoria to Engels and from Pankhurst to Lincoln.

The Working Class Movement Library is in Salford, across the road from the University.

The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes sounds s a fascinating book. If we do it as a buddy read at some point, I would love to read it.

I have also downloaded the episode of Novels that Changed our World on class, so thanks for the link.

Next month's group read is....


A Kind of Loving by Stan Barstow

The 1962 film adaptation is on Talking Pictures TV tonight in the UK, that's Wednesday 15th January 2020 at 23:50

A Kind of Loving
1962. Drama
Director: John Schlesinger
Stars Alan Bates, June Ritchie & Thora Hird

My recorder is set and I look forward to watching it after I have read the book (which I am doing at the moment)

A classic of the so called kitchen sink British drama films of the late 1950s and early 1960s. The black and white photography is ideal for its portrayal of a drab northern city and perfectly accompanies the frustration and boredom of the main protagonist who feels trapped by his life and his surroundings. Includes a great performance by the late Alan Bates.

I've not had much chance to read....


A Kind of Loving by Stan Barstow

...but so far it's really great.

I keenly anticipate our discussion next month.


The blurb...

A Kind of Loving is the first of a trilogy, published over the course of sixteen years, that followed hero Vic Brown through marriage, divorce and a move from the mining town of Cressley to London.

The other two parts are The Watchers On The Shore and The Right True End.

Here's the synopsis....

All about love, lust, and loneliness, the book introduces Vic Brown, a young working-class Yorkshireman. Vic is attracted to the beautiful but demanding Ingrid, and as their relationship grows and changes, he comes to terms the hard way with adult life and what it really means to love. The influence of Barstow's novel has been lasting the literary label "lad-lit" was first applied to this book, and over the years it has been adapted for radio, television, and the big screen.

Originally published in 1960, this popular novel about frustrated youth laid the groundwork for contemporary writers such as Tony Parsons and Nick Hornby.




A Kind of Loving by Stan Barstow

Last night I finished....


A Kind of Loving by Stan Barstow

I loved it

A wonderful book

Click here to read my five star review

I'm really looking foward to next month's discussion

5/5

Yesterday, St. Paddy's Day, I watched the 1963 film Girl with Green Eyes, the movie of the 2nd book in Edna O'Brien's Country Girl Trilogy, which was known as The Lonely Girl when first published.
Since A Taste of Honey was brought up earlier in this thread, I'm mentioning this movie because it also starred Rita Tushingham, star of A Taste of Honey. While she didn't quite fit my picture of Kate, I liked her casting as her very interesting and expressive face is a joy to watch. Lynn Redgrave made a good Baba, and Peter Finch was good as Kate's older suitor. I had read this trilogy several Marches ago.

Great cast Brian. I have that one ready to watch on my Woodfall DVD boxset - looking forward to it

I have just finished Wide Boys Never Work (1937)


Predictably excellent as I explain in my review...

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Wide Boys Never Work was published two decades before the rise of the Angry Young Men but, in terms of Jim Bankley's attitude, frustration, and alienation, feels closely connected to those novels and plays.

It's another slice of essential lowlife London lit.

4/5

Wide Boys Never Work was adapted for the big screen in 1956 under the title Soho Incident.

Thanks to all round good guy CQM, I have just finished...


Brighton Belle (1963)


Thanks CQM.

Brighton Belle (1963) is a blast from start to finish.

Arthur La Bern (1909-1990) is best known for his debut It Always Rains on Sunday (1945) which was authentically working class, well received by both readers and critics, and was turned into a high profile film. It Always Rains on Sunday was republished by London Books in 2015.

Brighton Belle is not quite at the level of la Bern's debut but is still a rip roaring read

Review here...

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

4/5

Some of these classic British working class novels Nigeyb comes up with have become really obscure. While I was surprised by how little read the Vic Brown trilogy is now, these La Bern novels are even more unread,
La Bern's most read book Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square, made into Hitchcock's movie "Frenzy," has only 65 GR ratings. It Always Rains on Sunday, which Nigeyb says was turned into a high profile film, has only 12 GR ratings. But those dwarf Brighton Belle's numbers, as Nigeyb is now responsible for exactly half of its total of 2 Goodreads ratings.

The film of It Always Rains on Sunday is excellent, but I wasn't aware of these books. Well done for getting hold of Brighton Belle, Nigeyb, and thanks for mentioning the others, Brian.

I just checked and saw that the movie of It Always Rains on Sunday stars Googie Withers, who I first heard of in a discussion somewhere on this group.

It quite often comes on the Talking Pictures TV channel in the UK, and I've just seen that it is showing there at 6.35pm on January 28 - not a lot of use to you in the US, Brian, but maybe one of your stations has it or it is streaming somewhere?

Thanks Judy - I didn't know


I have yet to view the film. Now I can put that right

Hope you like it, Nigeyb. I remember it as very atmospheric and a really good film.

I'll let you know Judy - thanks again

Second Judy on the movie, although I think Billy Liar is possibly my favourite from that genre. Enjoying following this discussion, I'd add Eve Garnett's children's books quite a stark contrast to the usual middle-class adventures that were so common in her era starting with The Family from One End Street

Then there's Nell Dunn's Up the Junction, Poor Cow: A Virago Modern Classic both turned into films. There's also Lynne Reid Banks's The L-Shaped Room again produced as a film. And the Black-British working-class in Sam Selvon's and Buchi Emecheta's novels. And in the 1920s the work of Ellen Wilkinson, daughter of a Manchester cotton worker and later MP for Jarrow, whose novel Clash was a fascinating account of the General Strike and contains some marvellous digs at the bourgeois socialism of the Bloomsbury group. And in the U.S. many of the Harlem Renaissance writers dealt with the lives of the Black working-class.

Thanks Alwynne - there's a mix of old favourites and top tips in your posts. Splendid.

Is The L-Shaped Room working class? Interesting, as I didn't know that.

I absolutely adored Sam Selvon's The Housing Lark - I still smile at the scene where there's the coach trip to Hampton Court! I must also get to The Lonely Londoners.

I think so in that it's considered part of the social realist school of the time, the mc is middle-class but goes to live in a boarding-house in Notting Hill, long before it was gentrified, gets to know the other boarders and experiences life from the perspective of working-class Londoners. In that way it echoes books like Orwell's A Clergyman's DaughterThe film plays that up more I think, and links to kitchen-sink realist movement.

Ah, interesting - thanks :)

Not sure I'd actually actively recommend it though!

I would actively recommend The L-Shaped Room


Spoiler free review here...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

A really interesting and enduring novel

I think it has a lot of positive things going for it but there are a number of other issues that are a little off-putting, similar to the chat RC and I were having about Olivia Manning! And this is one of my fling across the room books, RC!

https://www.newstatesman.com/books/20...

Yes, I make similar points in my review Alwynne about the stereotyping and attitudes. I see we've had a similar discussion on another thread. It's common to find jarring examples in much British literature of early to mid 20th century. I fancifully hope that in another 50 years readers might be similarly shocked by the idea that hunting and eating animals was once deemed acceptable.

I agree it happens but it's not ubiquitous, and this has racism towards black people, anti-Semitism and homophobia so there's an accumulation, and I just find it too distasteful. I read a lot of vintage novels too but we all have limits and I find this one a bit too much, and for me any redeeming qualities don't outweigh the negative ones. Also even though attitudes differed so did authors and some were more prejudiced than others or less sensitive to issues than others, and these things were noted during their time. Wharton was considered anti-Semitic by her peers, Dickens was criticised for his portrayal of Fagin at the time, Margaret Mitchell's book was criticised for its excessive racism at the time, Christie was criticised for her racism and anti-Semitism at the time, so much so her American editions were routinely adjusted to tone down those aspects. Ayn Rand was considered right-wing at the time, so although I'm prepared to give some leeway for books written in different times, I also draw the line at some things too, as did their then-contemporary readers. I think it's important to realise that attitudes and terminology differed in different eras but just as now there were those who were racist or more anti-Semitic than others in their work, and others who briefly used terms that are offensive now but not at the time of writing but weren't overtly or excessively prejudiced in their lives or work.

I agree. It was not ubiquitous which I find interesting and suggests there was some awareness of these issues from early in the 20th century and even earlier.

I grew up in the 1960s and 1970s when casual racism in everyday conversation and on TV was a fact of life. I can recall many shocking examples from my own childhood. I don't really remember things changing significantly until the early 1980s and even then progress was slow, and of course there's still plenty more that still needs to change.

Re The L-Shaped Room I think the New Statesman review you posted is spot on when the reviewer concludes...

It is (Jane's) journey from shame to self-acceptance that is the emotional arc of the novel, and the reason, surely, for its enduring popularity.

Because I enjoy reading older books I am generally willing to accept the social attitudes as symptomatic of the era in which the book is set. I try to highlight this in my reviews as I know some people find it harder to accept, which is quite understandable.

I'm not criticising you for that Nigey explicitly or implicitly, just as RC finds Manning more problematic than I do, we all have different boundaries. But at the same time I don't agree with your vegetarianism analogy because just as there were mainstream discourses that perpetuated racism or anti-Semitism in different eras there were also oppositional voices or competing discourses in those eras too. And from my perspective we do those people whose questioning of these attitudes were part of the movements that led to those same attitudes becoming outdated or unacceptable a disservice by not also acknowledging that. If people look back at this time, I would hope that they wouldn't, for example, lump everything together and assume that Trump and Peterson were simply of their time but recognise that even in their time their attitudes and views were challenged by others. So this is not about my inability to understand that in the past, and now, people had different attitudes but my awareness that in the past as now people differed in their attitudes and so I don't have to give everyone an automatic free pass simply because I'm reading their work after it has ceased to be contemporary.

Yes, I get that Alwynne, and agree. Thanks for so eloquently clarifying your position.