21%OFF
Stock image for illustration purposes only - book cover, edition or condition may vary.
Waking Up in Toytown
John Burnside
€ 21.99
€ 17.45
FREE Delivery in Ireland
Description for Waking Up in Toytown
Paperback. In the early 80s, after a decade of drug abuse and borderline mental illness, the author resolved to escape his addictive personality and find calm in a 'Surbiton of the mind'. This title tells is an account of a troubled childhood. Num Pages: 272 pages. BIC Classification: BM. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 194 x 134 x 17. Weight in Grams: 192.
In the early 80s, after a decade of drug abuse and borderline mental illness, John Burnside resolved to escape his addictive personality and find calm in a 'Surbiton of the mind'. But the suburbs are not quite as normal as he had imagined and, as he relapses into chaos, he encounters a homicidal office worker who is obsessed with Alfred Hitchcock and Petula Clark, an old lover, with whom he reprises a troubled, masochistic relationship and, finally, the seemingly flesh-and-blood embodiments of all his private phantoms.
The sequel to his haunting, celebrated account of a troubled childhood, Waking Up in Toytown is unsettling, touching, oddly romantic and unflinchingly honest.
Product Details
Publisher
Vintage United Kingdom
Number of pages
272
Format
Paperback
Publication date
2011
Condition
New
Number of Pages
272
Place of Publication
London, United Kingdom
ISBN
9780099507833
SKU
V9780099507833
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 4 to 8 working days
Ref
99-3
About John Burnside
John Burnside was among the most acclaimed writers of his generation. His novels, short stories, poetry and memoirs won numerous awards, including the Geoffrey Faber Memorial, Saltire Scottish Book of the Year and, in 2023, he received the David Cohen Prize for a lifetime’s achievement in literature. In 2011 Black Cat Bone won both the Forward and the T.S. Eliot Prizes for poetry.
Reviews for Waking Up in Toytown
There is no truer writer than John Burnside...[A] searching enquiry into a life: bruised, filled with grace and as plangent and haunting as any plainsong
Catherine Lockerbie
Scotsman
Burnside's memoir deserves to become a classic. Has anyone written about the direct experience of mental illness with such scrupulous observation and wit?
Daily Express
A brilliant portrait of isolation... This sophisticated study of the human mind argues for our right "to continue in the pursuit of whole-heartedness. To be not-normal after all"
Fiona Sampson
Independent
Beautifully written and observed memoir ... an affecting book from a writer of manifest talent; a compellingly readable memoir possessed of a genuine spiritual and intellectual depth
Adam O'Riordan
Sunday Telegraph
This is an extraordinary book and one so honest it scorches
Carlo Gebler
Irish Times
Burnside is an utterly original author
Harry Eyres
Financial Times
The precision and beauty of his language is like a proof of his achievement... a kind of higher sanity
Aida Eiderman
Guardian
[One of the] most lucid and poetic of memoirs
Jane Shilling
Daily Telegraph
Burnside may not find himself convincing, but this complex, considered piece of work certainly is
Doug Johnstone
Independent
Hauntingly written ... a gripping, often humours account of the world of the functioning alcoholic ... stunningly exact prose
Bee Wilson
Sunday Times
Catherine Lockerbie
Scotsman
Burnside's memoir deserves to become a classic. Has anyone written about the direct experience of mental illness with such scrupulous observation and wit?
Daily Express
A brilliant portrait of isolation... This sophisticated study of the human mind argues for our right "to continue in the pursuit of whole-heartedness. To be not-normal after all"
Fiona Sampson
Independent
Beautifully written and observed memoir ... an affecting book from a writer of manifest talent; a compellingly readable memoir possessed of a genuine spiritual and intellectual depth
Adam O'Riordan
Sunday Telegraph
This is an extraordinary book and one so honest it scorches
Carlo Gebler
Irish Times
Burnside is an utterly original author
Harry Eyres
Financial Times
The precision and beauty of his language is like a proof of his achievement... a kind of higher sanity
Aida Eiderman
Guardian
[One of the] most lucid and poetic of memoirs
Jane Shilling
Daily Telegraph
Burnside may not find himself convincing, but this complex, considered piece of work certainly is
Doug Johnstone
Independent
Hauntingly written ... a gripping, often humours account of the world of the functioning alcoholic ... stunningly exact prose
Bee Wilson
Sunday Times