The Grass Arena
An Autobiography
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
John Healy's The Grass Arena describes with unflinching honesty his experiences of addiction, his escape through learning to play chess in prison, and his ongoing search for peace of mind.
In his searing autobiography Healy describes his fifteen years living rough in London without state aid, when begging carried an automatic three-year prison sentence and vagrant alcoholics prowled the parks and streets in search of drink or prey. When not united in their common aim of acquiring alcohol, winos sometimes murdered one another over prostitutes or a bottle, or the begging of money. Few modern writers have managed to match Healy's power to refine from the brutal destructive condition of the chronic alcoholic a story so compelling it is beyond comparison.
'Sober and precise, grotesque, violent, sad, charming and hilarious all at once'
Literary Review
'Beside it, a book like Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London seems a rather inaccurate tourist guide'
Colin MacCabe
Customer Reviews
The Grass Arena
An extraordinary account of alcoholism where the author allows the reader to descend into the inner workings of life without education, employment, family, or vague aspiration....where drink is the primary driver to substantiate existence in our world of expectation! Written candidly in a street or underworld style, characters who would otherwise remain or fade anonymously are exposed and presented in graphic, often disparaging detail...giving story and personality to the drunks who become Healy's cast. If this book was a song, the bridge would be his transition from drink to chess...an unfathomable outcome considering the depths of his alcoholic quagmire.....inspirational to say the least!