Gordon Burn in general

Born Yesterday: The News as a Novel - Gordon Burn

one rejected the text as not good enough. Clearly it s being known and connected and not talent that gets books noticed and published these days and its authors like Gordon Burn who benefit from that lazy ignorance. If this guy is one of Britain s best writers then I m William Shakespeare! The dust-cover describes this book as the news as a novel , the author Gordon Burn attempting to weave major factual events from the British summer of 2007 into the loosest of stories - and with no identifiable characters or narrative in the book it s a tough read let me tell you. I only stuck with it as it did cough up some intriguing facts and figures, especially on the McCann s ...

Somebody's Husband, Somebody's Son - Gordon Burn

is Sutcliffe's story. Yet, it is not really a 'true crime' book, since Sutcliffe's murders and attempted murders barely merit a mention. The stated aim of the book, which author Gordon Burns wrote over two years, is to "establish the truth about Peter Sutcliffe and the events surrounding his life". Hence, instead of dwelling on all that was abnormal about Sutcliffe, it centres on everything that was NORMAL. Partciularly (as is suggested by the title) that this feared and abhorred man had a large, unsuspecting family with whom he continued to interract throughout his criminal career. The book is divided into three sections. The first, ...

Somebody's Husband, Somebody's Son - Gordon Burn

and people involved in the murders and, to a lesser extent, the how and where they were carried out. However, I was disappointed by the amount of ‘hindsight’ which Gordon Burn chose to include in his re-examination of the 1980’s most notorious murders. The reader is treated to page after page of detail relating to Peter Sutcliffe’s ‘matrimonial problems’; his wife Sonia’s mental health problems are examined; it gives details of what the Sutcliffe family thought about their son’s choice of spouse, how each of them related or otherwise to their ‘stuck-up’ in-law. One instance that demonstrates the type ...