But The Right Book? (The Wrong Boy - Willy Russell)

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Product:	The Wrong Boy - Willy Russell
Date:	01/02/02 (12 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Funny , Original

Disadvantages: Longwinded?

Having lived in Liverpool for almost seven years, I thought it was about time I read some Willy Russell.

Raymond James Marks is a somber, strange character that feels that only his Gran and Morrissey understand him.

The book takes the form of number of letters to Mr. Morrissey as our hero embarks on an epic journey to Grimsby. I kid you not, Grimsby lies at the very epicenter of this charmingly bizarre tale.

It soon becomes clear that all is not well with our young Raymond.

Russell introduces us to a number of colourful characters along the way.

We see why Raymond was expelled from junior school, what was the real story behind Star Wars and a Transvestite Nativity Play Scandal.

Russell includes a number of nostalgic touches such as ‘Blockbusters’ that made me, myself firmly rooted in the 80’s glow with happiness. I may have been a teenager in the 90’s, but the 80’s were a glorious epic of fun for me.

The relationship between Raymond and his Mam Sheelagh is startlingly fragile and touchingly done. We feel both their pain as they struggle to understand each other.

Russell uses dialect to get a warm familial touch. We have met these people. Every town has a Raymond James Marks, I pass him in the street and I look at my shoes to avoid eye contact with him when I see him and his Mam outside Kwik Save with the weekly shopping.

There are two people who shine in this book and sadly, Raymond isn’t one of them.

Raymond’s Gran is a serious old coot who dishes out the sharp side of her tongue and platitudes in equal measures. She adores her grandson, and as a grandchild who worshipped my own grandparents, I find comfort in their close relationship. She has a heart of gold. She revels in the morbid and profound, hating both frivolity and her late husband.

Raymond’s friend Twinky Mc Devitt is a camp legend waiting to be discovered by
late night Channel Four. He does pirouettes in the supermarket aisles and upstages girls with the flutter of an eyelash. I really would have liked this character to be developed further, especially in his strange friendship with the Neanderthal Norman Gorman.

This is a very humourous book , brimming with wry observations, but became a little tiresome towards the end. I found myself wishing that Raymond would simply ‘Cop on’. The ending is predictable in my eyes, but it is still well worth spending a few hours with. Recommended.

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