Will Carter's review of This Sporting Life (original) (raw)

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Will Carter's Reviews > This Sporting Life

This Sporting Life by David Storey

This Sporting Life
by

66230050

A confusing but not entirely unenjoyable read. David Storey's novel based on a Rugby League player living in an anonymous Northern town is beautifully detailed throughout and isn't afraid to give you a warts and all depiction of life in the North of England in the early sixties. His descriptions of the Rugby matches in particular are brilliantly on point and at times you could almost feel the aches and pains of the players as they battled their way through another mud soaked war.

However, the novel is also confusing in that it's main antagonist and narrator, Arthur Machin, is constantly seen as a villain by those around him but with no real apparent motive. Everyone he seems to care about evidently hates him even though from what we're shown throughout the book, he does very little to provoke such emotions. His relationship with Mrs. Hammond (his landlady) is particularly harrowing as we see him win her trust only to be flung to the curb against his will and to the detriment of both their lives with no real reason.

Whether or not this is a simply an example of how society has changed in the 60 or so years since the book was written, or simply that the book comes from the point of view of an unreliable narrator, I can't be sure, but reading with my 21st century ideals left me completely baffled as to what many of the issues even were, let alone why people were willing to ruin their lives for such seemingly arbitrary reasons.

All in all The Sporting Life is a good, if somewhat grubby coming of age story which encourages you to immerse yourself in the grime of the characters lives. At times the book does feel a little aimless and the odd behavioural swings some of the characters exhibit as well as the abrupt ending does make it feel a little bit slapdash in places but this is made up for by the vivid descriptive passages and some moments of well crafted dialogue. A good window into a world that barely exists anymore.

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Reading Progress

May 13, 2021 –Started Reading

May 23, 2021 –Finished Reading

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