Really enjoyed Black Swan Green, I find 'proper' literature a bit of a slog these days, but it purred along and I found myself not turning off the light till the early hours. A relief to be honest after A Brief History of Seven Killings which seemed to go on for approximately forever (OK I only finished so I could attempt to obtain some credibility on here, that's why I keep mentioning it, I finished it so you have to hear about it). It did mutate from the eighties references and Adrian Mole-isms into something a lot richer. Captured the merciless atmosphere of the playground near perfectly with the 101 things a teenage boy must avoid so not to be labelled 'gay', and the terrors of a speech impediment where every conversation is a precipitous downhill littered with the rotten stumps of bad-words. That lovely fear of being made to read something out loud and knowing that you can't deploy the usual circumlocutions and verbal dodges, and the few teachers who gave a damn, the others who figured humiliation might prove a miracle cure, and the final bunch who got a kick, because they're what bullies grow up into.
Admittedly, it skipped over the playground trade in copies of Knave and Fiesta liberated from various fathers' bottom drawer viewing material collections. I suppose the internet has killed that like it did hedgerow delights.
