David Peace (1) (1967–)

An impressionistic and even poetic account of a doomed man, it seems a bit strange to say - given the high esteem it is held in - that it read to me as a practice run (albeit quite a good one) for Peace's actual masterpiece, [b:Red or Dead|17846988|Red or Dead|David Peace|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1374078939s/17846988.jpg|24978328]. The repetitive style Peace used in this novel was developed and extended even so much farther in that novel, which of course exchanged one football manager for another. Meanwhile, Red or Dead has the advantage of a likeable central character and genteel, restrained drama; The Damned Utd has a difficult protagonist and flaunts its drama, showering it in booze and self-destructiveness.

Together (or separately) the two books are a fascinating education about English football in the late sixties and early seventies when it was a nativist working class arena, much grimier and shadier than the flashy, cosmopolitan, and professional set up nowadays. Totally bizarre to see a First Division/Premier League table with the likes of Carlisle United and Ipswich Town, mere English minnows today with no hope of competing against large urban clubs owned by the wealth of Russian oligarchs and Gulf sheiks, up at the top.… (more)

Bill Shankly was a man worth getting to know, and this novel gives one the best possible feel for him that I can imagine a book giving. His drive, his ambition, his love for his fellow man, his obsession with the game to the unfortunate neglect of other parts of life, his difficult transition into retirement, his neediness and his generosity. Brilliant.

In his room, his hotel room. Not in his bed, his hotel bed. Bill paced and Bill paced. Bill thinking and Bill thinking. Bill knew failure could become habitual, defeat become routine. Routine and familiar. Familiar and accepted. Accepted and permanent. Permanent and imprisoning. Imprisoning and suffocating. Bill knew failure carried chains. Chains to bind you. You and your dreams. To bind you and your dreams alive. Bill knew defeat carried spades. Spades to bury you. Your and your hopes. To bury you and your hopes alive. Bill knew you had to fight against failure. With every bone in your body. Bill knew you had to struggle against defeat. With every drop of your blood. You had to fight against failure, you had to struggle against defeat. For your dreams and for your hopes. For you and for the people. To fight and to struggle. For the dreams of the people,
for the hopes of the people.

… (more)