Writers and Politics by Conor Cruise O'Brien

Author:Conor Cruise O'Brien [O'Brien, Conor Cruise]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780571324262
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Published: 2014-06-11T04:00:00+00:00

QUEER WORLD

Brendan Behan was arrested in Liverpool late in 1939, at the age of sixteen, for participating in the IRA bombing campaign in England. After two months or so on remand in Walton Prison he was sentenced to three years Borstal detention. The judge at his trial expressed regret at being prevented, by the law and Behan’s age, from sentencing him to fourteen years penal servitude. He thought that the law should make allowances for people like Behan, and he did not mean indulgent allowances.

Borstal Boy is the story of Behan’s time, first in Walton Prison and then in Hollesley Bay Borstal. Mr. Behan is a violent but fair-minded man and, as might be expected, he has written a very good book in very good bad language. Borstal Boy is free from bitterness and self-pity, and free also from any affectation of objectivity. He has some old scores to pay off and he pays them gaily. The prison doctor:

Afterwards I heard the screws talk about the doctor and what a good man he was, and overworked, and he did go round looking like Lionel Barrymore, and sighing like the doctor in The Citadel, but I never heard of him actually doing anything for anyone. The prisoners said that he gave a man two aspirins for a broken leg, but that it was not really viciousness, only stupidity, and anyway, if he wasn’t a prison doctor he’d have to go in the Forces.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.