Book description
John Healy's The Grass Arena describes with unflinching honesty his experiences of addiction, his escape through learning to play chess in prison, and his ongoing search for peace of mind. This Penguin Classics edition includes an afterword by Colin MacCabe.
In his searing autobiography Healy describes his fifteen years living…
Why read it?
1 author picked The Grass Arena as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
John Healey’s stinging 1988 memoir of 15 years as an alcoholic tramp in London remains the most shocking of all descriptions of the sheer brutality of life on the cold streets of the capital.
A former boxer, Healey was no stranger to violence, but the detached way in which he describes it amongst homeless men (and women) adds a chilling edge to what we don’t see when we walk past a beggar. It was prison that saved Healey – while incarcerated, he carried on writing and discovered he had a talent for chess. But the horror of the dog-eat-dog life…
From Neil's list on The best books ever from the unheard voice of homelessness.
If you love The Grass Arena...
December on 5C4
Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!
On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…
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