Stuart: A Life Backwards
Aug 2011 · HarperCollins UK
4.8star
21 reviewsreport
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304
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About this eBook
‘Stuart does not like the manuscript. He’s after a bestseller, “like what Tom Clancy writes”. “But you are not an assassin trying to frazzle the president with anthrax bombs,” I point out. You are an ex-homeless, ex-junkie psychopath, I do not add.’
This is the story of a remarkable friendship between a reclusive writer (‘a middle-class scum ponce, if you want to be honest about it, Alexander’), and Stuart Shorter, a homeless, knife-wielding thief. Told backwards – Stuart’s idea – it starts with a deeply troubled thirty-two-year-old and ends with a ‘happy-go-lucky little boy’ of twelve. This brilliant biography, winner of the Guardian First Book Award, presents a humbling portrait of homeless life, and is as extraordinary and unexpected as the man it describes.
Ratings and reviews
4.8
21 reviews
Julie Thewlis
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15 August 2015
This book is very good, well written, has humour but also sadness, kept me reading and interested (even though I'd already seen the film). The reason that I'm glad I watched the film first is that I feel the characters were played much more sympathetically in the film than they were written in the book. Alexander in particular sometimes came across as mean spirited towards Stuart in the book and this left a bad taste, I am glad some of his private thoughts towards Stuart were left out of the film.
1 person found this review helpful
Sarah Smith
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24 October 2015
I love this book. Just finished it and as much as it's left me feeling desperately sad for Stuart, it has made me much more aware of how homelessness and mental health are dealt with by 'the system'. A powerful insight in to how people end up the way they do, and how childhood events can make or break a personality. Brilliant character development and story-telling - kudos to Stuart for suggesting the book be written 'backwards', and a murder mystery. Want to see the film now!
2 people found this review helpful
A Google user
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14 August 2012
One of the most searing portraits of social exclusion I've come across, but not a bleeding heart excuse fest at the same time. Stuart is portrayed as human and comprehensible, and dignified in choosing his own way. The fact that that was not the way society approved of is by the bye; this is a really good book.
About the author
Alexander Masters lives in London. His second book, ‘The Genius in My Basement’, was published in 2011.
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