an odd boy: volume one

Could I have approached a book with more trepidation? From a publishing house that seems to specialise in faux-Buddhist philosophy, I expected to be lectured at for three hundred odd pages, but the autobiographical account of the eponymous odd boy was charming.[return][return]Set in the south of England in the late fifties and early sixties, an odd boy describes the journey from childhood to adolescence of a boy that's different from all of his peers and will strike a chord with anyone who has felt like they didn't belong. Told through his twin obsessions of blues music and art, it describes a cold upbringing tempered by the friends and delta blues musicians who became his real family.[return][return]It's far from perfect, however, the author seems to obsess about explaining every minute detail through a use of footnotes that the late Flann O'Brien savaged in The Third Policeman. Nothing is left to the reader, with the narrative rudely interrupted to explain such esoterica as the BBC or skiffle. We have Wikipedia, we don't need to understand every detail.[return][return]But apart from that, the first volume in what I suspect will be a long series is an interesting, if light, diversion. Perfect for lying on a rock beach during the Easter heatwave.[return][return]http://bit.ly/hg8sB6