Product Description

Nineteen-year-old Millie O'Reilley is, clever, spiky and adored by men - yet utterly forlorn. Even though she has the devotion of her professor father, Jerry, and the respect of the hard-knocks in South Liverpool, Millie feels a sense of growing alienation.

Increasingly disillusioned with her University course and fellow students, she seeks an escape in the underbelly of Liverpool's Cathedral area - home to crackheads, pimps, pushers and, most intriguing to Millie, whores. And when an encounter with a world weary prostitute turns into an after hours odyssey of drink fuelled self-abuse it, ultimately, leads Millie toward questioning who she is and what she wants to get out of life.

Shockingly candid, brutally poetic, Helen Walsh has created a portrait of a city and a generation that offers a female perspective on the harsh truth of growing up in today's Britain. Brass is an unsettling but ultimately compassionate account of the possibilities of identity and the desirability of love.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #40102 in Books
• Published on: 2005-05-05
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Arena
The female Irvine Welsh.

Synopsis
Nineteen-year-old Millie O'Reilley is clever, spiky and adored by men - yet utterly forlorn. Increasingly disillusioned, she seeks an escape in the underbelly of Liverpool...Shockingly candid and brutally poetic, Helen Walsh has created a portrait of a city and a generation that offers a female perspective on the harsh truth of growing up in today's Britain. Brass is an unsettling but ultimately compassionate account of the possibilities of identity and the desirability of love.

About the Author
HELEN WALSH was born in Warrington in 1977 and moved to Barcelona at the age of sixteen. Working as a fixer in the red light district, she saved enough money to put herself through language school. Burnt out and broke, she returned to England a year later and now works with socially excluded teenagers in North Liverpool. Brass is her first novel.

Customer Reviews

Shocking but accurate?
Having recently enjoyed Somewhere in England I rushed out to buy Brass.
This was an excellent read, shocking but addictive.
The book centres on Millie a 21 year old student in Liverpool who does her best to while away her time and grant money on drugs, alcohol and sex.
Clearly her past has affected her diliquent behaviour, her mother walked out on Millie and her father years before. In similar vain as SIE, Millie`s wild side is well hidden from her father who works as a lecturer at the university.
Its another compelling read with a good narrative, that opens an insight into the life of an 80s rave child. For those who have not been part of this scene its a real eye opener.
Buy but prepare to be shocked, certainly not for the faint hearted.

Savage
I thought I was unshockable.... but then I read 'Brass' and realised I am not, thank god.
Helen Walsh's novel is raw, savage and unputdownable. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

Middle Class out of towner slums it
Walshs book purports to chart the journey into self awareness of Millie O'Reilley a 19 year old middle class bisexual girl as she licks, sucks and snorts her way around several name checked circles of Dantes Inferno all of which appear to be conveniently located within easy walking distance of Liverpools Anglican Cathedral.

The novel is neither plot nor character driven and the sole interest after page 5 is to understand the trauma which has led the irredeemably unattractive central character to behave in this destructive fashion.

Having finished the book we are no wiser - the ending is banal and intellectually insulting. It would seem that Walsh had written the requisite number of words to make a novel of the correct thickness and had to decide between the ending she used and the default ending usually deployed by bored nine year olds who wish to go out and play ie "... and then I awoke and it had all been a dream." - the latter would actually have been preferable.

This is an appalling book and I am amazed that anyone has seen fit to publish it.

Walsh who I suspect will very much turn out to be a one trick pony has been quoted on her publishers website as saying that she can't believe that she's actually getting away with it.

Quite frankly neither can I