Product Description

A funny, touching, sometimes alarming account of male friendship and the rivalries that drive men apart. Separated from his wife, Barney reunites his childhood friends for a game of dare - at stake, a jade statuette worth 750,000 pounds according to Barney. As the game goes on, weaknesses are exposed and childhood traumas relived. Suspenseful, gripping and intelligently crafted, LITTLE GREEN MAN explores the darker side of men and their relationships.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #561723 in Books
• Published on: 2002-03
• Format: Large Print
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 324 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Little Green Man, Simon Armitage's first novel, draws on the author's gritty Yorkshire upbringing to produce a vivid story of childhood nostalgia and adult disillusionment. Armitage's protagonist is the feckless Barney, thirtysomething, divorced, and alienated from his autistic son. His only passion are his mates, "the old friends, the ones you were brought up with, who go further back than you remember, who've been there since the beginning. You didn't choose them--they're like family. Like blood." When Barney unearths what turns out to be a priceless relic from his childhood days--the "little green man" of the novel's title--he gets back in touch with his old gang: Winkie, Pompus, Stubbs and Tony Football. Desperate to "turn back the clock" and relive their childhood escapades, Barney proposes a game of truth or dare. Each member of the gang "dares" another. Failure to complete a dare leads to disqualification. The winner walks away with the priceless little green man. As the stakes get higher, friendships begin to dissolve as hairy women are seduced, sheep are slaughtered and excrement eaten. In the process the gang reveal some of their deepest secrets, from abuse to impotence, and as the game begins to get out of hand, Barney himself has to confront the responsibilities of adulthood. The problem is that the novel's brutally frank portrayal of both Barney and his gang is so convincing that it becomes difficult to feel any sympathy for anyone. Little Green Man is a tough, uncompromising debut novel, but many fans of Armitage may feel it lacks the originality of his highly acclaimed poetry. --Jerry Brotton

Customer Reviews

The Playful Poet and the Nonreliable Narrator
It was bad news for admirers of Armitage's poetry when he broke the news that he wasn't going to be writing a poetic first novel. Even more distressing, for women at any rate, was when we discovered that we're not talking about just the one little green man here, but a full cast of immature, sour and downright decaying male characters. And the cover picture is a blatant hazard warning of embarrassing nineteen seventies childhood nostalgia ahead. How could that nice Simon Armitage do this to us?

I'd say give it a go. The novel opens with an exquisitely atmospheric prologue, worth the cover price alone for any poetry fan, before we come down from the attic straight into prosy blokeland. Armitage then quickly starts to draw his audience into a risky game of his own to parallel that in the plot.

The man telling the story, Barney, seems like a nice enough guy, thirty-odd, Northern, a bit like Armitage himself really. Ha. One by one, our assumptions about Barney are deftly slid from under our feet. Maybe he's not quite so nice after all, his laddishness more destructive than charming. Maybe his ex-wife can give us more insight in a casual remark than Barney can muster in a whole book. (And maybe we would be wise not to take Barney's word for it on her iciness . . .) But then, maybe he's had a harder time of it than we first realised. Maybe he's starting to learn from his mistakes and grow up at last. It's when we find out that the git hasn't only been lying to his mates, he's been lying to us too, and yet we're still hoping for his redemption, that we grasp the subtlety of Armitage's achievement.

I could still have done with a bit less of the spangles and curly wurlies though . . .

Friendships at a cost
An interesting book which I wasn't sure about from the start as I thought it may have been more of a 'boy's' book. However I quickly got into it. Basically Barney gets his old school friends together for a few games of football and dares; as in the old days. This time though the little green man is worth substantial sums of money rather than just the pride of winning a dare.

It's difficult to review this book without giving too much away (namely the end third!). The characters are great - they are just your average kids whom are now adults. It shows how their lives have changed (not always for the better) and I liked the representation of Barney's autistic son. The plot itself is simple but with some outstanding twists.

Having enjoyed reading and teaching Armitage's poetry I enjoyed delving between the covers of his prose. It is the same writing style, which I was pleased with and the reference to childhood sweets memories as a coping mechanism was unique.

A pleasurable and relatively quick read for me, this will have a different meaning the next time I read it. Although I'm passing on the book to others I'm sure it'll come back round to me at some point. The ending for me (unlike some other reviewers) was not disappointing, I felt it actually concluded the novel in a very satisfactory way. Plenty of morals, plenty of sub-plots and plenty of fantastically written narrative.

Couldn't put it down - wish I had
Bit of a conundrum this. I became more addicted to this book than any I have read for a long time. But at the same time I found in the end that it was a dissapointing experience.

The main theme of the book is a great one, and that was the hook for me. Just how low were the characters going to go and what would they do to each other next. But the characters themselves were never explored in much depth. Armitage being clever with the theme of exploration through their nicknames but nothing else led to little which you could latch on to.

The constantly shifting style also became irritating. At times this almost came across more as a series of linked prose poems than a novel. With different approaches and subjects being tried every chapter. The fire chapter is a classic example, and does start in a way which is very similar to Armitage's Book of Matches collection.

All other reviewers so far have commented on the ending. I was also dissapointed with the pace that it was delivered. Almost as if the author had run out of time or energy or both and banged away at the last few chapters when more depth would have rounded this off nicely.

I don't know, perhaps I'm just geting too old fashioned and should take on board the modern, minimal style of this book. But it just left me cold.