Whilst in Ireland last weekend I read ‘The Grass Arena’ by John Healy. I’d spotted a review of the book, republished by Penguin Classics, whilst bouncing around in the turbulence of a flight whilst on a previous visit to the Emerald Isle.
You can read that review in the Guardian here. It grabbed me as an inspirational tale of a man who had his life turned around in a heartbeat and something that I should definitely read. Take two minutes to read the review and I reckon you’ll be as intrigued to read the book as much as I was.
I think I have a somewhat addictive personality. Most would probably call it mild OCD. But I can’t imagine what John Healy’s life must have been like as a desperate alcholic saved from likely destruction by chess. But switching one addiction for another certainly saved his life.
The writing style struck me as odd at first…disjointed, scattered and random. On reflection it makes sense to me. His life experiences faced fighting his corner in The Grass Arena were exactly that…disjointed as he lurched from stupor to stupor, randomly trying to find a way to get the next bottle and I’m sure scattered recollection of those times as he wrote the book.
It’s powerful stuff and you can’t help but be incredibly drawn into his life. Only a first person perspective on that kind of existence could drive home how difficult it must be and it makes for a book that is rightly being hailed as a modern classic in some quarters. I’m no book critic, but John Healy deserves recognition for it in some way.
I now have a totally different perspective on those who’s lives are blighted by alcohol. As I walk up and down Oxford Road in Manchester there is a very real Grass Arena just yards from the pavement. I’m now far more conscious of the tell tale signs of these life struggles…the stash of alcohol hidden in the bushes or the rolled up sleeping back under the MMU window ledge.
As I walked through St Peters Square yesterday, there were three guys sat on the library steps, 2 litre bottles of white star in their hands. Their compadre was stood about 15 feet from them, completely dishevelled, wavering in the sunlight, eyes glazed as the intoxicant took hold.
What raced through my mind were the immediates of the situation. Where does he sleep, how does he fund his addiction and where does the support come from? It’s an unbelievably fragile existence and those three compadres sat 15 feet behind him may well be his main crutch…and there’s a peculiar honour amongst equals, it seems, in these alcoholic circles.
And yet, that fragile honour that helps them survive can ultimately be their downfall. Again, on Oxford Road I’ve seen guys fighting over nothing…just outside the Grass Arena…and we have to avoid it…yet those two guys may be one step from their last.But there is little we can do to stop it or help them. It’s desperately sad.
Anyway, I don’t know a great deal about that world, let alone how to really help those guys. But I understand it a little more and maybe I’ll be more tolerant of it now.
When you’re next in the book shop…seek out The Grass Arena and join me in that raised tolerance.
-pc.
An example of one of the many things we should never be judgemental about and yet at the same time, be thankful that we don’t have to endure their daily struggle just to survive.
Read the Guardian review – its one thing to have rebabbed to the point of bringing new focus to your life; its quite another to have gone on to be published and recognised as somebody with something of real value to others. It is heartrending to live in a society where a ‘memo’ can cut off the legitimate income of somebody who then goes into obscurity for 20 year. Its outrageous to then have the establishment re-pick you up as a modern classic. Fate can be extraordinarily capricious.
Humbling – reckon I don’t know I am born. N
Paul – that’s a lovely piece on your encounter with the Grass Arena -the book and the Manchester venue. as you read in the Guardian – the book had a massive impact on me – we are holding an event in London for John and the book, he’s going to do a reading and signing and there will be some other stuff going on. If you or any other Grass Arena fans would like to come please email me at erwin.james@guardian.co.uk.
With all good wishes
Erwin