Happy Like Murderers

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La narrativa es muy buena, se nos brindan fechas, lugares y descripciones necesarias para ponernos en contexto y entender la mentalidad de la época. Tal vez podría quejarme un poco de la mala costumbre del autor de repetir algunas frases cada ciertas páginas, pero la verdad es que esto no desluce en nada su forma de narrar y el tremendo trabajo de investigación que realizó para escribir esta obra. Creo, muy seriamente, que este libro en las manos equivocadas podría crear desgracias, pues a través de la muy detallada narrativa de los horrores de Cromwell Street lo lleva a uno a entender las entrañas del mal, a pensar como lo hicieron aquellos responsables de cosas horrorosas, a tener esas imágenes e ideas en la cabeza. Violence was written into the Wests’ concept of sex – and even of affection – from the beginning. Rose’s father, Bill, began forcing himself on her when she was 13; at one point, he was invited into the ménage at Cromwell Street, and began having sex with Rose’s daughters, using them as he wished, with Fred and Rose’s blessing. Their own sexual life had the essential quality of pornography: the more they acted out their fantasies, the more dissatisfied they became. One of the saddest and most moving murder cases is that of Keith Bennett. Known to be one of the victims of the Moors Murderers, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, the pair never shared the location of his body. They murdered five children in total, three found on Saddleworth Moor in shallow graves and the other in their home. Keith’s body has still not been recovered, and in Staff’s book The Lost Boy, he puts forward a case for where the body might be. Terribly sad but powerfully compelling, this is another book true crime lovers will need in their collection. Es un libro que no recomendaría a cualquier lector, solo a los que están realmente interesados en este tipo de casos y tienen algo de experiencia leyendo sobre estos temas. Si van a leer solo por morbo, perderán su tiempo, pues el autor está muy bien documentado, el nivel de detalles que entrega es elevado y podría parecer repetitivo por momentos.

Top true crime books of the 21st century | Crime

There are different types of true crime books. There are the true crime penny-dreadfuls ( Body Dump, Whatever Mother Wants). And there is solid dependable true crime journalism ( The Man with the Candy, Two of a Kind, Columbine). Then there are the personalised accounts by the lawyers involved - they can be great ( Helter Skelter, Defending Gary.)What seems to lie at the root of the Wests’ violence is an inability to imagine without enacting. The monotony of their secret life is apparent throughout; it is the monotony of pornography – a mechanical, repetitive quality that leads from arousal to a rage of dissatisfaction: The surface, of course, is what community is all about. We go to great lengths to preserve appearances, not only for ourselves, but for others. At one point, Burn offers a meditation on the nature of social existence in West’s home town: Por muy próximo al prisionero que esté el torturador, la distancia entre las realidades físicas de ambos es inmensa. El prisionero padece un dolor abromador, mientras que su verdugo no siente ninguno en absoluto..." And so on. The images are so standard, so monotonous. Yet they are images sanctioned, at some level or other, by the community. Not only sanctioned, but offered out, to men in particular, on a commercial basis. For reasons peculiar to industrial society, sex and violence are wedded in the public imagination, not only at the level of pornography, but also in the standard images we feed ourselves, from television thrillers to advertising. That these images are degrading to women is well-established, but they also degrade men. The equation of sex with violence distorts and inhibits the masculine imagination, ruling out any number of erotic and sensual possibilities and reducing the consumer either to passive voyeur or mere instrument, fascinated and shamed by the desire for unobtainable potency. That Fred, a loner, a watcher, a man obsessed with mechanical power, should become addicted to such fantasies may come as no surprise. But what about his wife? Gordon Burn nos relata con lujo de detalle los terribles acontecimientos ocurridos en la casa de Rose y Fred West, donde fueron hallados los cadáveres de varias mujeres, incluyendo el de Heather, la hija mayor de los West. El autor va más allá de la casa, y nos transporta al pasado de estos asesinos en serie, intentando comprender y encontrar el origen de tanta maldad.

Happy Like Murderers | Faber

However it cannot be said to be the only book about the West you need to read. The key problem is that the actual investigation, arrest and trial are only very briefly examined in the final chapter. And although Burn has avoided speculation, and rightly so in the main, there are some issues where I felt some commentary was necessary. For example, the question of how many more murders, other than the twelve that went to trial, were committed really needed to be mentioned more fully. Similarly the issue of whether or not Rose was party to the murders also warranted remarking on. Books like this shine lights of horror on aspects of society we generally leave to the most hapless social services. Incest families. Throwaway children. Disappearing teenagers. In 1995 I went down to stay with him and Carol in a cottage they rented for a few weeks in Cornwall. He had just finished writing his second novel, Fullalove, and gave me the typescript to read, a potentially hazardous privilege. What if I didn't like it? I loved it, couldn't put it down, stayed up all night reading. I was relieved, chuffed and proud to have a friend who had done something so damn good. As soon as he got up I told him so, but I'm sure he already knew. So what made this book so hard to get through? Although details of the murders are few, there is a lot known about life at 25 Cromwell Road, in the main from the recollections of three of the West's children. For this book, Burn extensively researched and interviewed family, friends and co-workers and has built up a detailed picture of The West's lives - not just the major events but their day-to-day routines over the years. And it is this emerging picture that is so upsetting to read.

Hence a reader who makes it to the end of this book, may be have to cast about for another account to get the complete picture. Now I'm was in this boat, and though I felt I should while the facts from Happy Like Murderers are fresh in the mind, to be honest, reading another book on the Wests was not a prospect I relished. However I did end up making a trip to the local library and skimmed through a couple of tomes to answer some of my questions on the case. Of the several I looked at, I would recommned Colin Wilson's The Corpse Garden (True Crime Library/Forum Press 1998) which is a concise but through account of the facts of the case with some interesting psychological analysis thrown in.

Happy Like Murderers by Gordon Burn | Waterstones

Burns started by writing about the world he knew. He was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, the only child of a mother who worked at Binns, the city's department store, and a father who was a paint-sprayer. He had an outside lavatory, an uncle who kept pigeons and a regular place in the teenage queue for football stars' autographs outside St James's Park. Lifers is a fantastic overview of some of the most well-known serial killers. Author Geoffrey Wansell spent over twenty years up close and personal with many notorious names. A chance to get into the psyche of some of these unforgettable criminals, Wansell brings us a fascinating collection of interviews, first-hand accounts and unexpected insights into the minds of the most feared criminals. It’s also a chance to see how behaviours change once they realise that “life means life”. Happy Like Murderers (2019) - Gordon BurnSo in conclusion, I would recommend this book if you have an interest in the West murders, but with the following reservations - that firstly it's highly upsetting, and secondly will not give you a full view of the case.

Happy Like Murderers | Faber Happy Like Murderers | Faber

Once Upon a True Crime investigates the real-life murders that inspired some of the acclaimed authors’ most famous novels. Lifers (2016) - Geoffrey Wansell Gordon Burn was an English writer born in Newcastle upon Tyne and the author of four novels and several works of non-fiction. Es agotador el enfasis repetitivo que el autor da al aspecto sexual de la pareja. Habla de la niñez de Rosemary West, salta a hablar de las practicas sexuales de la pareja, habla de la niñez de Fred West, salta a hablar de las practicas sexuales de la pareja, habla del modus operandi para atraer victimas, vuelve a saltar para hablar de las practicas sexuales de la pareja. Pero por sobre todas las cosas el autor se encarga que nos quede claro que el apetito sexual de Rosemary West la hace la ama de casa mas puta del condado (no note el mismo enfasis para con Fred West). Having watched the recent drama Appropriate Adult I saw a review for this book. I grew up in Gloucester and had read previous books about Fred and Rose but none of them got under my skin in quite the way this one did. The style that Gordon Burn uses in this book is not conventional but rather mirrors the rambling style of Fred West's speech, moving from the ordinary to the extraordinary in a moment. Parts of the dialogue are repeated through the book giving it emphasis and applying equally to his early life until the end. Durante casi todo el libro se siente un tono monocorde por parte del autor, como si decir "fui a comprar manzanas" sonara igual a "descuartice el cuerpo arrancandole las rodillas". Basicamete leer a Gordon Burn se asemeja a estar encerrado en un salon de clase donde la manera de explicar por parte del profesor es una enorme nube soporifera.La estructura del libro no sigue un hilo coherente, salta de temas una y otra vez, revisita temas ya expuestos hasta el hartazgo, sinceramente leer a Gordon Burn es agotador. Gordon Burn was a unique, brilliant writer ( Somebody's Husband, Somebody's Son, Alma Cogan) and this book takes on the awful, awful story of Fred and Rose West, one of the most ghastly murder cases ever to have happened in England. David Robson writes: I was fortunate to be a friend of Gordon's for nearly 40 years, and as a magazine editor commissioned many pieces from him. He always knew what he wanted to say and how he wanted to say it. Not much editing was required, which was just as well – he didn't take kindly to it. He had a phenomenal eye for telling detail, an acute ear and an unusual ability to get to the truth of a situation. From the start he was clear to the point of truculence about what he was and was not interested in, and over the years he showed such constancy of vision and fixity of purpose that his became a strong and unique voice. He was never middle-of-the-road, and spotted many truths about modern life that others missed.