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by Don Paterson (Author)
Don Paterson is one of our most acclaimed contemporary poets, possessed of "an infinite sensitivity to the world" (Zadie Smith). But his current standing gives few hints of his hilariously misspent youth. An indifferent student prone to obsessions (with girls at school and . . . origami), Paterson nevertheless made clear early on his immense gift for observation. In Toy Fights, he vividly re-creates the customs of the Scottish working class, from the titular childhood game ("basically twenty minutes of extreme violence without pretext") to the virtues of the sugary sweet known as tablet. When American pop culture arrived, Paterson fell hard for the so-called outlaw sound; by his teens, he was traveling with his father, a Stetson-wearing "country" musician, and becoming guitar-mad himself. A memoir of family, music, and highly inventive profanity, Toy Fights is an unforgettable account of the years we all spend in rehearsal for real life.
Back Jacket
"Toy Fights is a portrait of the poet as . . . Well, that's what's articulated so perfectly by this book: as a potential anything, in the sense of terminal mess-up, unrepentant head-case, autodidact, exceptional and typical product of his place and times. It's wonderful, aggressively wise, and always--especially at its most serious--devastatingly funny."
--Geoff Dyer
"Should you find a better memoir all year than this wonderful book, you'll be very lucky . . . The funniest, most truthful, moving and honest account of a boyhood I have read: witty and dry, profane and brutally hilarious in a laugh-out-loud way, it is full of wincing moments of recognition . . . Instant classic."
--Roger Alton, Daily Mail
"Part treatise, part guidebook, part intimate confessional, this is a book that swan-dives into the filthy waters of growing up and resurfaces clear-eyed, bearing pearls."
--Financial Times
"Already compared to Shuggie Bain, Toy Fights is a story of family, the working class, money, and all the things in between that we do to avoid boredom."
--GQ
"Toy Fights is a work of dazzling craft."
--Times Literary Supplement
"Paterson has an infinite sensitivity to the world."
--Zadie Smith
"One of the greatest poets now writing anywhere."
--Colm Tb匤
"Anyone wanting a quiet book should read elsewhere -- it will make you laugh aloud."
--Observer
"The language crackles . . . This is a poet's memoir . . . Some of the best writing on mental health I have ever read."
--The Times [UK]
"Paterson is arguably Scotland's finest writer at work today; his sense of the absurd is acutely honed, his wisdom hard-won."
--Sunday National
"You'll be lucky if you find a more thought-provoking, hilarious, sardonic and scarily brilliant self-portrait this year."
--Scotsman
"These 360 pages scorch and crackle with the joy of revenge and revelation. Toy Fights is a memoir in a million, yelping with real-life experience, aghast at the ways human beings manipulate each other and screamingly funny about the absurdity of our pretensions. If a finer memoir is published this year, I'll eat my own sporran."
--Sunday Times
"The book is beautifully crafted. The language is precise, balanced and every other sentence has me wondering 'How did he do that?'"
--Irish Times
"Uproarious joy and unbearable pain--Toy Fights is a potent mix, and a memorable read."
--The Tablet
"It is rare to read an autobiography which balances acerbic, almost visceral, anger with moments of genuine tenderness and affection. What makes this stratospherically better than most childhood memoirs is the searing anger about injustice that burns through the book."
--Scotland on Sunday
"It's a searing, raw read, alternatively laugh-out-loud funny, and heartbreakingly painful."
--Herald on Sunday
"A coruscating portrait of his first two decades that simultaneously celebrates, undermines and ruthlessly takes the mick out of the memoir form."
--Mail on Sunday
"A tremendously engaging memoir, seasoned with Don Paterson's customary wit, total recall and love of language. A classic of its kind."
--William Boyd
