By Kevin Duffy • Published 5th September 2012
Pig Iron by Benjamin Myers was published at the end of May and has had a great response from critics and readers alike. For an outline of the story see our previous post below. Here’s a flavour of some of the write ups the book has received:
Myers’s poetic vernacular brims with that quality most sadly lost in the Thatcher years – humanity.
Cathi Unsworth in The Guardian
This is yet another singular portrait of an outsider from Myers. And delivered through authentic characterisation, a monstrously compelling plot, and frequent humour – a rare combination of such successfully crafted elements – Pig Iron deserves to find itself on many a reading list, if not the National Curriculum.
Declan Tan for 3:AM Magazine
Benjamin Myers’s influences are clear — David Peace’s northern brutalism is evident and there are suggestions of Salinger and Golding but Pig Iron’s savage vision is his alone. Pig Iron is an utterly compelling book because the twin desolations of blighted sink estate culture and the emotional alienation of the main character are evoked unrelentingly and the grim conclusion is almost inevitable.
Steve Ely for Morning Star
