About this Event
John Niven’s little brother Gary was fearless, popular, stubborn, handsome, hilarious and sometimes terrifying. In 2010, after years of chaotic struggle against the world, he took his own life at the age of 42.
Hoping for the best while often witnessing the worst, John, his younger sister Linda and their mother, Jeanette, saw the darkest fears they had for Gary played out in drug deals, Pr*son and bankruptcy. While his life spiralled downward and the love the Nivens’ shared was tested to its limit, John drifted into his own trouble in the music industry, a world where excess was often a marker of success.
Tracking the lives of two brothers in changing times – from illicit cans of lager in 70s sitting rooms to ecstasy in 90s raves – O Brother is a tender, affecting and often uproariously funny story. It is about the bonds of family and how we try to keep the finest of those we lose alive. It is about black sheep and what it takes to break the ties that bind. Fundamentally it is about how families survive suicide, ‘that last cry, from the saddest outpost.’
John Niven is well-known for his fiction, but his memoir offers a new side to him: open and vulnerable, honest about his grief and often self-questioning, yet laced throughout with his trademark dark humour.
Packed with reminiscences of growing up throughout the 1970 and 1980s, the culture, the music and the changes society has experienced are all perfectly – and often hilariously – sketched.
We are thrilled that John will be in conversation with friend of Walthamstow Rock 'n' Roll Book Club, author, artist and broadcaster - SIAN PATTENDEN. Audience questions, book signing and music from our DJs in Walthamstow's funkiest and cheapest bar.
PRAISE FOR O BROTHER
“Oh my God, this book! O Brother feels like war-level reportage from the nuclear-blast that suicide inflicts on a family. The honesty is unflinching, the humour night-black, and yet the sheer energy and power of the writing means you can, as I did, inhale it in just two sittings. A book whose genuine importance is only equaled by its sheer, visceral, compulsive readability.” - CAITLIN MORAN
“Absurdly well-written, painfully funny and painfully painful.” - ADAM KAY
“O Brother is an extraordinary memoir; as devastating as it is colourful, forensic in its examination of family dynamics and oh so beautifully written. I earmarked so many pages that my copy doubled in width. Do not read the final chapter without a box of tissues” - JOJO MOYES
“Heartbreaking and heartwarming” - WILL YOUNG
“This is a work of scalding honesty and candour which explores the devastating impact of suicide on a family . . . An act of remembrance and a testimony to his brother [. . .]. Transcendent power and anguish, shot through with brilliant humour and insight. I couldn’t put it down” - SALI HUGHES
Praise for John Niven:
“Niven can provoke tears of sorrow as well as laughter” - Sunday Telegraph
“A writer who could wring laughs out of pretty much anything” - The Times
“Probably the most exciting British writer working today” - DANNY WALLACE
“It's impossible to read [Niven] without laughing out loud one second, then feeling guiltily exhilarated the next” - MARINA HYDE
“Makes me ill with laughter’ - INDIA KNIGHT
“Niven's writing is so buzzy and fresh, it's still wet on the page” - Evening Standard
“Niven never, ever pulls a punch” - RUPERT THOMPSON
“Properly funny. Always worth reading” - SAM LEITH
“Niven is genuinely, brilliantly warm and funny and wise about men and women” - STUART MACONIE
“Niven's novels are both funny and horrible. Like a clown car made of human heads” - DAVID QUANTICK
“Niven's plotting is deft and precise” - Independent on Sunday
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Walthamstow Trades Hall, 61-63 Tower Hamlets Road, London, United Kingdom
GBP 6.00 to GBP 25.00