Stalin Ate My Homework

I loved this book. Like (my memories of) Sayle's comedy routines, it takes some unusual routes to explain growing up in Liverpool's Anfield. It made me laugh out loud. Having spent some time in Liverpool some of the comments (hard hippies) made me nod in recognition, and his memories of being a child amongst adults are fascinating. I loved his willingness to mock himself, too. Accounts of trips across Europe and being an angsty teenager in pubs pursued by (more popular) parents were highlights for me.

I finally got around to reading the first part of Alexei's autobiography.

I found it more interesting than I thought it would be. Alexei is a gifted storyteller and makes even unfunny things funny.

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1809011.html

I don't think I'd read anything by Sayle before; I remember him from the 1980s as the landlord in The Young Ones and also memorably playing a radio disc-jockey in a funeral home which turns out to be run by Daleks, but I'm not sure I was even all that familiar with his standup routines. In this book he recounts the story of his childhood and adolescence as the sole offspring of two Communist Party activists in Liverpool, the standard stories of growing up as a smart kid in a tough-ish neighbourhood interspersed with trips to Hungary and Czechoslovakia where they were feted by cabinet ministers. There are a few laugh-out-loud moments, but mostly it is a wryly affectionate account, vividly show more depicting the strengths and weaknesses of each of the family members.

Of course, for those in their 20s and below, the idea of people actually dedicating themselves to a revolution to bring about Communism and rule from Moscow in Liverpool must seem vanishingly farfetched. (Sayle as a dissident teenager later attached himself to the followers of Mao and Enver Hoxha.) It's a fascinating reminder of a part of the political landscape which has been utterly (and, to be honest, rightly) buried by history. show less

Having parents who took me to 1980s Poland (just before martial law was declared in 1981!) and Czechoslovakia in 1982 this brought back many memories. Particularly the tour of the Heydrich assasination sites in Prague, although I found it more interesting than young Alexei...

My parents were not hard-core British Communist Party members, and this aspect of Alexei's upbringing I found particularly interesting, especially their responses to Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968.

The book is slow in a number of places and I found the last 40 or so pages less interesting than the earlier ones, however this account of 1960s and 70s Britain reflects accurately some of the conflict and dogma that dominated the politics of the period.


Some show more non UK readers will find aspects less easy to follow, but UK readers should find some resonances with their lives in the 60s and 70s. show less

I finally got around to reading the first part of Alexei's autobiography.

(You can read my review of the second part, Thatcher Stole My Trousers, here https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2196567171?book_show_action=false&from... ).

I found it more interesting than I thought it would be. Alexei is a gifted storyteller and makes even unfunny things funny.

Pleasant, witty, self-deprecating memoir of a childhood unimaginable today.