Ring Road
by Ian Sansom
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Description
A warm, humane, and sharply observed tale of small town life that is by equal turns hilarious and moving. Big Davey Jones is coming home. He's been gone almost 20 years now, but nobody's forgotten him. Davey's a local hero - his miracle birth as the seventh son of a seventh son brought fame to this little town and they've been grateful ever since. But Davey's home town has changed much in the intervening years. The traditional family business like Billy Finlay's Auto-Supplies and Calton's show more Bakery and Tea Rooms have been replaced with 'Exciting New Housing Developments!' and even a nightclub called 'Paradise Lost'. The locals haven't changed much though. Bob Savory, who always had it in him, has made a million with his company Sandwich Classics, and he's branching out now, with an Irish themed restaurant on the ring road. Francie McGinn, the divorced minister at The People's Fellowship, is still trying to convert the town through his Fish-and-Chip Biblical Quiz Nights and his Good Friday Carvery & Gospel Night. And Sammy, the town's best plumber, is depressed as ever and looking for solace at the bottom of the whisky bottle. Clever, touching and, above all, utterly spot-on in its depiction of small town life, Ring Road is confirms Ian Sansom's status as one of our most perceptive authors working today. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
Sansom is so good at illustrating the web of connections in a small town it's almost scary. The humour of the characters and their wacky, bitter, sad, mundane and momentous interactions are wonderful. This is a dense read, but once I got a couple of chapters in I fell in love with the characters and their stories...I was hooked! The use of footnotes was different, but it works for this.
The lenghtiest, meandering, humorous, substantive ramble one might imagine. It read like my brain works. I enjoyed it, but it took awhile to wade through and on occasion, I needed a break. Very similar to the way I feel about my own mind at times.
Got bored, never finished, gave it away.
Loved this quirky book.
Finished January 2007
Finished January 2007
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Author Information
12+ Works 3,423 Members
Ian Sansom is a frequent contributor and critic for the UK, publications The Guantian, Daily Telegraph, London Review of Books, and The Spectator, and a regular broadcaster on BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4. He is the author of nine books, including Paper: An Elegy and the Mobile Library series.
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Ring Road
- Original title
- Ring Road
- Alternate titles
- The Impartial Recorder (USA Edition) (USA Edition); Ring Road : there's no place like home
- Original publication date
- 2004
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 98
- Popularity
- 328,846
- Reviews
- 4
- Rating
- (3.70)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 5
- ASINs
- 2
