J. Trigell, Boy A

This book, which I acquired through Library Things Early Reviewer scheme, is the first piece of fiction I have reviewed here.

It is interesting how I always reckon back-matter misses the point entirely. I quote "... he's a victim of the system and of media-driven hysteria." I suppose he is, but that is not what I got out of it at all. But more of what I thought it was about later.

The story is of a chap, y-clepped Boy A, or by his assumed name "Jack". Jack is like one of the Bulger murderers, he and another boy committed a horrific crime, which is slowly unveiled. The story starts with him on his first day out of an institution since he was a child, he is now 24. It follows him as he tries to negotiate life anew, friends, clubbing, mobile phones, sex etc.

The world through the eyes of, what is essentially, an innocent would make the story interesting enough, but what I think this book is really about is the old, old trope. Good people do bad, bad things.

I have been known to get quite intense defending, for instance, Hitler. Hitler was not a monster, he was not some cartoon villain who woke up everyday and rubbed his hands at the thought of some evil. That for me is the scariest thing. Hitler kept pets, had friends, relationships, ambitions, dreams, failings, strengths. Anyone I know could be the next Hitler, many people perhaps would be, in the right circumstances.

So back to Boy A, all through the book one routes for a man who is, by popular definition, a monster. It is a very similar feeling to being sad because things don't work out for the Nazi's in Downfall. Of course Boy A is not a hitler, he is just a bloke who did something terrible, or is accused of doing something terrible. All the way through the book you want him to not really have done it, to be wrongly accused.

It is, sadly, not the case.

So it made me interrogate myself, what do I think about, say, the Bulger killers, what about Myra Hindley? What is the relationship between the man and the crime? Who is a monster?