Kind of Loving

One of the great books of the early 1960s that breathed new life into novels through earthy, gritty realism and made the north of England fahionable. Barstow sought to challenge what he perceived as the stuffy and stifling mores of the working class, especially with regard to sexuality and attitudes towards marriage. The main character, Vic Brown, is a typical 'angry young man', a restless, hedonistic, intelligent, working class anti-hero who takes no prisoners in his battle to escape the social chains that fetter him. Sadly, Barstow never wrote anything better, but it stands testimony to the great social changes that began in the late 1950s and early 1960s.