Stalin ate my Homework

I think that this is my first book review on 'Shark Fishing in Wales' but I know that this is my 200th Blog Post since the kitschy little boutique blog was started by 'moi' back in January 2012.

200 Blog Posts in coming up for two years. That ain't a bad average! That's 8.3333 Blog Posts a month recurring. Not bad at all especially as I'm still trying to work out what the Blog is about. It's Autobiography I suppose and I am going to attempt to review Alexei Sayle's Autobiography here.

I bought the book from the News from Nowhere bookshop in Bold Street in Liverpool whilst I was there at the Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse as part of my M.A in Playwriting at the University of Salford.. The friendly lady behind the counter told me that she remembered Alexei's Mother Molly very well and the book is a homage to her, He has dedicated it to his Mother. 

I wouldn't go so far as to say that I love Alexei Sayle but I do admire him greatly because he was the 'first alternative' comedian if you like. He woke a nation up on OTT and the Young Ones as Mr Balowski. His absurdity appealed very much to my adolescent self  as everything was so grey and uniform way back then. I remember walking through the streets of Liverpool having been to see a Ken Dodd concert and lying on the floor were flyers for Alexei Sayle's Stand Up. So the new kid on the block was replacing the old kid on the block.

On the Front Cover of the Book the Guardian says " It's not like other comedians' memoirs! It's funny". Now I would call it a slow burn because I didn't have my first belly laugh until Chapter 32 'Sticks and Stones and Sticks'. It was in this chapter that Alexei tickled my funny bone as he had done many years before and that belly laugh turned into tears running down my cheeks and its on page 169 that he finally got me to laugh the way I laughed when I saw him first. Why I didn't laugh earlier in the book I don't know but perhaps I felt misled by the Guardian's line. Too much anticipation. It must be a huge burden to be a 'funny man' because people expect you to be funny all the time and I expected Alexei to be funny out of the blocks.   No Matter. It was well worth the £9.99. I could have got it from a library but I felt it was right and proper to purchase the book in his home town from a Shop who knows him and his family. I have added 'The News from Nowhere' Logo as a link to the shop's website on my blog because I really admire what they are doing there and recommend anybody on a pilgrimage to the 'Pool of Life' to go and pay a visit and make yourself a cup of tea or coffee for a 50p donation.

On Page 199 of Chapter 36 'Do you want a kiss?' Alexei Sayle sums up in the following line how I felt as an adolescent and something which has followed me all the way through my life.

"the urge to reproduce is meant to be irresistible, but the urge not to be rejected was even stronger"

I smiled wryly when I read this. Any comedian's memoirs are going to be bittersweet. The tears of a clown. He's been very clever because I expect to return to the News from Nowhere bookshop because like the beloved  Karl Marx there will be more tomes to come. Alexei Sayle finishes this Autobiography at the age of 16/17 so perhaps it would be better described as a childhood memoir but I am pulling hairs from the great man's nostrils.

It is a  hugely entertaining and interesting travelogue of holidays abroad to Eastern Europe sharply delivered with hindsight and a cynical and wry humour. So if Ken Dodd's Statue is on display at Lime Street station I suppose it's only right that a statue of Alexei Sayle in his ill fitting suit is to follow.

Well that's my first and probably last book review but that folks was my 200th Blog Post!