Borstal Boy von Brendan Behan

This miracle of autobiography and prison literature begins: „Friday, in the evening, the landlady shouted up the stairs: ‚Oh God, oh Jesus, oh Sacred Heart, Boy, there’s two gentlemen here to see you.‘ I knew by the screeches of her that the gentlemen were not calling to inquire after my health . . . I grabbed my suitcase, containing Pot. Chlor., Sulph Ac, gelignite, detonators, electrical and ignition, and the rest of my Sinn Fein conjurer’s outfit, and carried it to the window…“ The men were, of course, the police, who knew seventeen-year-old Behan for the anti-imperialist terrorist he was and arrested him. He spent three years as a prisoner in England, primarily in Borstal (reform school), and was then expelled to his homeland, a changed but hardly defeated rebel. Once banned in the Irish Republic, Borstal Boy is both a riveting self-portrait and a clear look into the problems, passions, and heartbreak of Ireland.

Review

Autobiographical work by Brendan Behan, published in 1958. The book portrays the author’s early rebelliousness, his involvement with the Irish Republican cause, and his subsequent incarceration for two years in an English Borstal, or reformatory, at age 16. Interspersed with tales of brutality are anecdotes about dramatic and musical pastimes and Behan’s gardening and handicraft activities. The book is notable for capturing the immediacy of conversation among the inmates. –The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature

From the Publisher

8 1.5-hour cassettes