The Peculiar Memories of Thomas Penman

By Bruce Robinson

More information to be announced soon on this forthcoming title from Penguin USA.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Release date: Jan 1, 1999
• ISBN: 9781468305777

Bruce Robinson

Bruce Robinson is the director and screenwriter of Withnail and I, How to Get Ahead in Advertising, Jennifer 8 and The Rum Diary. He has also written the screenplays for The Killing Fields, Shadow Makers (released in the US as Fat Man and Little Boy), Return to Paradise and In Dreams. He is the author of The Peculiar Memories of Thomas Penman and Paranoia in the Launderette, and of two books for children, The Obvious Elephant and Harold and the Duck, both illustrated by Sophie Windham.

Reviews for The Peculiar Memories of Thomas Penman

[pilgrimjess · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Thomas Penman is a 13-year-old with "big ears and an unwholesome characteristic." who lives in a large, dilapidated house in Broadstairs, Kent, with his extended family. His grandfather, Walter, is the only one with whom Thomas has any sort of dependable relationship. Sadly, "Walter was extremely old and full of cancer".The first chapter is an extended depiction of Thomas's rebellious nature and it also introduces us to the girl of his dreams, Gwendolin Hackett. "Gwendolin was beautiful, stone blond with sexy teeth, lips like the bit after a knot in a balloon." When love is finally consummated, Thomas knows ecstasy but it is soon followed by tragedy mirroring events his grandfather endured during WWI.Of all the bonds that tie the family together, love is not the main one. Instead rage, guilt, anger and resentment are foremost in this dysfunctional family. There is also a dark family secret to be uncovered.When Thomas finally uncovers the truth we learn why these people seem to take such great satisfaction in annoying, ignoring and abusing one another.Of all the characters within this book Thomas's father, Rob, is almost certainly the best, a wonderfully comic creation."In Rob's lexicon of jurisprudence capital offences were myriad: you could get hanged for almost anything...... Endless streams tramped to Rob's scaffold, Communists, trade unionists, the Labour Party -- he hanged the lot of them, and it wasn't even 7 AM."The book is set in 1959 so memories of both World Wars are still reasonably fresh but is also an age when families struggled to speak honestly to one another about anything important, particularly to children. It is against this background that Thomas must himself come of age. He is endlessly snooping and lurking about the house trying to uncover secrets but he also has an unhealthy interest in explosives, cigarettes and pornography, something he knows that his grandfather has a vast collection of.Robinson does not flinch from showing us the full awfulness of boys' sexual fantasies which some readers will undoubtedly find distasteful. There is even a whole chapter entirely devoted to excrement. However, running beneath all laddish humour there is a serious theme, that of a pubescent boy's attempts to make sense of his bewilderment surrounding sex and love, illness and death, without adequate parental guidance or experience. Even as a male (admittedly one whose own teenage years are now only a distant memory) I found a lot of this book's humour made for uncomfortable reading but perhaps its greatest strength is that Robinson was able to sustain this rude and anarchic tone throughout. A piece of relatively enjoyable escapism but one I suggest will have a rather limited appeal.

[sbenne3 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Interesting . . . but not sure I got the humor or followed all of the peculiarities. A good read - well written - and luckily short.

[eye_gee-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

By the same person who wrote the screenplay, "Withnail & I". I loved this book for the distictive writing style and the author's ability to combine humour and pathos simultaneously. Who else would describe the shape of a woman's head as "suburban"? Just a typical, throw n off adjective that I can't imagine any else every using, but it Robinson's book you know just what he means. It's a wonderful coming of age story. The cover photo is worth the price of the book :-)

[jphamilton-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the hilariously touching story of an eccentric 1950's British working-class family told through the mind of an extremely odd thirteen-year-old boy. If you have read or seen the film version of Butcher Boy, you'll have a great feel for this equally bizarre family of Brits. The book takes you through Thomas's first drink, first cigarette, and his sexual obsession with the young Gwendolin, but it's the completely strange collection of family members that fill up this novel. Thomas's Grandpa Walter is a frail figure who is delicately balanced just this side of death for much of the book. Thomas, as a true teenager, is fixated on Grandpa's seemingly imminent death AND his extensive pornography collection. Much of the book is quite dark, as the parents marriage seems to be coming apart, yet, at the same time; the reader has no other viewpoint of the family other than from this rude, crude, and awkward young boy. One very funny scene is when Thomas believes his grandfather has died in the night and he sneaks to his bedside to place coins over the eyes of the still living Grandpa. Walter lives a little while longer, the parents continue to have serious problems, Thomas has constant problems in school and trying to figure out his desires for Gwendolin, but the novel rolls on in its darkly humorous fashion. This may be an acquired taste in fiction, but, if you're ready for it, Peculiar Memories is disturbingly enjoyable. (5/01)

[paulharryallen · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Funny and moving tale of an innocent lad growing up.