Absolute Beginners: The twentieth-century cult classic (London Trilogy Book 2) Kindle Edition

The story follows the teenage narrator through a few months in his life as an amateur photographer and general mover and shaker in London in the late fifties. He's smart, precocious, brash with youth, focused on having fun, and hopelessly in love with his frustrating girlfriend Suzette and, in a totally different way, his geeky, caring, old-fashioned Dad. There's plenty of 'Swinging London' here (long before the term was coined), and you can see why the descriptions of the clothes and teenage patois have endeared it to generations of Mods, but there's a lot more meat to the story than that.Despite his detached attitude and air of teenage freedom, the narrator can't escape the world around him, and it's clear from early in the novel that something nasty is brewing. Amidst his Dad's illness, his romantic frustrations, and growing racial tensions, he has quite a bit of growing up to do without losing his values and his cool. It's in the closing chapters that you recognise that this hip, swinging, seemingly episodic novel is also a really well accomplished bildungsroman, and a meditation on what it means to be young and whether teenagers were really going to change the world for the better (judgment reserved on that).I must say, I really fell for this book. Even without the deeper meanings outlined above, it is incredibly fun. The narrator mixes with perverts, pimps, and rent boys as well as the supposed great and good, and every few pages we find him in a new scene. It's funny, observant, and irreverent. There are also some beautiful passages about London life which ring true today.All in all, a lot to recommend it. I ordered McInnes's other novels as soon as I'd finished the last page.

Colin MacInnes tale is set in 1958 London, at a time of increasing prosperity, youthful exuberance and sexual emancipation. It describes a culture of "absolute beginners", teenagers who for the first time had money as well as youth on their side. They were looking for a fresh start, a world as different as possible from that of the adult "taxpayers" who ran society.The book follows an unnamed narrator, a freelance photographer and jazz fan, as he meanders through a kaleidoscopic gallery of characters and situations over four separate days during the year leading up to his 19th birthday. Although there is a plot of sorts, the narrator really functions as a tour guide who can take the reader to places in London and introduce us to people we might otherwise never meet. The book was probably shocking at the time; the narrator shoots pornographic photos for a living and his friends include prostitutes, pimps, druggies and characters from the gay scene. There are surprising parallels with modern England; a recession is coming to an end and there are concerns about uncontrolled immigration leading to race riots. The writing fizzes with the language, optimism, arrogance and insouciance of youth - altho the narrator admits to wishing that he'd been better educated - as well as memorable descriptions of the Soho jazz scene.The book reminded me of some of David Bowie's early songs from the 1960s, particularly The London Boys and Maid of Bond Street. It's probably no coincidence that Bowie wrote the title track and appeared in the movie adaptation of Absolute Beginners. I don't think it's a 'great book', but it was an easy and enjoyable read and I'm glad to have visited MacInnes' London scene and met his cast of characters.

Colin Macinnes's Absolute beginners is an astonishing novel both as a barometer of the way English life was changing in the late fifties and as an affirmation of the new youthful sensibilities that here at least seem to hold out the possibilities of a post class, post racial future. That these possibilities crystallised as a superficial materialism and selfishness through a vicarious rather than engaged youth culture is no surprise to a reader of the novel, for it is Macinnes's genius to contain the two potential trajectories of Britain's future. One of the very best English novels of the 1950's.

Mixed feelings on this one. The descriptions of 1950's London are wonderful, but the slang put me too much in mind of Clockwork Orange.

Fantastic book... nothing much like the film, if you've seen it.The book is far better.You get a flavour of late 50s London and the emerging youth culture from the street level...I read it on holiday whilst listening to a lot of Modern Jazz on my iPhone - a great audio backdrop.

Great period piece bringing 1950s London to life and describing the birth of teenage sub culture and their impact on society.

Having enjoyed books by his brother, Graham, I was keen to read the "other" Macnnes and was not disappointed. It is an edgy tale of London life at the beginning of the "rock" age and the rise of "teenagerism". Not everyone's "cup of tea" but tales based on social history definitely appeal to me.

If, like me, you haven't looked at Macinnes ' masterpiece since the 80s, then I urge you to reread it now. Post-Grenfell and in the midst of the Windrush horror show, it has as much power now as ever.