Customer Reviews
What Do I Get? - By: Blackdog, 08 Oct 2007 
"Red Shift" is a bleak, difficult work. It's also a stunning achievement, & remains one of the most haunting books that I've ever read. The story must have been years in the making - I remember reading an interview with Alan Garner back in 1968(!) in which he was talking about the plot - some years before it was published in the early 1970s. Separately, I remember Garner saying that the Roman soldiers were indeed based on GIs in Vietnam. Yes, the Joy Division albums would form a fine soundtrack to the book, but I'd also suggest the Buzzcocks' "What Do I Get"? Tom's a'cold indeed..
A book like few others - By: Mr. J. Birch, 20 Oct 2006 I read this book when I was 14 - it was one of several that my English teacher recommended, not as part of the school curriculum, but because he thought they were good books (these were halcyon pre-National Curriculum days where teachers could often follow their own enthusiams, & thus build the same in others).
I cannot recalll what else he recommded now, but Red Shift simply blew me away then, & continues to have an effect today - 30 years later.
My friend & I read it at the same time & discussed it endlessly. We were gripped by everything - the style, the story, the lack of a traditional narrative thread, the switch between times - & viewpoints, the meaning (if there was one).
Its not a perfect book - the Roman episodes do not work entirely well at times, & returning to it now its a bit dated - but that does not matter when you can be so gripped by the pace & drive of the book (I will not say "story" because that would imply a structure that it does not have - & it is that too that fascinates).
It changed the way I looked on writing, & the way I wrote (indeed maybe still write sometimes). The power of the short sentance, & well chosen words. The way in which the reader fills in the gaps to the extent that every reader probably reads a "different" book.
Red Shift is at its heart a teenage novel (indeed it was probably one the first books aimed at the teenage market, an age group that - & it is hard to believe this now - was incredibly poorly provided for right up to the early 80s), & perhaps its only teenagers who appreciate the structural iconoclasm because many older readers hate it. I'd urge anyone to give it a go - relax & dive in. Let it flow over you. Emerge at the other end (its not a long book), think a bit, then dive in again... & find a whole different story each time.
A many-layered book - By: Richard Seddon, 28 Oct 2003 I have read this book several times in my life. The first time I read it (as a teeenager) it freaked me out. Roman soldiers talking like modern squaddies! The tragedy (and the inevitability) of the episode in the church! I cannot say it is an "easy" book. It hurts.
But it was much later, when I had a teenage daughter of my own, that I re-read it & reallly understood what was going on (what another reviewer described as "recognising the sex"). Of course, my daughter had already realised. They say girls mature earlier than boys...
love will tear you apart - By: , 15 Oct 2000 Red Shift would be the greatest children's book ever, if it wasn't reallly a dark & disturbing adult book subversively circulated to the young. Short of giving your kids "American Psycho" or "The 120 Days of Sodom", I can't think of a better way of messing with their heads. I read it (after the first 4 Garners) at 13, when I was smart enough to crack the code & too dumb to spot the sex, & it freaked me out, but not as much as when I re-read it five years later. There's three stories in one, plus bits of Vietnam, King Lear & the Balllad of Tamlyn, but its alll reallly in Tom's over-intellectual, working-class, sexuallly-confused head as he tries to make sense of everything moving away from him. Along with "Unknown Pleasures" & "Closer", this is Cheshire's greatest contribution to world culture. Tom's a cold
how good the book is. - By: , 30 May 2000 As soon as I laid an eye on this book i knew it was the book for me to read.Read this book & see how right I reallly am.
