Author Mark Glanville is establishing a growing reputation as a
leading singer with opera companies including Scottish Opera and
Opera North. But opera lovers beware; although this autobiography
gives an interesting insight into the career of a rising star, its
focus is quite different. Glanville is an Oxford graduate, keen
football fan, supporter of Manchester United and erstwhile member
of their hell-raising Cockney Reds gang. As well as the inside
track on Glyndebourne's Simon Boccanegra there is violence to rival
anything in A Clockwork Orange, and enough sex and bad language to
justify an unequivocal 'adult' rating. On top of all that the whole
bizarre mixture is sprinkled liberally with repressed Judaism; the
title has nothing to do with Bach's keyboard work, but is an
oblique reference to the Glanville family's rejected surname. It
doesn't need the dustjacket to point out that this is Glanville's
first book. The pace is breathless, much of the material is
over-worked, and good writing often lapses into over-writing.
Glanville's main fault is simply trying too hard. On page 62, for
instance, he manages to refer to the Cockney Reds, quote five lines
of a Schubert song and mention a Goethe poem. Too frequently he
throws everything, including the literary kitchen sink, at the
reader, and this needlessly detracts from his writing ability and
worthwhile storyline. But this is still an important book.
Glanville's questioning of his cultural identity and his analysis
of the bonds of loyalty that linked the football hooligans and drew
him into their circle is intelligent and thought-provoking, and
there are some dramatic scenes and unexpected moments of insight.
We will certainly hear from him again. (Kirkus UK)
From football hooligan to opera singer, from the Cockney Reds to
Catullus, from a hectic household to tranquility of spirit, Mark
Glanville has travelled many paths, been many people - this is his
remarkable story. The story of Mark Glanville's journey from
violently bullied Jewish boy (Goldberg is the real family name) at
Pimlico comprehensive to Principal Bass with the Lisbon Opera via a
period travelling the country as a member of the Cockney Reds, the
notorious Manchester United-supporting hooligans. Throughout all
these vastly opposed phases and worlds, Glanville's driving force
is his search for self-knowledge. His home life is overshadowed by
the larger-than-life character of his famous father and his
extensive philandering, his mother's obsession with psychotherapy
and hostile relationships with his siblings. He fights to defend
his Jewishness at school, only to be told by his father that he has
no right to call himself one. A bookish teenager Glanville is
obsessed with jazz and opera but he spends his weekends with a
group of hooligans who are unsure whether to accept him or beat him
up because of his posh accent. Then reading Classics at Oxford
(explaining his absence away to the Cockney Reds as a four-year
prison sentence for manslaughter) he is simultaneously drawn to and
repelled by the Oxbridge 'society set'. The story of his struggle
towards equilibrium, to learn from his own and his family's
mistakes, and to find his own identity, eventually re-embracing
Judaism and music, is both gripping and inspiring. An impressive
new voice, Mark Glanville writes with refreshing honesty, humour
and a complete lack of sentimentality. The utterly opposing aspects
of his life make for a sometimes controversial but always
fascinating read.
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