Book Review: Anfield of Dreams
The old Chinese saying "may you live in interesting times" was apparently meant as a curse, yet the realization of that maxim hasn't harmed Neil Dunkin too much.
A Liverpool supporter from the fifties, he witnessed the club's rise from the Second Division under Bill Shankly through its domination of English and European football up till the present era. He was also of the right age to truly appreciate the explosion of the Mersey beat.
It is around these two phenomena - football and music - that his book Anfield of Dreams is centred. More of the first, to be honest, but the music segment makes as much of an impression. It is what has shaped Liverpool in popular culture and as Dunkin himself recounts when talking of his trips to places like Mexico, it is with football (Liverpool FC) and music (Beatles) that his city of birth is associated.
That Dunkin can talk about both with a fair deal of authority is the strong point of this book. He has stories to tell about Phil Taylor (Shankly's predecessor) for instance, which is the first time that I've read of him as a person, rather than a statistic. Similarly, he writes about listening to the Beatles at the Cavern during his lunch break.
It isn't just these stories that make Anfield of Dreams unique. It is the first Liverpool fan written book, or any fan book come to think of it, where the violence that was common place in the seventies and early eighties isn't even mentioned. In fact, you get the feeling that Dunkin has an aversion of such stories that in a sense seem to glorify the violence. In various instances he talks against the scaly behavior among Liverpool fans, saying that it is the type of behaviour that confirms the other over-riding impression of the city.
If all that makes Anfield of Dreams different, the rest is fairly run of the mill writing that adds very little new. His recounting of the battle of Spion Kop is interesting whilst the story from Hillsborough can't but move. Apart from that, however, Dunkin's book is quite average, a decent read rather than an exceptional one.
Dunkin has clearly done his research - there is quote after quote throughout the whole book - yet these are lifted from other books and will be quite well know to Liverpool fans making them feel stale.
It doesn't help that it has to compete with Brian Reade's '43 Years with the Same Bird' that covers pretty much the same era and, like Anfield of Dreams, was also published this summer.
And whereas I enjoyed reading Anfield of Dreams, if someone were to be in the position of having to chose between the two, then the honest answer would be to go for Reade's book.
To read more of Paul's articles, visit his blog A Liverpool Thing
Older/Newer
« Video: Rafa Benitez looks ahead to Liverpool's Premier League showdown with Chelsea | Chelsea Preview »
0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Book Review: Anfield of Dreams. TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.liverpoolbanter.co.uk/cgi-bin/mt421/mt-tb.cgi/38784
Leave a comment