Wake Up George! - Rated 
I discovered this book almost by chance, it just seemed to be screaming at me from the shelf in the bookstore, I flipped through it and thought it was one of those arty books, but I gave it a go anyway.
I got home after work and picked it up, I was instantly hooked. There's something indescribable about this book, I just wanted to grab George by the shoulders and tell him that Netta wasn't worth all this pain and agony! I will say that at times it is a little depressing but definitely a classic that has sadly been forgotten.
I nearly cried at the end because of George's ending, the sad thing is though, there is people like that still in this world who are being taken advantage of at every possible stage.
Please give this book a go as it is truly breathtaking.
Sex, Madness and Utter Moral Failure - Rated
It's arguable, but I think this is Hamilton's masterpiece. The reason I say this is the way he creates such a plausible and compelling account of a descent into madness and links it so effortlessly to the moral collapse of Neville Chamberlains England.
I have read this book many times, and Hamilton is so skilled at playing the readers hopes that each time I root for George and hope he will make the two or three simple choices that will save him (one may have the same feelings about England when reading Churchill on the lead up to World War 2). But he never does- the tragedy unfolds from its seeds on the first few pages and is always terrible.
In Netta he has surely also created one of the finest and most repulsive femmes fatale ever.
If you have ever been unhappily in love and been led a merry dance, you will find George Harvey Bone in yourself and be both moved, afraid and grateful that you escaped.
If you have ever lived in a country busy being sold down the river by weak leaders, then the same applies.
Buy this book!
Strangely compelling and really quite touching - Rated
I bought this as a holiday read and was expecting it to be a dour struggle to get through. However, it actually turned out to be really quite compelling. It's easy to identify with the lead character. He doesn't have any real friends most of the time and those that he thinks are his friends treat him badly and make him feel sad. He's kind to his cat and really he's just a lost soul. The final scene where images of happier, innocent, times come back to him is extremely touching and will stay with you for ever probably.
Extraordinary Book - Rated
Georage Henry Bone has two problems in his life. He is hopelessly infatuated with the cruel and scheming Netta, and he suffers from periodic "dead moods" which the book intimates are a form of schizophrenia. Through a world of smoky pubs, their inhabitant lowlives, and endless drinking we see the development of both George's infatuation and his illness. All this against a background of approaching WW2.
What makes this book so extraordinary is the total authenticity of the characters. It doesn't deal in great universal truths, other than unfulfilled potential and unrequited love, but it does deal in the minutiae of ordinary everyday life, and does so brilliantly. Netta is a quite stupendoulsy hateful villain, but is also a fully realised, 3 dimensional and believable character. Likewise, her willing victim, the hapless George is heartbreakingly credible.
Hamilton doesn't just give us believeable characters, he also provides a world for them to inhabit, the pubs, bars and drinking dens of pre-war London and Brighton are evocatively portrayed.
Definitely very highly recommended.
A tale for our times - Rated
I won't rabble on and tell you what the synopsis is, plenty of others have done that before me, wasting valuble space, when one should be writing about the essence of this dark, mysterious, hopeless masterpiece. Dark, mysterious, hopeless, these are just a few appropriate words to describe such a book, a book which takes the reader to the beating heart and jagged mind of a terribly sad, conflicted middle aged man and his infatuation with the girl is so hates/loves with an almost pathological insight.
Hamilton understood human nature is all it's ghastly dimensions, and is effortlessly able(to these eyes at least) to display characters that are at once horrible, cruel and the next gentle and seemingly kind. The sadistic triangle of Geoge, Netta and Peter make for unbelieveable tension, always in a look, an expression to indicate disgust, contempt, seduction.
Netta must be one of the single most, rotten female characters in modern fiction, her main priority money, and her sole ambition, to be loved adoringly and not have to love in return. George's adoring love for her, is the most tragic, misguided I have ever read, yet so gentle, so child like, we feel for George, however embarrassing.
George's bouts of 'Split personality disorder' is another genius touch to an already fine novel. The description of his transtion from one to another is done with such fine writing, packed with allusions to modern culture, primarily film, that one can see Hamitlon as way ahead of his time, just as Edith Wharton was at the turn of the century. The suspense created when he realises that he must kill Netta is like watching a new, undiscovered Hitchcock film, the tension is unbearable.
The era he evokes, the drinking dens, the debauchery, the impending war with Germany remind me of the times we live in now. Of course human nature doesn't change, every individual has to face their own moral choices, but the similarities are unavoidable. The excess, the waste, the misguided need to experience pleasure, where and how? I feel many young receptive souls will connect with Hamilton's realistic view of English life.
A novel of great psychological insight, although low-key and contained, it still gets me every time. Seek it out, marvel at Hamilton's skill, his love for Brighton, his distaste for cruelty, and his unswerving determination to present characters that we might not like. Purchase and enjoy.
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