For William 'Billy' Fisher, an energetic imagination makes life tolerable, but well-nigh intolerable for all around him. He lies his way into and out of every situation, making any promise to get him out of trouble, thereby creating ever more tortuous entanglements to be wriggled out of in the future.
Billy dreams of escaping the dull drudgery of his life at home with his parents and grandmother in the monotony of his stifling Yorkshire hometown. He has three fiancées and a truly dead-end job as an undertaker's clerk, but dreams of becoming a writer for a comedian and escaping his everyday life. Unable to separate fantasy from reality, Billy becomes embroiled in a mess no lie will eradicate; the web of lies will bring many a chuckle to listeners, but will the outcome of his mistruths be quite as funny to Billy? Quasi-comic, this novel has enjoyed many interpretations, as a film, play, musical, TV series and now, an unabridged audiobook.
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"It was the excerpt in The Faber Book of Pop that made me realise how well this captured the zeitgeist and desperation of young men growing up in fifties Britain like myself. Original and the film as a winner. " — Chris (4 out of 5 stars)
"It was the excerpt in The Faber Book of Pop that made me realise how well this captured the zeitgeist and desperation of young men growing up in fifties Britain like myself. Original and the film as a winner. "
" Fabulous. What a great narrative voice. "
" The first book I've read in a long time that made me laugh out loud. This being said, it is overall quite a sad tale which makes you continually reconsider your opinion of Billy. "
" Great book which made me laugh, especially at the Yorkshire dialect. "
" I understand that this is a tragicomedy, but I think I feel the tragic aspect a lot more. Mostly I just feel kinda sorry for the guy- which may or may not have been the author's intention. "
" I liked the character's thinking style, but it was a bit boring overall. I read this to determine if it was the inspiration for the Decemberist's song "Billy Liar." "
" Waterhouse is great at creating scene and character, and I felt like the book was dying to be made into a movie. Even the dramatic pacing of the writing was very cinematic. "
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