This is an impressionistic book about the decay of a once-bustling industrial Middlesbrough, called
Ironopolis. Narrated over 5 decades by a loosely-connected cast of characters, all making their homes
there, some sections work much better than the others. While the author says his intent was to not
write cliched accounts of Northern, working class life, given the miseries he constantly puts his
characters through, I’m not really sure he succeeds at that. The impression he gives you of the place is
one where all sorts of cruelties are inflicted by people on each other, and everything is ignored, all in the
name of preserving the peace and the community. I’m not entirely sure why as a reader, I’m supposed
to feel sad that this community won’t exist anymore-even before their economic decline, they don’t
have much communal feeling, and anyone slightly different is treated horribly! It feels like a happy
ending for all of them to have to move out of this place, really.
Why the 3 stars then? THe book is well-written and definitely readable-particularly the section that
deals with the ascent (and decline) of the acid house rave scene in the 90s, the hope and joy and
alternate possibilities of life it offered teenagers who grew up in a Thatcherite England, and came of age
in the 90s, when their futures looked rather bleak. The last part of the book is well written as well, and
gives you a bit of a snapshot of the economic circumstances of the time. Some of the characters are
given endings with grace, while a lot of others are dismissed with violence that’s Tarantino at his most
adolescent. This did not seem to me a particularly well-written portrait of the decline of the North, I
should just stick to watching ‘The Full Monty’ and ‘Billy Elliot’!

This is a truly great book. I loved the format. The conceit of interwoven stories as a novel does not always work but Brown pulled it off with amazing aplomb. Highly recommended.

As soon as I read the blurb and saw this was set in Middlesbrough I snapped this up. I'm a Teesside born and bred, and love a lot about my local town so ii was eager to see how Glen James Brown could bring it to life. On the whole, I thought he did a pretty good job.

Ironopolis is a series of stories of the people of a run down housing estate. It's an estate seen up and down the north of England, once thriving from a booming steel industry and now largely poverty stricken. We see the various characters of the estate go about the daily lives and the struggles and joys that go with it. Brown had an innate ability to make these characters feel incredibly realistic and 'lived in'. We all know the solitary old man, shunned by society after a life spent dedicated to the town and the typical housewife, downtrodden and unloved, desperate to hang on to the glory days of old.

I especially loved the use of Peg Prowler, this lore that I'd never heard of, that joins all of the stories together. Everyone has a story of Peg snd her mystery permeates all the lives of people on the estate, adding to their joy and misery.

Really well imagined and thought out story of the lives of the working class in an estate that feels almost part character itself.

A surprising Power packed novel for a debut, this book deserves all the attention right now. Different stories, different people all interconnecting together to come off as a giant plot making the book unique. Very interesting and engaging. Absolutely loved it.

Honestly, this is the best book I have read in a long time. I have been trying to leave it a while to let the sediments percolate, as I feel is best to do before giving a book review, but I feel like I need to shout from the rooftops how good this is!

I got Trainspotting and Cloud Atlas vibes from this book, the first because of the parts about the rave and drug scene, and the bleakness of working class life. The latter because of the Russian doll like nature of the interconnected short stories, eventually tying up (most) loose ends and coming full circle.

It is it's own thing in it's own right though. What a fantastic debut, looking forward to reading more from this promising author.

I wish I'd had a physical copy so that I could go back and cross reference with earlier points and characters, as more and more of the intricate plot was revealed. It's just not the same on a kindle. I will probably buy a copy very soon.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is an ingenious and unique novel comprising a collection of stories - stories of people of different families and generations whose lives and stories intersect and collide at various points in time and space. Each story is intriguing in its own right, and collectively the stories are cleverly woven together into a coherent whole. The characters are believable and the writing style is interesting, with the stories told in a variety of formats. The pacing is good and made me want to keep reading. A very impressive debut.

“There is no such thing as family, I said. It’s everybody for themselves. You think someone loves you, but they’ll chuck you like that.”

✮✮✮

The Burn Council Estate is due to be torn down, and new homes built. However, the estate is home to stories and secrets going back years, from the thug Vincent who terrorises the estate, to Peg Powler the legend.

This was a really interesting read and the stories were all really intriguing, but the writing really frustrated me. Stay with me while I explain. Each short story was told from an individual viewpoint, and it was almost a running train of thoughts and memories, that works. The part that frustrates me is that within flashbacks and memories, no one’s speech is in speech marks… I never thought I’d be so frustrated by something so small! If it wasn’t for that, I’d probably have rated it four stars.

The characters were great, and I loved how the stories all interlinked, answering questions left from the previous short stories as each one progressed. Some days I could inhale a whole short story, while others it would take me days or weeks to get through! Definitely a mixed bag!

A terrific read the setting the characters their connections.Told from various povs it kept my attention from first page to last.This book deserves a lot of attention.#netgalley#ironoploolis

I absolutely loved this book. I read it in two days and I couldn't put it down. It has a such a strong sense-of-place, and beautifully conveys the connections and tensions between people and where they are from. Thoughtful, gritty, and engaging; with a great cast of characters. Highly recommended if you books with a large cast with interconnecting stories, where the setting also a feels like a character sometimes.

How in the world did this book fly under the radar? I’ll admit I was pulled in by the cover and the blurb both as well as the title. But Christ I wasn’t expecting such a banger of a read. I must have highlighted 2/3 of the book. The writing is absolutely amazingly well done. The story itself is fresh and surreal. The care with which the author has constructed this is just…I don’t even know what to say. It felt like I was reading House of Leaves for the first time. Something so different and infectious almost. Like a book virus.

I’m finding it hard to review this without giving away details. Just read it.

Ironopolis is an intriguing book that completely pulled me in from beginning to end. Filled with hints of eerie mystery, the story is told from the point of view from a handful of characters whose lives all interconnect in some way. Set around a tenement housing complex, the looming threat of redevelopment is a constant threat to the community and history of the people in this story. As the block I currently live on has been flattened for condos, I could relate to the feeling of being “pushed out”. The writing is really top notch, I could picture everything. Highly recommend.

Thanks to Parthian Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review Ironopolis.

Set in a council housing estate over the course of about fifty years this is a really terrific blend of social commentary, small lives writ large, and a very limited and surgical use of English folk horror that threads the whole series of storylines together throughout the book.

I suppose it's a blend of novel and short story collection where characters are followed from early childhood through death, their paths knowingly and unknowingly continually crossing throughout which resulted for me in many cases of 'ooooooohhhhh.' There are a variety of narrative methods used including letters, interviews, footnotes so that and the multiple interlocking stories make for a complex but not difficult structure.

It's full of tragedy, humanity's good and bad sides, humor, and really does provide a sketch of how England's industrial and urban landscape was blighted and destroyed by Thatcherism - going from a new and booming community (which, as one of the characters points out, wasn't all roses) to a wasteland swallowed up by developers flogging the suburban dream that was welcomed by some as an improvement and fought against and decried by others.

I very much enjoyed this book. You could see similarities with Irvine Welsh and James Kelman in terms of the subject matter but the location and the use of the supernatural character and myth adds a unique element.

The only thing I didn't love about this book is the cover. It was an interesting read especially as I live in a village on the outskirts of Ironopolis (Middlesbrough) myself. The author has a great understanding of the area and its history and that shines through the connected stories. It is gritty in places, heartwarming in others but the whole narrative gels together to make a great read. The cover is ok just doesn't feel quite as authentic, maybe just because I know the area.

Surprisingly good for a first novel. This has a good plot, interesting characters, and it kept me engaged. It has an unusual structure, but it would certainly be a different experience otherwise. Recommended.

Thanks very much for the free review copy!!

I’ve read some very good books lately, but few that I have enjoyed and admired as much as Ironopolis. This novel by Glen James Brown is set in the Burn Council Estate, a fictional housing estate in Middlesborough (hence the title, an old nickname for the Yorkshire town). The estate was built in the heyday of operation of the local steelworks but is now facing and undergoing the demolition and “regeneration” typical of the post-industrial era.

The novel is made up of six interlinked stories, each with its own narrator and approach. Thus, the opening segment, set in 1991, is in epistolary style, as a middle-aged woman succumbing to cancer writes to an art dealer about her years of friendship with the now-famous cult painter Una Cruikshank. The penultimate chapter consists of transcripts of interviews (complete with footnotes) conducted by the woman’s son Alan who, almost three decades later, is investigating an episode of recent local history (the explosion of a wartime ordnance on New Year’s Eve) only to end up discovering long-buried secrets about his family. Other chapters adopt a more conventional style, and focus on other characters who live on the estate, such as Jim Clarke, a bisexual man who comes into his own in the acid music scene, or his sister, local hairdresser and gambling addict Corina Clarke.

The way in which Brown links the various narrative and plot threads is hugely impressive. At the beginning, the reader feels thrown in at the deep end. It takes some concentration to get to grips with the context. But the longer one reads, the more pieces fall into place, and new connections become evident. Some characters haunt all the chapters, despite not having an own voice. A case in point is painter Una Cruikshank, whose Gothic paintings of ghostly riverbanks are referenced in all the segments even though what we learn about her is “second hand”. The same goes for Vincent Barr, the local “strongman”, who features repeatedly as an object of terror, but eventually turns out to have his own fragilities. Perhaps the most (perplexingly? unexpectedly?) effective touch is the introduction of the mythical figure of Peg Powler, a female creature, at once horrid and seductive, said to inhabit the River Tees. Peg Powler makes an appearance in all the segments of the novel, lending a supernatural aura and an element of psychogeography to what is an otherwise ultra-realist working-class novel.

Glen James Brown’s narrative prowess would have been enough to make Ironopolis a great novel. But there’s more to it than post-modern bravura. For instance, Brown evokes a strong sense of place – the Burn Council Estate is so vividly described that one would be forgiven for thinking that it is a real rather than fictional setting. He also creates some memorable characters – I’m thinking particularly of Alan Barr, who comes into his own in the final parts of the book, or the tragic figure of Jim Clarke, still getting high to The Acid Life by Farley “Jackmaster” Funk for the sake of old times.

Ironopolis also has a political subtext (its shortlisting for the Orwell Prize is unsurprising as much as it is deserved). The novel's description of working-class life is bleak but not unremittingly so, finding warmth, humanity and a vein of black humour even in the direst of circumstances. This ambivalence is evident in the conflict feelings of the residents about the regeneration of the housing estate. Some see it as an opportunity to escape, others as the loss of a shared lifestyle going back generations.

This is a brilliant debut novel, but one which would have been no less impressive at the peak of a writer’s career.

https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/2022/03/ironopolis-by-glen-james-brown.html

READ THIS BOOK!
Relatively unknown (in my world anyway) Ironopolis is shortlisted for Orwell and Portico prize.

Ironopolis is the name of a lost industrial town once the center of the Iron works The estate is due to be torn down for future construction. Like all virtually abandoned areas, it is rife with crime (drugs, unemployment, violence)
There are so many secrets hidden inside this estate! Told in a series of six shorter stories you will meet characters that you are not soon to forget. If you love interesting and ambitious literature, linked stories that tell unbelievable tales, and real life societal issues fictionalized then this is a novel for you! #Ironopolis
#Parthianbooks #netgalley

One of the best books I've read in recent years. The multiple POV is extremely well-done. Reminiscent of David Mitchell. I don't think the book is well-served by the busy cover design.

The Burn Council Estate in Middlesbrough is being demolished. Row upon row of council housing succumbing to the bulldozers of the Rowan Tree developers. And as the concrete nibblers close in, secret history starts to emerge.

Once upon a time, Middlesbrough was Ironopolis, the steel and iron manufacturing centre of the kingdom. And a long time before that, the River Tees was the home of Peg Powler, a supernatural hag who lured children to their deaths. More recently, the Burn estate was terrorised by Vincent Barr, the villain with a finger in every pie.

In Ironopolis, six discrete sections bring Vincent to life, along with those whose lives were touched by him and by those around him. We see waves spreading out through society, violent, gruesome waves. Also waves of love, hope, fear, loneliness. The novel is complex in structure, including letters, interviews, footnotes, autobiography and editorial. Each section sheds a new light on previous sections; characters who are the heroes of one section may be the villains of another. The pacing is perfect, and new revelations keep coming right up to the death. The various narrative voices are well defined, often moving and really hard to put down. Whether it is Jean Barr writing letters to an unseen man about a childhood friend; or the story of a young man discovering acid house raves; or a hairdresser with a gambling problem; they are all so different yet add up to a coherent whole.

The title is perhaps ambitious. The novel doesn't really give a story of the city, but it does give a detailed slice of life over several decades of a select group of people in a select part of the city. In truth, though, and despite the many references to Peg Powler, there is a feeling that this might have taken place in any estate, anywhere in England. But it is a damn good story; the characters and locations feel real; and the changing social values ring true.

Ironopolis really is an exceptional book, more accessible than the blurb might lead a reader to expect, but still with many layers of complexity.

This book is set in Middlesbrough, England, and comprises several short stories. The characters in each story are woven together throughout the generations as the history and struggles of the working-class town are told.
Each story is uniquely told and details the lives being built and torn apart amidst the decline of their neighborhood. From drugs to lack of employment, this book touches on many aspects of what it’s like growing up in a dilapidated town and how each character struggles to free themselves from its chains.

This is such a good read and also one that I feel is important. I live in a city that has a lot of highrise housing that is often delapidated and therefore accidents are rife including one that people will remember very well from a few years ago. I also grew up with friends that lived in those communities and so I was also, at least for some of the time, part of those communities also.
This book was raw, fresh and intense in its unapologetic look at these high rise housing estates and the communities that live within them that have watched their estate delapidate over the years with noone doing anything about it.
It was a unique and heartfelt look at the working classes and the community that is woven through them and I loved it. I cannot recommend this book enough