A poetic and insightful look at life in a mining town across three generations. Being from Yorkshire myself, I really resonated with the narrative and found the joys and struggles of being LGBTQ+ in a small town during the Thatcher years and the shame it instilled into some of the characters really fascinating.

I am not really sure what this book was about. we have a drag artiist, call centre operator son of a miner as the MC - or at least that's what I think he was. We jump from drag venues to walks from home to the pit, we dabble in poetry and we have some sort of trauma counselling in between it all.
It did not work but was at least mercifully short

Pity is a deep-dive into small-town life and the effects of the closure of the coal mines on those left unemployed and poverty stricken in its wake. Whilst a small novel, Pity touches on many important themes delicately and with clear intent, exploring familial relationships and coming to terms with sexuality. The characters are genuine and I truly cared for them, which I find is sometimes hard to achieve in a shorter novel. I enjoyed this immensely and will be recommending it highly!

Beautiful, intimate and poetic. A moving portrayal of queerness and resilience in the north of England. It's always really interesting to read prose written by a poet and McMillan writes beautifully. Short but beautiful.

A beautifully written, gritty novel detailing the scars that the miner's strike has left across the generations. I love Andrew Mcmillan's poetry so was excited to see a novel, this did not disappoint.

Loved it! Short and snappy, & full of nostalgia. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing an advanced copy of this book. Recommend!

I thought I'd enjoy this book a lot more than I did. I did not find myself racing back to read this as predicted but the plot was a truly eye-opening one regarding the miners and their toils. The cover is also not so aesthetically appealing.

Fragmented and disjointed. I really wanted to like this book but just couldn't get on with it. Promising subject matter that deserved its space in the novel but unfortunately not a cohesive delivery.

Pity by Andrew McMillan is a compassionate book that’s as much about the town it’s set in (Barnsley) as it is about the people in it.

I can’t honestly tell you which parts I liked best: the thoughts of the miners as they trudged to the mine and worked there; the sociologists researching the history and decline of the town; and Simon, who works in a call centre by day and has a drag act in local clubs and bars at night. Each part blended with and gave explanations for every other component of this book, and explained the impact on the next generation.

Simon’s sections and the preparation for his show, where he would dress as Margaret Thatcher were particularly engaging. Her impact on ex-mining towns are clearly still apparent, and Simons alter ego, Puttana Short Dress, appears dressed as the Iron Lady with the slogan “This turn is not a lady!” - it’s a genius act!

I was left wondering where Simon and Ryan’s relationship would go, as Ryan seemed unhappy about Simon wearing his makeup on the journey home after his act had finished. Could he accept Simon - ALL of Simon?

This was a short read, that I would happily have read if it was twice (or more!) the length - it was all over too soon!

Recommended.

An intensly emotional, provoking perspective of 3 generations experiences, queer love, identity, politics & class within a North West mining community.

Expertly presented as a dense, short novel, in the form of layered vignettes.

It took me a while to really engage with this short novel, as it’s fragmented and disjointed and until you get a handle on what’s going on, quite difficult to grasp. Once I settled into it, however, I mostly enjoyed it, although I still think a little more coherence between the narrative threads would have been to its advantage. It’s the story of three generations in the northern ex-mining town of Barnsley. Through the Grandad we get a picture of what it was like to work down the pit. Through Alex and Brian, his sons, we find out what life was like after the closures and during the miners’ strike. Now middle-aged men they have had to come to terms with losing, to a certain extent, their identity and the need to find a new meaning in life. I wasn’t totally convinced by how one of them dealt with this, however. Alex’s son Simon is very much of the new generation who has to forge a career in a very modern way after the old certainties have disappeared, in his case as a drag artist, call centre worker and on-line sex worker. So all modern life is here and overall it’s a moving and empathetic exploration of northern working-class life. A polyphonic, empathetic and insightful multi-layered novel, it packs a lot in to relatively few pages. Masculinity, shame, family ties, fathers and sons, identity and the search for meaning link the different threads together, and it’s a book that lingers in my mind, perhaps rewarding a re-reading in due course.

With Andrew McMillan already being one of my favourite poets, I was very excited for this novel, and greatly enjoyed how he turns themes he often writes about (masculinity, class, sexuality and bodies) into a longer-form narrative, telling the vital stories of working class men with poise, humour and a love for language.

The novel also includes some fantastic moments of poking fun at political figures- a drag queen as Thatcher being a personal favourite- with some amazing moments, including truly inspired mining-themed drag queen names (Martha Scargill made me chuckle).

I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This worked really well for me! It is a bit of a patchwork of a novel, telling different stories and blending different styles in short chapters, all relating to life in the North-English mining town of Barnsley.

It's very short, I read it in one day, but it packs a lot and combines interesting background with very good writing. The author could have dragged it out over 300 pages but I appreciated the restraint. I would be happy to see it on the Booker longlist come July.

Pity by Andrew McMillan is about different generations in a family and a town undergoing significant changes.

What a splendidly accomplished debut novel! Coming from a mining town myself, I was profoundly moved by it. Andrew McMillan's writing is nothing short of stunning.

Beautifully written and amazing to see a book about the mining towns in the north. Felt like the style was quite disjointed though, especially with the chapters being so short. Can’t wait to see what the author writes next!

I'm a big fan of Andrew McMillan's poetry so was thrilled to read his debut novel, Pity. It's a beautiful short gem of a book set in a former mining town, exploring questions of home, heritage and community. Gorgeously written - I loved in particular the repeated refrain of chapters flashing back to mine work, where McMillan's poetry credentials shine strongly.

Claustrophobic writing in the best way possible, this is an utterly incredible debut. Particularly resonant in light of this years news of possible Port Talbot steelworks job losses, McMillan has crafted a poignant tale of resilience, class, queer love and political identity. The books structure cleverly weaves together the different perspectives of a small former mining town, emphasizing the malleability of history and the impossibility of enforcing a single narrative on something so vast and multifaceted.

Set in Barnsley and covering the story of three male generations of a family. The parts about mining are especially moving but I did find the book a bit too disjointed for my personal taste and hard to follow at times.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and publisher for a free copy in exchange for an honest review

Immensely enjoyed this book, very poetically written and unusual structure and place. Took me a while to get into the characters and when it was set as it jumps around a bit but really enjoyed the reflections on the way towns change as well as the central narrative.