After two pages, I said to Jim, "Oh, he's OCD". Not the guts of the story, but a complicating factor. It's England in the hinterlands, in 1959, and Billy, 19, is struggling in a job he detests, a social life he can't cope with, a depressed economy and a depressing family, but he can't seem to get out. His every action and inaction lead to more complications, with his employer, with women, with family. Some of it is very funny (I'm sure it reads well on audio), but the cage is closing in on him and he knows it. How will he escape?

Very nicely written, with some terrific sentences and images:

the fat women rolling along on their bad feet like toy clowns in pudding basins

or Frowning women, their black, scratched handbags crammed with half-digested grievances..

or I was amazed and intrigued that they should all be content to be nobody but themselves.

In all, a vivid portrait of that part of England in that year between the war and the artistic explosion of the 60s, as well as that of a young man adrift. ( )

Billy Fisher is a 19-year-old suffocating in a small fictional Yorkshire town and this book covers one day in his life. Billy works as an undertaker's clerk, is nagged by his mother and shouted at by his father, is engaged to two girls but is in love with a third and dreams of becoming a hit comedy writer. Feeling trapped by the monotony of his everyday life Billy frequently disappears into a world of daydreams and lies. Inevitably, Billy's compulsive lies begin to catch up with him.

'Billy Liar' became an instant hit following its first publication in 1959 and has been adapted into a play, a musical, a TV series and even a film.

I found this a quick, warm and pleasant read filled with a subtle British humour which although it didn't actually make me laugh out loud, I did read it with a smile. Billy is an interesting character, a lively storyteller with an unmistakably northern humour but like all the best comedy, the book's tragedy rings true with a much wider audience that still resonates today. ( )

This book was not as good as I just expected. I thought there would be more humor as I love British humor. I guess It just didn't have enough Brit humor for me. Billy sure was a glutton for punishment. ( )

Billy Liar by Keith Waterhouse has proved to be an influential book and has been adapted into a play, a musical, a film and a TV series. The main character, William Fisher is a working-class 19 year old living at home with his parents in a small town in Yorkshire. He is bored by his job as a clerk for an undertaking business, so he spends his time indulging in fantasies and dreams about life in the big city as a comedy writer. He has managed to get himself engaged to two girls all the while being in love with a third one and, no surprise here, he appears to be a compulsive liar.

The author captures that stifling small-town atmosphere as the story cycles through one day in Billy’s life. Between his multiple girlfriends, exasperated parents, annoying colleagues and some quite serious misconduct at work, Billy needs to be doing more than escaping into his fantasies. It quickly becomes apparent though that Billy has no desire to grow up.

While there were some stellar scenes in the book, I never really found myself much caring about the main character. Perhaps I should have read this book when I was younger and more sympathetic to rebellious youth, but at my current age, I had more in common with his parents and his Gran. Billy’s attempts to avoid responsibility and his lack of judgment simply seemed rather pointless to me. ( )

The story I heared, the book, gets 4 stars, I liked it. It was a funny book, for me as a bystander. But when I think of Billy, who wants to be different, to live somewhere else, to have a different life, then all of a sudden it isn't funny anymore.
To live an imaginary life & get yourself in trouble with lies, that's desperate.

The quality of the audio of my version was not so good.
Louder, more quiet, the music in the pauses was of bad quality, so bad it got false.
That's a shame. ( )