This Bleeding City by Alex Preston

This Bleeding City Reviews

• 
  Ryan

  'If you liked "Bright Lights, Big City", you'll love this' said the wrapper around this novel, which sat on top of a pile in an airport book shop. That set off a round of predictions. The novel will be about bright young things snorting and pilling around London. Someone has vaguely literary yearnings and endless complaints about his job, whose details will be traced rather than described. Despair will be laid on with a bucket. On some level, furthermore, the lead character will embrace the burned-out degradation attendant on his ambition.
  
  Wasn't wrong.
  
  I wanted to like this novel far more than I did. Despite the initial topical appeal - which, perhaps, helped grease the novel's journey out of the slush pile - the whole scene seems more reminiscent of the 80's than the present. The yuppie optimism may be draining away, but the dream of the characters - to yield up their twenties to retire rich in their forties - is the same.
  
  With the best will in the world, it's hard to turn the ins and outs of portfolio managers and investments into readable material. Impatience mars the novel's construction, too. Sometime the scenes, especially in the novel's middle section, are less drawn than hurriedly jotted and pushed at the reader. They're as wispy as plane trails.
  
  Does everyone in the financial world blurt out their autobiography at the slightest provocation, and sound the same doing it? Take this piece from a lap dancer:
  
  'Oh, that's so cool. I'd love to go to Vegas. I saw that film with Nicolas Cage. It's such a glamorous place. [Did she actually watch Leaving Las Vegas...?] I like places that have all the gliz and glamour and still have a really seedy underbelly. An Arab guy flew a bunch of us out to a party in Dubai. It was like that out there. All polished glass and gold and yet, out of sight, hidden from that very harsh light, hookers and drugs and debauchery.'
  
  Or this one:
  
  'I'm so lonely, Charlie. [The main character.] Sometimes I wish that we were back together. Just so I had someone to be with. Look at your eyes tonight. They are so beautiful. So shy and beautiful. No wonder so many girls loved you at university. No wonder I did.'
  
  With Charlie's superiors at Silverbirch, it gets worse.
  
  Crudely executed, muddled, and superficial; more This Side of Paradise than The Great Gatsby.
• 
  Stijn

  I was lucky to get my copy of 'This Bleeding City' from the author himself. Mr Preston was giving an early morning kind of a lecture in a forest at the end of the road festival in Wiltshire. It was raining, I didn't know him, but liked the way he talked about his book and how he read a few fragments for us, early reading birds in the woods. Afterwards mr Preston simply asked if anyone was interested in a copy. I rose my hand, and walked back to the festival site carrying a new book (with a little personal note written on the first page). Back home, the book sat several years on my bookshelf. Until a couple of weeks ago. Picked it up, immediately having difficulties to put it down again. What a wonderful, wonderful book. Heartbreaking.
• 
  Malashree

  It's very well written, but being Preston's debut, it does get a bit clumsy at times. Also, the protagonist is not very amicable. In fact, most of the characters aren't, and those who are somehow screwed over by either the protagonist or terrible circumstances. I do understand that the protagonist is an anti-hero. He's not supposed to be liked, but still...
  
  Preston obviously draws inspiration from F. Scott Fitzgerald, and particularly 'The Great Gatsby'.
  
  I felt sorry for the characters, particularly the protagonist, I felt sympathy but the novel lost some of its charm as it went on. It became overtly gloomy and archetypal. I initially rated it a 4 because I greatly enjoyed the writing in the beginning, but I know that over-all, it deserves a 3. That's not to say I don't want to read more from him though.
• 
  Tariq Mahmood

  This is a dark depressing novel about working in the City (or of a London) in the financial sector which I found pretty difficult to put down because the story intrigued me throughout. Maybe because I myself do not like working and felt a strong affection for the plot? The book left me with a pretty negative profile of city traders highlighting the huge sacrifices they have to make in order to follow their materialistic dreams. The protagonist is portrayed as a stereotype trader who is ambitious and self centred and is willing to pay a price for his success. As someone who has never worked in the city I found the story kindling sympathy for the traders but I am not sure whether this sympathy grew out of my envy for people with high profile jobs? It will be interesting to know the views of traders who read this book though.
• 
  Polly Courtney

  As a fellow ex-City banker, I was really keen to get my hands on this. It didn't disappoint. Beautifully written and with a carefully crafted storyline, I related to the characters instantly.
  
  Whether non-City evacuees would enjoy this I'm not sure (which goes for most City books, including my own); I think anyone who has worked in a high-pressure environment would relate, and there's plenty to like outside 'the office' in here.
• 
  David Hebblethwaite

  This Bleeding City is one of those novels with which you can tell roughly where it’s heading more or less from the outset – not because of any clumsiness on the author’s part, but because the story is so archetypal: young man goes off to seek his fortune, and discovers that what he thought he wanted wasn’t necessarily so great after all. The context for this particular telling of that story is the City of London (where Alex Preston himself works) in the run-up to the recent financial crisis.
  
  To fill in more specifics: whilst at university, Charlie Wales’s ambition is to work in the City; to truly become part of the smart set in whose circles he moves; to meet the expectations of Vero, the beautiful French girl whom he loves. On graduating, Charlie moves to London with Vero and another university friend, Henry; and eventually finds work at a hedge fund. But Charlie struggles with the demands of the job… and you may be able to guess much of the rest (though probably not all of it; the story isn’t quite as straight forward as you might anticipate).
  
  When you know the broad trajectory of a novel – and the prologue of This Bleeding City shows explicitly that tragedy is on the horizon, so there’s no getting away from that knowledge – the telling has to carry even more of the weight; Preston does a pretty good job here, on the whole. Having said that, some aspects of his style can be difficult to warm to; for example, his dialogue can sound too much like speechifying:
  
  

  ‘[...:]I’m sorry that I’m not planning a play for the Festival or writing reviews for a highbrow theatrical website, but we all made those choices, and it’s trite but true that it was a long chain of little decisions, a series of mistakes and ill-chosen priorities and… and we ended up here. We had so many ideals, so many dreams, and we ended up settling for money.’ (32)

  
  
  I’m not generally keen on dialogue that draws attention to itself, as this does. But there is a way in which it works quite well, because it foregrounds the fictionality, emphasising that there’s a greater story behind the specific one being told here. And there’s narrative power in Preston’s writing nonetheless; it’s not so much that particular images or sentences stand out (though there is a description of a sunset which is striking, albeit less because of the words on the page than the way Preston depicts it as a rare moment in which the workers of the City can unite in taking their minds off their jobs), but that the text as a whole has the pull of good storytelling.
  
  The main weakness of This Bleeding City, I’d say, is that the characterisation of Charlie doesn’t quite come together. He seems to me a very self-aware sort, who sees shortcomings in his chosen career path even early on (as an example, consider the passage of dialogue I quoted earlier, which is spoken by Charlie to Vero); he doesn’t strike me as the type who would carry on doing something for so long when he knew in his heart that it wasn’t right for him (or, if he is that type, it doesn’t come across strongly enough in the novel). And, since Charlie’s character is the fulcrum of the book, this can’t help but dent its success to an extent
  
  So, This Bleeding City has its flaws – but it’s still a good read for all that, and one I’d recommend. I’ll be interested to see where Alex Preston goes next with his writing.
• 
  Jon White

  Very depressing book. I didn't care about the characters at all.
  I met the author and questioned him about the reality of the book and how he based his characters. To be fair, he took the criticism well. No-one in my library book club liked the book.
• 
  Ineke van Mackelenbergh

  Fast--paced well-written insight into City hi-money - but sad to realize what materialism can do and how it can pervert good sense.
• 
  Kadir Yıldız

  Taşradan bakıp büyük şehrin imajına aldanan, hep o plazadaki gösterişli ve çok parası olan ayrıca Starbucks'tan farklı bir yerden kahve içmeyen insanların dünyasının bir parçası olmak isteyen ancak bu insanlardan biri olsa bile içindeki boşluğu bir türlü doldurmayan modern insanın bunalımını anlatıyor kitap. Kabaca bu şekilde özetleyebiliriz. Ayrıca "hayallerindeki işi yapıp az para kazanmak mı yoksa çok para kazanıp adeta bir robota dönüşmek ve kendinden başka kimseyi umursamayan bir ansan olmak mı?" sorusunu bize soruyor kitap. Kapitalizm bizi öyle bir yere getiriyor ki yaptığımız işin telaşına düşüp saatlerce arabada bebeğimizin bizi beklediğini unutuyoruz. Yemeğin altını açık unutmak gibi bir şey değil bu. Hepimizi anlatıyor bir bakıma. Bir ilk kitap olmasına ve bence sonunun biraz çabuk bitirilmesine rağmen iyi bir kitap.
• 
  Susannah

  Was not cheered by previous review, including those of friends but I found it quite gripping. Read it fast because I really wanted to discover the who why what from the first pages. Odd phrases seem forced, like à first time try hard novelist but all in all I really enjoyed it even though I do agree that the characters are just not authentic/likeable.
• 
  Sara

  4.5⭐
  
  Quite depressing, but it was the only way to avoid those phony finales that heat your heart but does not leave you with anything to learn. I understand the criticism about the clumsy writing style, but if one is able to emphasise with the characters - which are not likeable, but the situations they live are more or less common for every western citizen, so one shall recognise theirselves in this story, at some degree - then it's not a noticeable issue.
  The last part is a bit rushed, but overall an enjoyable read.
• 
  Cameron McNiff

  I ended up giving up on this read, it was too difficult to get into, I just couldn't engage with the story or characters enough to make me keep on reading.
• 
  Caroline Mather

  Struggled with this & broke off half way through. Think it's a 1st Novel, I found it a long winded & clumsy read
• 
  NoBeatenPath

  While this book has a few nice features - a clever title, a prologue that draws you in (though it pretty much telegraphs the whole plot of the book) it is really rather dire and a chore to read. The author seems to have taken every metaphor he could find, gilded with some extra adjectives and whacked them into his story. The plot - boy from average background sells his soul to get the finer things in life (including a girl who is 'too good for him') but discovers in the end that of course that is not really what happiness is about, after losing his way - is trite and has been done much better elsewhere. The characters feel like badly drawn stereotypes, and frankly I never really cared about any of them.
  In short - this reads like a bad creative writing program output. There are some fascinating novels being published at the moment - save your precious reading time for them, don't bother with this one.
• 
  Monica Co

  This book belongs to the tradition of fiction that came out after the big 2008 financial crisis.
  Set in the London City, it is the story of a young graduate who climbs the ranks of a big investment firm, but at the same time loses touch with the real life values. Driven by greed and ambition, he realises his mistake when it is to late; then he simply becomes what he was meant to be from the beginning.
  Despite finding the novel a bit immature and somehow clichéd, I liked how Preston ends the story; instead of finding a happy or a tragic ending he opts for a solution which is 100% realistic, and, precisely for that, scaring.
• 
  Aleksandra

  Liked it. I could make quite a few parralells with my own life and deliberations. Managed to extract the main idea, which I found quite useful. Rethought some of my persuasions on the purpose of being and on perception of the surrounding reality. To add, I am absolutely not a fan of modern literature.
• 
  Dennis Thompson

  Felt almost a bit like an autobiography in that it really wasn't that great a story. I suppose you could argue that it is a good thing that the story seemed real but for me fiction should have some element of escapism and an interesting story. Set during the period 2005-2009 or so mainly in London during the financial crisis.
• 
  Layla Rohan

  Pretty gritty but a good look into the world of banking/finance and how the world revolves around people who clearly have no clue. Scary to think this could be going on behind our backs. Nothing but doom and gloom though.
• 
  Dmitry Lovermann

  A agree that story line is not one of the most interesting I've ever seen, but I liked the way it was written: hesitant young boy with his own imperfectness, - just the same as most of young graduated professionals. I liked Preston's narration style.
• 
  Dmitry Lovermann

  Zajímavé čtení, ale na samotném příběhu asi nic zvláštního není, líbil se mi víc proces četby. Na rozdíl od Cityboy, v této knize se autor více zaměřuje na citovou stránku života investičního bankéře.
• 
  Saif Hasan

  An extremely clumsy book. Too cluttered. No scope for the emotional spaces to even out. Predictable right from word one.
  
  AVOID.
• 
  Andreia Tavares

  Very Interesting :)
• 
  Isabel

  
  http://bookswithbenefits.tumblr.com/p...
• 
  Dan

  WHAT a final sentence.