The Grass Arena: An Autobiography (Penguin Modern Classics)

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It's so interesting to think of chess as a crutch or even a vice in anyway comparable to alcoholism. Jon Healy, born 1943 to Irish immigrants, took to vagrancy, alcholism and crime, almost directly from the time he left home at 14. In the end, this is a worthy first book though its intensity, slightly mishandled, doesn't make it a great memoir or strictly speaking a classic. However I was wrong, the prose picked up a momentum and was actually quite beautiful in its pared-to-the bone way.

Healy dangles short sharp sentences to amuse, shock or disgust as though he might have thought this was all he had to do. Sadly, and to my great shame I have some insights into this world and the decision making that goes into it, so I recognised the faulty thinking that helped Healy descend into hell. Healey doesn’t help or even react much, he’s just happy there’s more to drink: I started drinking one of the bottles.

At times the British slang can be confusing (nick meaning to steal as well as being arrested, for example). Healy's redemption is unexpected and unlikely, and I cannot think of a more unusual and compelling tale.

I remember when I was a child watching the film adaptation of this and seeing a pre-adolescent given a pint of beer in a pub bought by an older friend, and the child later became an alcoholic down the years. Some ( Idle Passion: Chess and the Dance of Death)see chess as one means of managing the "tension" (Healy's term) caused in an individual who doesn't like or understand normal society.It is a part of life I have certainly walked past but never really thought too much about in daily life. Sure, they are begging and stealing from civilians all day every day, but it is for each other that they reserve their worst crimes.