The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner – Alan Sillitoe

Sillitoe does for 1950s Nottinghamshire what Joyce had earlier done for his hometown in Dubliners.

Both books create a tableau of working class life through a series of discreet but thematically linked short stories, dominated by a longer tale (in the case the brilliant title story). Both discuss themes of working class anger, sexual politics and the vulnerability of children. And both are minor masterpieces.