4 Stars from me
I was captivated by the easy style and dry humour of Nick Pettigrew in this book. It is a tough old subject and although that very much came across, Pettigrew made it entertaining and accessible.
It felt to me like quite an important book as it drew such awareness to this side of life and the people who work in this world – not to mention those who live in this world.
It is liberally peppered with dark comedic moments which are much needed among the daily gloom – I take my hat off to all who do this job, ditto social workers, ditto probation officers.
The nod to the prescription (and non prescription) ways in which he medicated in order to cope with the job was sad but I am very sure true.
All in all, a very clever way of bringing this life to the forefront of people’s minds and highlighting the difficulties faced by those tackling this difficult area of employment.
Clever, darkly funny, true to life and and excellent read.
Blurb: Has your life become unbearable because the person living above you has a fondness for crack cocaine, the company of strangers and dance music? Or maybe you’re a social worker, mental health nurse, police officer, firefighter, dog warden or vicar and you’ve been landed with someone who’s a pain in the arse. Who are you going to call? That would be me: an anti-social behaviour officer.
Anti-Social is the diary of a council worker whose job is to keep his community happy, or at least away from each other’s throats. That’s hard enough at the best of times but when government cuts mean that hospitals, social services and police are all at breaking point, the possibility of complete chaos is never far away.
This is an urgent, timely but, most of all, hysterically funny true story of a life spent working with the people society wants to forget and the problems that nobody else can resolve. This book will make you laugh, cry and boil with rage within a single sentence.
Read and Rated 