The Disillusioned is a ruthlessly honest memoir of a young man who writes both searingly and disarmingly about the highs and lows, the perils and promise of our times. The Disillusioned documents the struggle all too common for recent generations: yearning to find a sense of worth and a purpose to their lives against the backdrop of abuses rife in modern society and the duplicity of political systems which favour the rich and powerful despite the hollow rhetoric that promises something else. The Disillusioned encompasses three decades, beginning with the impressionable child indoctrinated with the propaganda of Thatchers Britain and suffering sexual abuse, a lack of role models and any sense of belonging. It is a gripping story of obsessive ambition, discrimination, sex, scams, suicidal impulses, alcoholism, the search for love, loss and the quest for redemption in New Zealand. It is David Scotts story, but also the story of a disillusioned silent majority; the story of young people bogged down with debt and disillusionment; the story, too, of the increasing dangers facing our children in a materialistic world where family bonds and values are sacrificed for high incomes and status.
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Editorial Reviews
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One Man's self-surgery The Disillusioned by D.W.Scott An autobiography while not out of one's 20's. Surely only a Martin Amis would have the daring - yet David Scott's The Disillusioned digs deep into a life crammed with action, begun, consciously in the Thatcherite years as they impacted on his home community of South Shields. This was the North East of TVs Auf Weidersehn Pet, where families limited themselves by accent, work and alcohol into a future which had no future. If you were out of work suddenly at 40, you lived the rest of your life on the dole. Shipbuilding was dead, mining almost so, heavy manufacturing machines worn out, the unions sick unto death. Scott was a product of his place and time, believing temporarily in Thatcherism as Britain had to change. Without a chance of academic education he worked and scammed through a series of dreadful heavy industry and pub jobs, relieving his deep, unacknowledged depression by constantly getting p*ssed and up the skirts of 'the trim', female pubbers and clubbers on the prowl. At the ripe age of 24, Scott found himself married to a New Zealander and the couple migrated to Wellington. Suddenly Scott's shrewd abilities found a place through computer training and Polytech, then, with a fancifully elaborated CV, he got into the public service, the Commerce Commission and later the Defence Department, even assisting communications in East Timor. But the ghosts of his past, family alienation and marital troubles, returned to haunt him. Writing this book, a searingly honest self-surgical operation, and looking after his son, has brought a measure of healing. Scott sets down with a caustic wit the virtues of the North East, its loyalties among his friends, and its deprivations. His most fervent attachment to a lost love, Kerry, killed in a motor accident, evokes his capacity for a depth of feeling and pain which obviously lies beneath the surface Don Juanism, the alcoholic immolation. Scott leaves his story with an unanswered question as to where to next for himself and his young son. The Disillusioned could well be a study text for anyone close to the addiction and other problems of those whom Gordon McLauchlan calls the Misfit Generation. It is not for the easily shockable reader. Others will acknowledge it as a fine, honest piece of work. --Wairarapa Times Age (NZ), September 2005, Reviewed by Margaret Chistensen
The Disillusioned is a surprisingly compulsive read about what I call the Misfit Generation - the one beguiled at first by the challenge of rational economics and then bewildered by its effects. David Scott's odyssey is to find self-worth, to discover basic human values among the detritus of modern life. At the end you can't be sure he's made it. But his story matters and he tells it with the pace and directness of a pro. --Book Cover Review by Gordon McLauchlan
Story of our times lived in the tough life of an immigrant man. The Disillusioned, a story of our times, traces the life of David Scott from his 1970 birth near Newcastle, England until today living with his son in Island Bay, in Wellington. Modern research reveals that a tough upbringing for boys is likely to create failures at work and in family relationships at home. Today far more young men than women commit suicide or die in car crashes, and at school 75 percent of pupils suspended are male. Scott grew up in a Newcastle slum, near where Catherine Cookson was born. Their flat having few facilities, Their family was moved to a new council estate when Scott was 10. Running unsupervised by parents, he was abused by a newsagent and formed a strong friendship with Andy as they became skilled observers and challenged the security of many factories. At 16 he left school as the North-East slumped into a dole supported area, Thatcherism closing down the coal mines and industrial businesses. After a time on the dole, he realised money through a job was necessary to buy property and so gain wealth. He also learned the bullsh*tting essential in job interviews to become successful. Scott bought his flat, left his job in the factory, worked in bars, skimmed the punters and the till, and womanised. His business failed, money from a wealthy girlfriend saved reposession of the flat, while Scott worked in London. Eventually he fell in love again - and married to emigrate to New Zealand. While the marriage didn't survive, he found work, another relationship, wrote this book and now lives for and with his son Hayden, in Wellington. Hopefully he has achieved financial and emotional stability, certainly the story of his battle to obtain them is compulsive reading and a warning for us all. --Southland Times Ltd (NZ), 18 December 2004, Reviewed by Helen Blasland
The Disillusioned is a surprisingly compulsive read about what I call the Misfit Generation - the one beguiled at first by the challenge of rational economics and then bewildered by its effects. David Scott's odyssey is to find self-worth, to discover basic human values among the detritus of modern life. At the end you can't be sure he's made it. But his story matters and he tells it with the pace and directness of a pro. --Book Cover Review by Gordon McLauchlan
Story of our times lived in the tough life of an immigrant man. The Disillusioned, a story of our times, traces the life of David Scott from his 1970 birth near Newcastle, England until today living with his son in Island Bay, in Wellington. Modern research reveals that a tough upbringing for boys is likely to create failures at work and in family relationships at home. Today far more young men than women commit suicide or die in car crashes, and at school 75 percent of pupils suspended are male. Scott grew up in a Newcastle slum, near where Catherine Cookson was born. Their flat having few facilities, Their family was moved to a new council estate when Scott was 10. Running unsupervised by parents, he was abused by a newsagent and formed a strong friendship with Andy as they became skilled observers and challenged the security of many factories. At 16 he left school as the North-East slumped into a dole supported area, Thatcherism closing down the coal mines and industrial businesses. After a time on the dole, he realised money through a job was necessary to buy property and so gain wealth. He also learned the bullsh*tting essential in job interviews to become successful. Scott bought his flat, left his job in the factory, worked in bars, skimmed the punters and the till, and womanised. His business failed, money from a wealthy girlfriend saved reposession of the flat, while Scott worked in London. Eventually he fell in love again - and married to emigrate to New Zealand. While the marriage didn't survive, he found work, another relationship, wrote this book and now lives for and with his son Hayden, in Wellington. Hopefully he has achieved financial and emotional stability, certainly the story of his battle to obtain them is compulsive reading and a warning for us all. --Southland Times Ltd (NZ), 18 December 2004, Reviewed by Helen Blasland
About the Author
David Scott arrived in New Zealand in 1994 aged 24 and with a singular determination to break out of the mediocrity of his once industrial hometown of South Shields in Englands northeast. Armed with a curriculum vitae almost as varied as Forrest Gumps he was until recently an information technology manager in NZ Defence. No longer content to sacrifice sanity or precious time for money he is now first and foremost a father. He currently lives in Island Bay, Wellington.
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