The Missing [Hardcover]

Andrew O'Hagan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1996

Hailed by the Times Literary Supplement as an "International Book of the Year" on its publication in Britain, The Missing is a fascinating literary meditation on missing persons by the acclaimed young Scottish writer Andrew O'Hagan.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Scottish journalist Andrew O'Hagan's fascination with "missing persons" grew out of his childhood exposure to the fear engendered by unexplained disappearance. He begins his inquiry into this scarily prevalent phenomenon by describing his growing up in working-class Glasgow in the 1970s, his parents' worry over inner city violence, and the disappearance of a local boy that left the author with a deep unease. O'Hagan's investigation into the causes of such disappearances--abduction, willful walking away from life, teenage angst, parental abandonment--includes a detailed account of a famous British serial murder case in Gloucester. Through wrenching interviews with those hurt most, O'Hagan evokes a compassionate and disturbing empathy with the absent victims of modern alienation.

From Publishers Weekly

This remarkable book defies simple classification. Although ostensibly a study of missing persons (both from the perspective of the missing and those left behind), it is also an autobiography, an investigative report and a memoir of the effect of a story on the reporter who covers it. O'Hagan, a Scot of Irish ancestry, grew up in a "New Town" housing development near Glasgow. His childhood memories, which make up much of the first third of the book, are rich in stories of people who disappeared: a grandfather lost at sea, legends of Bible John (something of a Glasgow Jack-the-Ripper, who was never found), a neighborhood child about his own age who (perhaps) was lured into a van and never seen again and, the same year, a local young mother and her child who mysteriously dropped out of sight. O'Hagan's memoirs are noteworthy for their unromanticized treatment of children's cruelty toward each other. The second third of the book consists of interviews with parents of missing children, with a London missing persons police officer, with a coroner, with special workers concerned with runaways and with runaways who don't want to be found. The book ends with a long firsthand investigation of a Gloucester serial killer who buried his victims in his backyard. Quibbles could be made about the book's balance, as some sections are allotted more space than they need. A new introduction in which a Baltimore kidnapping is examined briefly has been added for this American edition. It would be unfortunate if the book's highly British ambiance keeps this insightful and personally affecting study from an American audience.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: New Press, The (October 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565843355
• ISBN-13: 978-1565843356
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #256,767 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #61 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Recovery > Adult Children of Alcoholics

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning, April 23, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Missing (Hardcover)

This is an astonishing book on a number of levels. At its most basic, it provides a fascinating account of how easily it becomes possible for people to 'disappear'. If you've ever sat staring at a kid's face on the back of a milk carton, and wondered 'What happened?', The Missing will go a considerable way to providing answers. But that's not all: as a piece of autobiography -- indeed, as a piece about memory -- The Missing is stunning: precise, lucid, beautiful despite itself. As a piece of reportage, it is, simply, astonishing. My hat goes off to Mr O'Hagan.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good, solid book full of information., June 20, 2005

By 

Meaghan Good "meggilyweggily" (Venedocia, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Missing (Hardcover)

Part memoir, part social commentary, this book is about missing people in Great Britain. It's a bit dated now as it was written before the internet came into widespread use, but much of what it says still applies. The book is not about specific cases so much as the phenomenon in general. O'Hagan, a journalist, interviewed runaways and homeless people in addition to law enforcement officials as part of his research. Much of what he says, especially about the people who die and are left undiscovered in their apartments for months, makes for very depressing reading. This book is well worth the time to look at and fostered greater awareness in myself, although I knew a great deal about missing people already.

3 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Double Think, September 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Missing (Hardcover)

This is the usual fare that critics at the New York Times discuss at trendy Manhattan restaurants, the kind of self pitying whining that distinguishes their "leisure" section for privileged urbanites, opposite the "news" where blood thirsty articles condoning American war crimes prevail.