Amazon.com Review
Yes We Have No: Adventures in the Other England is a dazzling, brilliant book, brimming with brutal truths--so much so it's amazing it ever saw the ink of American printing presses. In an industry that practically mandates that travel books paint foreign countries in romantically glowing colors and their residents be portrayed at worst as mischievous angels, Cohn emerges with the fresh slap of honesty, capturing on paper a group of sometimes grisly, sometimes mad, and often timeworn characters who push on with dignity and usually at least a dash of hope.
After growing up in Northern Ireland and rollicking a bit in the British music scene, Cohn settles into an English village so perfect and sleepy that for many years it seems untouched by time. When modernity strikes--in the form of a surly new neighbor who composes ad jingles--Cohn cuts his ties to idyllic living. In a miniature car driven by a feisty, if nearly dwarf-sized, female Odinist--the cult revival of the Norse god is but many of the discoveries he makes--Cohn sets out to the far corners of England, from depressed coal towns to New Age campgrounds, seeking modern English truth.
He finds, among others, a karaoke king, a psychic social worker, a gay transvestite-turned-straight family man, a lunatic wandering on foot town to town searching for the boyfriend who dumped her, a businessman-turned-politician who is running as the anti-Christ in the upcoming election, and a lonely widower whose only remaining valuable is shredded by a punk. In these deftly drawn sketches there is often one day that changes a life--for good or for evil--with the remaining days and years following like cars pulled by a train, fueled by blind hope or dashed dreams. Together, these portraits of those who've been brushed aside or have fallen into the cracks reflect an untold England, not one of cricket and foxhunts, but a society molded by or thrashing against the onward marching of change. --Melissa Rossi
From Publishers Weekly
England's contemporary bohemians, tramps and even thieves get an exciting, sympathetic set of quick portraits in Cohn's vivid book-length essay. Long known for his writings on early rock and roll, novelist Cohn (Need) travels to urban centers from Brighton to Newcastle and around the countryside in search of "[t]ravellers and techno freaks... bikers, fetishists, faith healers, visionaries, squatters, druggies, lunatics and street heroes." He wrote of a similar excursion to New York City's demimonde in Heart of the World. Cohn discovers an ideal, indefatigable road-trip companion in Mary Carson, for whom "every act is a life-or-death drama." Together they observe and interview London football hooligans; an elegant West Indian modern Falstaff; a penniless woman who roams Bristol obsessively seeking her ex-lover; Cedric Reeve, who sailed to Shanghai in a junk he built himself while suffering from MS; the wonderful transgendered Grace, "the Marlene Dietrich of Cowley"; young runaway Megan, an aspiring "world champion kick boxer"; a priestess of Odin; Surgeon, the hardworking king of Birmingham techno-music; and a few dozen other decidedly individual individuals. Deejay Bobby Friction, the coolest kid in London's all-Asian Hounslow, asks Cohn, "Am I to be eclipsed? Or do I shine?" With appealing descriptions of often appalling conditions, Cohn invokes a left-wing agenda reminiscent of Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier; closer parallels lie in more recent writing about the U.K.'s pre- and post-punk undergrounds. Fans of Iain Sinclair and Neil Gaiman, or even Trainspotting, will find the Derry native's tour of England equally captivating. (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
