Reading Group Roundup: Gypsy Boy
The report this month comes from HMP Lancaster Farms where the group recently read a World Book Night and PRG Book Talk choice, Mikey Walsh’s Gypsy Boy.
Mikey was born into a Romany Gypsy family. They live in a closeted community, and little is known about their way of life. After centuries of persecution Gypsies are wary of outsiders and if you choose to leave you can never come back. This is something Mikey knows only too well. Growing up, he rarely went to school, and seldom mixed with non-Gypsies. The caravan and camp were his world.
The book gives fascinating insights into Gypsy culture, from weddings and parties to funerals and cock fights. Mikey’s account of watching a cock fight with his sister Frankie as children is both riveting and shocking. After ‘Old Red’ is killed by another bird, its body is thrown onto a fire.
‘Frankie put down her marshmallows and walked over to the flames. She wanted to see the bird close up for the first and last time without running away in terror. But as she stepped up to the fire, the great chicken’s flaming corpse leaped from it with a wild scream. We children shouted in terror and the crowd ran in all directions as the bird, its head hanging by a thread, darted across the garden in a crazy dance of death.’
The relationship between Mikey’s parents is an unsettling combination of love, confrontation and violence. His account of their courtship sets the tone:
‘The only way he knew how to talk was by punching someone in the teeth. When he wasn’t fighting he was tongue-tied with shyness. So much so that he was too frightened to come near my mother for three years. Instead he would beat up every travelling man who so much as stood close to her… Eventually she did the unthinkable in Gypsy society, and approached him. Her opening line left a lot to be desired but it did the trick. “Are you going to ask me out or what? If not, will you just fuck off!”
One member of the reading group commented: ‘A million boys could have done with that advice.’
Mikey presents a world of toxic masculinity and his father’s violence is shocking. He is determined to make a ruthless bare-knuckle fighter out of Mikey, and training includes making the two children fight each other. For some the violence made the book a hard read but overall the group was gripped by Mikey’s story and the way he told it:
‘An amazing insight into traveller life and the way in which their culture is so different’
‘This is Mikey’s story and the writing style puts you in his shoes. When he speaks out of turn (wham!) you can really feel the punches (thud!)’
‘The writer writes as if speaking to you rather than using (over) descriptive language’
‘An amazing insight into traveller life and the way in which their culture is so different’
‘This is Mikey’s story and the writing style puts you in his shoes. When he speaks out of turn (wham!) you can really feel the punches (thud!)’
‘The writer writes as if speaking to you rather than using (over) descriptive language’
‘Mikey’s descriptions of the characters were really good – I felt as though I knew them’
‘Mikey’s descriptions of the characters were really good – I felt as though I knew them’
Gypsy Boy is a coming of age book and eventually Mikey has to make a choice between staying with the family and culture he knows – and keeping its secrets – or escaping to find somewhere he can truly belong.
‘I really enjoyed this book – its openness and pace. Very thought provoking and an eye opener.’
With thanks to World Book Night which generously provided copies of Gypsy Boys to nine PRG reading groups.
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