The Unfortunates is an experimental "book in a box" written in 1969 by English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

 B. S. Johnson

B. S. Johnson

B. S. Johnson was an English experimental novelist, poet, literary critic, producer of television programmes and film-maker.-Biography:...

 and reissued in 2008 by New Directions. The 27 chapters are unbound, with a first and last chapter specified. The other 25 sections are designed to be read in any order in between.

Plot

A sportswriter is sent to a small city (Nottingham) on an assignment, only to find himself confronted by ghosts from his past. As he attempts to report an association football match, memories of his friend, a tragic victim of cancer, haunt his mind.

The city visited remains unnamed, however the novel contains an accurate description of Nottingham landmarks, its streetscape, and its environment in 1969, with additional recallings of 1959.
The football ground in the novel is obviously Nottingham Forest's City Ground, from whence the fictional football club 'City' comes.
Part of the unique pleasure of the novel for those who know Nottingham is gradually realising that it is Nottingham being described; making it somewhat Proustian in this regard.

External links

• New Directions Publishing