You Could Do Something Amazing With Your Life: You Are Raoul Moat

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Like Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, Andrew Hankinson’s You Could Do Something Amazing with Your Life (You Are Raoul Moat) is a non-fiction novel, using letters and tape recordings made by Moat while on the run to recreate his voice and mind-set in a chronological narrative of his final days from his prison release to his death. This truly is one of the greatest nonfiction books I've read. I think about it a lot, despite not owning a copy of the book and having only read it once 2 years ago. Guardian (Book of the Day) -A claustrophobic true-crime account in the tradition of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood The book is written by journalist Andrew Hankinson who writes from the perspective of Raoul Moat, who was a serial killer from Britian who shot his ex-girlfriend and killed his ex's new boyfriend, blinded a policeman and started a giant manhunt killing spree in 2010. So it's fictional but based on real life events and first hand recaps from Moat himself through letters and voice memos that he left for the public.

You are awesome and you should stop listening to people who say you’re useless because it’s clear that you’re amazing.” – Unknown Eventually, cornered by the police, Moat shot himself. Andrew Hankinson, a journalist and a Geordie, tells Moat's story in the second person, which means that the listener is uncomfortably close at all times to Raoul Moat. It is an audio experience unrelieved by authorial distance or omniscient interpretation.

You Could Do Something Amazing with Your Life [You Are Raoul Moat]

Karl’s a good friend [his full name’s Karl Ness and he’s 26 years old]. He does odd jobs for you. He’s been staying at your house to feed the dogs, pay the bills and keep things tidy, but everything looks dirty and unkempt. He passes you the phone. He says the gun isn’t here. Hankinson’s approach, a descendant of the literary non-fiction favoured by fellow Northerners Gordon Burn, Blake Morrison and David Peace, allows us to inspect Moat’s bitter logic up close. A second-person present-tense (mostly) account of the last eight days of Raoul Moat, who in 2010 murdered the boyfriend of his ex-girlfriend, shot his ex-girlfriend and then went on the run before killing himself, and while on the run shot in the head a police officer who subsequently also killed himself. It may be your boss, your friend, or your partner, who fails to tell you how amazing you are. They may not see the importance of giving you the big thumbs up. Or view it as an ego trip rather than a much-needed boost to your confidence.

I ENJOY BEING A DAD. MY CHILDREN ARE MY GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT. HAVING THE MORALS I HAVE. NOT LOSING THE PLOT AND BEING IN JAIL. I ENJOY MY RELATIONSHIPIt’s a grimly compelling book that successfully manages to take the reader into Moat’s head to catch a glimpse of what drove him to such extremes. The book’s greatest achievement is in humanising Moat – not making him sympathetic, because he’s not; besides the shootings, he beat his partner and kids and his brief stay in prison was due to assault of a minor – by showing the reader the everyday frustrations that had built up over the years and finally overwhelmed him. Evil is not unknowable, it’s all around us; its potential is in all of us but some are less equipped to deal with life’s trials and so we get people like Raoul Moat completely losing it. It takes time, energy, courage and dedication. But you’re not alone. Everyone else has goals like these and fights a thousand small battles each day. But whether or not you become a winner depends on your consistency. The mother of the first victim, Chris Brown, complained at the time that Moat received far more publicity than her own son. An RIP Moat fan club was started up on Facebook. PC David Rathband, unable to cope with sudden blindness, killed himself. Now Andrew Hankinson, a journalist from Newcastle, has constructed a narrative from Moat’s own written and recorded source material. Why devote a book to him?