Working Class Boy is a stunning piece of work – relentless, earnest, shockingly vivid. Barnes . . . doesn’t just have a scarifying story to tell. He has a grippingly effective way of telling it: one that does full justice to the grim facts without overcooking them . . . there are no requests for pity here, no wallowing in victimhood. Above all there is a bracing intolerance of bullshit. You can’t fake such a tone. You have to earn it.
– The Australian
Nothing will prepare you for the power of Jimmy’s memoir. A fierce, graphic, bawdy account of his working class childhood – truly harrowing, and yet often tender and funny. I couldn’t put it down because, above all, it is also a story of resilience and bravery.
– Sam Neill
Barnes’ way of addressing the reader directly, while largely ignoring his rock-star status, edges towards a unique voice.
– The Listener
This is volume one of the book [Jimmy Barnes] needed to write to expel his demons . . . It finishes as Cold Chisel starts, and I’m hanging out for the next instalment. What a life.
– Jennifer Byrne, Australian Women’s Weekly
Reading about [Barnes’s] harrowing early life gives a greater understanding of both the belting lyrics and the softer, sometimes haunting, music he has produced . . . This moving account . . . shows in grim detail the enormous effort Jimmy had to put in to become the man he is.
– Booksellers New Zealand
Visceral, brave, honest. A deep, guttural howl of a book, it speaks of the pain and hurt that haunt so many men. And it may just save lives.
– Magda Szubanski
Barnes writes with verve and style to present a fascinating story of flawed and compelling personalities, not least his own. The result is unexpectedly compelling.
– Rolling Stone