Homework
A Memoir
by Geoff Dyer
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Pub Date Jun 10 2025 | Archive Date Jul 10 2025
Description
Named a most anticipated book of 2025 by Vulture | The Guardian | Financial Times | The Observer | The Times (London) | Literary Hub
"Homework is wonderful Geoff-Dyer writing, which we've all learned to crave; something to delight and to move us and to edify us on every page. I find him an irresistible writer." —Richard Ford
A portrait of a young boy, who keeps passing exams—and of a changing England in the 1960s and 1970s.
The only child of a sheet-metal worker and a dinner lady who worked at the canteen of the local school, Geoff Dyer grew up in a world shaped by memories of the Depression and the Second World War. But far from being a story of hardship overcome, this loving memoir is a celebration of opportunities afforded by the postwar settlement, of which the author was an unconscious beneficiary. The crux comes at the age of eleven with the exam that decided the future of generations of British schoolkids: secondary modern or the transformative possibilities of grammar school? One of the lucky winners, Dyer goes to grammar school, where he develops a love of literature (and beer and prog rock).
Mapping a path from primary school through the tribulations of teenage sport, gig-going, romantic fumblings, fights (well, getting punched in the face), and other misadventures with comic affection, Homework takes us to the threshold of university, where Dyer gets the first intimations that a short geographical journey—just forty miles—might extend to the length of a life.
Recalling an eroded but strangely resilient England, Homework traces, in perfectly phrased and hilarious detail, roots that extend into the deep foundations of class society.
A Note From the Publisher
Advance Praise
"It’s as common as birdsong to hear readers praise Geoff Dyer’s versatility. He can write about anything from Lester Young to an aircraft carrier, they sing. Yet many of his readers care little about the subject, as long as Dyer goes on writing in his puckish prose about how the subject has made it impossible for him to write. Now comes Homework, a memoir whose unavoidable subject is, at last, Dyer himself. If he is tempted to lift his ironic mask here, it’s only to stumble across more ironies and comic paradoxes in the experience of his growing up. This fuller Dyer proceeds in chronological order, and comes complete with a mum and dad, an encompassing post-war England, and the strange boyhood wonderment of an only child, but the tone remains pure Geoff. Homework is a stunning feat of retrieval, rendered in such minute detail you would think Dyer had consumed an entire tin of madeleines. Having painted himself into an autobiographical corner, he has produced a masterpiece. Dyer on Dyer—his best conundrum so far." —Billy Collins
“Has Geoff Dyer set aside his matchless dry wit and sly indirection to finally reveal to us the formation and workings of his inmost heart? No, better, he has employed those gifts in that cause. Homework is funny and beautiful and not homework at all.” —Jonathan Lethem
"Homework is wonderful Geoff Dyer writing, which we've all learned to crave; something to delight and to move us and to edify us on every page. I find him an irresistible writer." —Richard Ford
"Geoff Dyer and I nearly share a name and a birth year. We were born in different countries, however, under different circumstances. No matter. Every page of this exquisite, witty memoir brought back a flood of memories and emotions that seemed to be my own, so lovingly and precisely does Dyer articulate them. A heartfelt book by a supremely intelligent writer." —Jeffrey Eugenides
“Moving, atmospheric, truthful, perceptive, and hilariously funny—I loved it. A piece of our English history, the story of a vanished time, which feels close at hand but thoroughly gone. What a story. What a great story.” —Tessa Hadley
Available Editions
EDITION | Other Format |
ISBN | 9780374616229 |
PRICE | $29.00 (USD) |
PAGES | 288 |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews

‘Homework’ is a beautifully written memoir of the author’s experiences of growing up in the sixties and seventies. The ‘shiver of silent excitement’ that Geoff Dyer experienced as a book loving teenager was felt by me on the many occasions when his recollections mirrored my own childhood recollections. I laughed aloud at some of his anecdotes, but was particularly moved by his descriptions of his parents and his retrospective appreciation of the same qualities that had brought him into conflict with them as an adolescent.
‘Homework’ has a ring of authenticity about it and is thoroughly recommended.