- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Abacus; New edition edition (4 May 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0349111928
- ISBN-13: 978-0349111926
- Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.6 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 530,739 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
"Born through a sieve" is the phrase Daren King uses to describe his two main protagonists, Bole and Star, teenage veterans of the drug culture. Irredeemably hooked on Ecstasy, spangles and each other, Bole and Star grope through life in permanent bewilderment. So dim is their grasp on reality that they believe their duvet is a giant bag of pills, and have to write notes to remind themselves to eat. In the thrall of the mercurial Boxy, transvestite dealer and aspiring actor, they conduct doomed drug transactions, sharing the stash with customers instead of taking the cash. Their world is peopled with menaces--paranoia, police and vigilant parents--and their only certainty is each other.
King's story is both tender and funny--Bole and Star's pratfalls leading to some hilarious scenes. It also provides a deeply unsettling vision of the future--but these concerns are pushed forward at the expense of character and plot. Bole's semi-inebriate patois--in which the bulk of the novel is couched--can be funny and refreshingly direct, but also proves tiring. Just as the world befogs and patronises Bole and Star, it seems publishers might be underestimating the needs of their post-Ecstasy readership. --Matthew Baylis --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
OBSERVER
' an extraordinary debut'
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It is easy to see why this book was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and longlisted for the Booker Prize. Though not perfect (it's a little light on plot), Boxy an Star has more personality than just about any other book I have ever read. It's funnier than most "comic" books and yet more profound and moving than the vast majority of "serious" novels. The marketing let it down - the cover artwork for the first edition was a complete rip-off of the artwork for Irvine Welsh's Ecstacy, yet the work itself couldn't be more different. It's not really about drugs; it's about mental problems (perhaps inspired by drugs, but one suspects there is more to it than that), but mostly it's about love and despair. Let's hope this guy has something else pubished soon.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is probably one of the books of the year for me. It will be a crime if it does not win one of the major prizes and get the recognition it deserves. Darren King should be congratulated for his ambition and his vision of the near future. Most writing on drugs depicts intoxication as an affect on descriptive language and perception - as if a coloured glass has been put in front of the reader's eyes. Like Burrough's at his best, Darren King does more than that - he recognises the effects that drugs have on the very matter of language: how it affects the 'I' in every statement, how the words fall away from that subjectivity. It is a brilliant achievement.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Set in a not too distant future where everything is much the same apart from the smell- o- vision televisions and video phones Boxy An Star is a delight - touchy, witty and above all, innovative, stretching and reinventing the English language and creating a completely believable and sympathetic world. Narrated by Thomas Boler (Bole - whose ( mother was a 'funny lady' ) Boxy an Star gives a voice to the underclass that Bole and his girlfriend Star belong to, the latest in a long line of pill heads too young and too addled by pills to go to work or do anything remotely normal. Bole and Star wander around in a daze only needing each other, pills, and detailed written instructions on how to get up in the morning because the pills' take the rememberin away'. Kings use of language is a joyfully deranged mix of imagination, ad-speak, truthfulness, cockney, and anything else you care to mention : "Me sitttin on a wall outside a shop what is full up of birds muckin about an showin off an staying dry all day they are confident aint they it is a birds clothes shop it is called Miss Selfish" King's enjoyment really shines through, and makes the novel a delight to read, but it is Bole's perceptions of society and people that gives the novel its edge - Bole's distrust of business men, the police (Detestable Inspector Boyrape pops up at one point and one exchange runs thus :" 'Do you want to come to the nick, Stacy? ' 'No' says Star 'It is full of c***s. I have remembered' ") all ring profoundly true . In an 'ever changin unfair world' it is left to Bole to see things and people how they really are - "She don't like me Star's mum dont. Reckons I am a trash junky. I reckon she is too. Jus gets em from the doctor not from Boxy" This novel is a touching but unsentimental love story, a comment on society and an insight into a believable vision of the future. But above all, this novel is witty, unexpected and a pure joy to read.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Avoid at all costs
This is completely without personality, likeability, or warmth. Why on earth is this guy published? God only knows.
Published on 5 Sep 2003 by "anita_alsopp"
Funny, touching, excellent
An excellent book. The romance between the two protagonists is surprisingly touching, and it manages to include social commentary without being judgemental. Read more
Published on 25 Nov 2000 by archon
Beautiful and brilliant
Difficult to read at first, the complexly-constructed language soon gives way to reveal one of the most beautiful love stories you will ever read.
Published on 29 Nov 1999
If I was rememberin' it first I would 'ave dunnit
Mr King, I is readin your book and I is finking in my own ed what a beauty is comin out of yours. You is not taking pills or what came out would have looked all funny like the... Read more
Published on 6 Aug 1999
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