Human Punk
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
In Human Punk, the coming-of-age tale of a Thames valley likely lad, John King yet again delivers an unflinching, frank insight into British male working-class culture. King's best-known previous novels, The Football Factory and England Away, centred on the brutal subject of soccer hooliganism--of the domestic and export variety.
The antihero of Human Punk is Joe Martin: poor white trash from the council estates of Slough. In the novel's first third, set at the "arse-end of the 70s", Joe is a teenage no-hoper into cheap booze and cheaper girls. He's also into the new punk music that has finally percolated down to the Middlesex hinterlands.
King captures Joe's humble yet never-to-be-forgotten adolescent excitements--"the tingle of the cider" and the "smell of Bev's perfume banging into me"--with such empathy and verve that, in its praise, you can't help sensing the autobiographer at work rather than the novelist.
Unfortunately, the following sections of the novel aren't as telling. First it flashes forward to the late 1980s, when Joe is a backpacker returning to Blighty, as the prodigal son, on the Trans-Siberian railway; then it moves on to glitzy New Labour London of the millennium, where Joe is a moneymaking DJ. Throughout it all Joe broods on a childhood incident when a friend was nearly drowned, and the solving of this "puzzle"--his pal's fate--is what provides the book with its denouement. However, these later sections fail to grip the reader as it is difficult to afford the older, harder Joe the same sympathy one gave his youthful incarnation, and without such identification the whole book lacks psychological Semtex.
Fans of King's bleak, staccato, first-person narratives will not be disappointed by his now familiar but explosive insights into the male psyche.--Sean Thomas --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Review
"In its ambition and exuberance, Human Punk is a league ahead of much contemporary English fiction." -"New Statesman"
"King's eye for detail is as sharp as his characters' tongues, and his creations are eminently three-dimensional: insightful and funny one minute, bigoted and ******-up the next." -"The Face"
"Unique and brutal fiction...King is a master of idiom and street slang." -"The Times"
"King's most accomplished and compelling story to date." --"Esquire"
"King's eye for detail is as sharp as his characters' tongues, and his creations are eminently three-dimensional: insightful and funny one minute, bigoted and ******-up the next." -"The Face"
"Unique and brutal fiction...King is a master of idiom and street slang." -"The Times"
"King's most accomplished and compelling story to date." --"Esquire"
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
absolutely loved this novel as i am in my late 30's and was very young during the 1st wave of punk and was converted during 2nd wave this book gave me an idea of what the scene and life was like around that era, also was very familiar with storys passed down to me by 1st wave punks, very exciting read ,loved it! well done JOHN KING!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Machine gun, stacatto style prose, short sentances,long winded,meandaring prose. I love him in parts and find myself bored with him in others. A football thug with a social conscience is indeed a paradox but most of what he says is on the button. He gets you thinking and that's got to be admired. If you like football, music and think life's more than a game then this book is for you. Go get it.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I loved this book. I'm not English, and I'm still in my 20s but the prose was as real as anything I've come across. Joe is a somewhat more sensitive (and less of a w***er) character than Tom Johnston of the Football Factory and England Away, but his message of rootlesness is the same. This book is a must.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Usual
As usual this tired idea is pedalled to us that punk was this big working class phenomenon when really it was a more a middle class idea of rebellion - most working class kids... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Young Goblin
john king- human punk
such a brilliant, brilliant book, i cannot recommend this book strongly enough. i bought it as a book to travel with and could not put it down. Read more
Published on 3 May 2003 by "naughtynik20"
Great start, good middle, poor end
It's a great shame that King allows this book to deteriorate so much in the last part, because the first two thirds are genuinely brilliant. Read more
Published on 8 Aug 2002 by Stephen Newton
Starts very well but tails off substantially.
The bits of this book about the young lad growing up in the late seventies are very good and evoke the feel of that era well. Read more
Published on 20 Mar 2002 by J. Dennis
identifiable
This reader is 2 young to remember the era of the first part of the novel but the 3 segments tie in nicely-i especially enjoyed the 26 year old Joe's odyssey returning to england... Read more
Published on 21 Feb 2002
one third of a good book
John King's memories of summer 1977, when Punk Rock exploded into public consciousness and threatened briefly to give the music industry the kick in the groin it so richly... Read more
Published on 23 Dec 2001
Great
I bought this at the airport for a holiday read and didn't expect anything from it. What I got was a real experience - a story of youth, middle age, guilt and memory. Read more
Published on 18 Nov 2001
Brought it all back
I saw Human Punk in a local book shop, I usually browse around and wait for something to jump out at me. On this occassion this did. And am I glad that it did. Read more
Published on 17 Aug 2001
a tremendous read!
I bought this book purely on title and brief"blurb". What an amazing story told by a matured man looking back on his teen years. Read more
Published on 22 July 2001 by david k pintar
A Must Read for Punks Young and Old
I read this book in the early summer of 2000. I picked it up because the title jumped out at me. At closer inspection, the book was about a kid, like me (except the main character... Read more
Published on 19 Jun 2001
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
