Items related to Human Punk

John King Human Punk ISBN 13: 9781629631158

Human Punk - Softcover

 
9781629631158: Human Punk
View all copies of this ISBN edition:
 
 
For 15-year-old Joe Martin, growing up on the outskirts of West London, the summer of 1977 means punk rock, disco girls, stolen cars, social-club lager, Teddy Boys and a job with gypsies. Life is sweet - until he is attacked by a gang and thrown into the Grand Union Canal with his best friend Smiles. Fast forward to 1988, and Joe is travelling home after three years away, coming to terms with tragedy. Fast forward to 2000, and life is sweet once more. Human Punk is the story of punk, common bonds and a shared culture - sticking the boot in, sticking together.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

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

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

"Human Punk is one of those books where I am just 'yep' from the moment I see the cover until I read through all of the information about it." --Book Riot

"King's most accomplished and compelling story to date" --Esquire

"Evokes the punk era superbly" --Independent on Sunday

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

  • PublisherPM Press
  • Publication date2016
  • ISBN 10 1629631159
  • ISBN 13 9781629631158
  • BindingPaperback
  • Number of pages368
  • Rating

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780099283164: Human Punk

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  ISBN 13:  9780099283164
Publisher: Vintage, 2001
Softcover

9780224060486: Human Punk

Jonath..., 2000
Softcover

Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace

Stock Image

John King
Published by PM Press (2015)
ISBN 10: 1629631159 ISBN 13: 9781629631158
New Paperback / softback Quantity: > 20
Seller:
THE SAINT BOOKSTORE
(Southport, United Kingdom)

Book Description Paperback / softback. Condition: New. New copy - Usually dispatched within 4 working days. Seller Inventory # B9781629631158

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
£ 13.27
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within United Kingdom
Destination, rates & speeds
Seller Image

King, John
Published by PM Press (2015)
ISBN 10: 1629631159 ISBN 13: 9781629631158
New Softcover Quantity: 5
Seller:
GreatBookPricesUK
(Castle Donington, DERBY, United Kingdom)

Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # 24315278-n

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
£ 14.71
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within United Kingdom
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

John King
Published by Pm Press 2016-01-14, Oakland (2016)
ISBN 10: 1629631159 ISBN 13: 9781629631158
New paperback Quantity: 5
Seller:
Blackwell's
(Oxford, OX, United Kingdom)

Book Description paperback. Condition: New. Language: ENG. Seller Inventory # 9781629631158

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
£ 14.72
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within United Kingdom
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

John King
Published by PM Press 2016-01-14 (2016)
ISBN 10: 1629631159 ISBN 13: 9781629631158
New Paperback Quantity: > 20
Seller:
Chiron Media
(Wallingford, United Kingdom)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. Seller Inventory # 6666-TRD-9781629631158

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
£ 12.78
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: £ 2.49
Within United Kingdom
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

King, John
Published by Pm Press (2016)
ISBN 10: 1629631159 ISBN 13: 9781629631158
New PAP Quantity: 5
Seller:
PBShop.store UK
(Fairford, GLOS, United Kingdom)

Book Description PAP. Condition: New. New Book. Shipped from UK. Established seller since 2000. Seller Inventory # EB-9781629631158

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
£ 15.30
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within United Kingdom
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

King, John
Published by Pm Press (2016)
ISBN 10: 1629631159 ISBN 13: 9781629631158
New PAP Quantity: 5
Seller:
PBShop.store US
(Wood Dale, IL, U.S.A.)

Book Description PAP. Condition: New. New Book. Shipped from UK. Established seller since 2000. Seller Inventory # EB-9781629631158

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
£ 17.51
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
From U.S.A. to United Kingdom
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

King, John
Published by PM Press (2015)
ISBN 10: 1629631159 ISBN 13: 9781629631158
New Softcover Quantity: > 20
Seller:
Brook Bookstore
(Milano, MI, Italy)

Book Description Condition: new. Seller Inventory # a0241d42a162cbf674e2de2bcbbe707f

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
£ 17.55
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
From Italy to United Kingdom
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

King, John
Published by Pm Pr (2015)
ISBN 10: 1629631159 ISBN 13: 9781629631158
New Paperback Quantity: 2
Seller:
Revaluation Books
(Exeter, United Kingdom)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: Brand New. 352 pages. 7.90x5.60x1.00 inches. In Stock. Seller Inventory # __1629631159

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
£ 12.78
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: £ 6.99
Within United Kingdom
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

King, John
Published by PM Press (2015)
ISBN 10: 1629631159 ISBN 13: 9781629631158
New Softcover Quantity: 13
Seller:

Book Description Condition: New. 2015. Paperback. New. Seller Inventory # P008993

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
£ 7.49
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: £ 13.75
From U.S.A. to United Kingdom
Destination, rates & speeds
Seller Image

King, John
Published by PM Press (2015)
ISBN 10: 1629631159 ISBN 13: 9781629631158
New Softcover Quantity: 5
Seller:
GreatBookPrices
(Columbia, MD, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # 24315278-n

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
£ 13.66
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: £ 12.56
From U.S.A. to United Kingdom
Destination, rates & speeds

There are more copies of this book

View all search results for this book