More from the King of England (Human Punk - John King)

Member Name: Daisybelle

Product:	Human Punk - John King
Date:	12/08/00 (61 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Realism

Disadvantages: He doesn't write quickly enough

John Kings latest offering is another interesting collection of observations on working class life in England over the last 20 odd years.

The book follows the life of Joe Martin from 1977, as a 15 year old punk in Slough, through to the present where he's, well, let's not spoil the plot by jumping that far ahead. It's split into 3 distinct parts, in 1977, 1988 and 2000 respectively. I think it's probably worth pausing between each section as they are self contained stories in a way.

Joe is a cross between some of Kings earlier characters in his masterpiece (Well I thought it was:-) The Football Factory Trilogy. He has facets of Vince the traveller, as he wanders the far east seeking meaning to his unglamorous existence. Will the sensitive comes through, as he craves a real relationship with a sparky, likeminded woman. Strangely, to me anyway, he also has a good portion of the bloke in Nick Hornbys' "Hi Fidelity" thrown in through his love of music, especially vinyl.

Throughout the book he revisits the happenings in his life, a lot of which revolve around an incident in '77 when himself and a friend were beaten up and thrown in a canal. When I say revisits that's a bit misleading as each section is written in the present tense, from the point of view of Joe at his age in that period.

The friend, Smiles, never fully recovers. Is this down to the incident, or is it due to his his family troubles? Smiles was so-called because of his desire to sell the most Sunny Smiles photographs while at Junior school, possibly as a result of having no Mum.

Do they bring back a wave of nostalgia to anyone else, the small photos of orphaned babies that you were given at school to sell for pennies to raise money ? The first part of the book is filled with little things like this that will bring back memories to anyone who remembers the 70s.

The book has the usual dashings of Sex, Drug
s, Rock n' Roll (In this case Punk n' Ska, and plenty of it) and violence. It also has a good dollop of coarse language and a very noticeable lack of any form of political correctness, as does all of his work. This is combined with Kings' writing from the viewpoint of the politically disenfranchised "underclass" to good effect - Life with no-one worth trusting or voting for can be cheery, but it has an aura of braved out hopelessness when considered holistically. The best element of it for me though is Joes' empathic tendencies, always believing the best of people, and the consequences of this. Getting you inside his characters heads is Kings major talent, and he excels again in Human Punk.

Like his previous novel "Headhunters" this book has a sting in the tail to wake you up and let you know you've got to wait another couple of years for more . I cannot praise King enough, as he makes it so easy for me to relate to his characters by blending hard knocks with humanity in a good-humoured but realistic fashion.

Summary: