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3.72 AVERAGE
3.72 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Vivid, jarring, complex and beautiful. Bani, you are beautiful.
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
in 2000-2004 i was workin part time as a sports history tutor at unsw in sydney (my unfinished phd thesis was on the myth of bradman) and we got a lot of lebanese kids from the western suburbs joining the class thinking it'd be an easy elective where they could learn about the irl circumference of brad fittler's fat thighs. so they weren't too enthusiastic about all the blather about raymond williams, guy debord, barthes, but they loved me coz i was the only brown tutor they had. i was a mate and then i was a bro after meeting a large group of them at the anti-iraq war protest at hyde park. they told me where to get the best falafel in sydney (and to order them with chips), where to get the best turkish delights, where the first krispy kreme shop was at the parramatta mall. it was funny, even though i was as coconut as i could be, classics degree from the anu, lived in glebe/newtown, listened exclusively to you am i, youth group, john reed club and other forgotten white indie bands of the mid to late '90s, one of my earliest memory of oz was of sydney's outer western suburbs, being ensconsced in a dorm in the university of western sydney's nepean campus while attending a green left weekly/democratic socialist party's conference on trotsky. it was backended with a play staged on a boxing ring directed by wiji thukul. i remember the golden dome of the nepean mosque during a glorious sunset. funny bcoz i thought then i had ended up in the eerie middle of nowhere but now michael mohammed ahmed's sweatshop collective that he runs out of the now rebranded western sydney university seems to be the coolest thing to come out of the fragile ego of this antipodean behemoth, the woke center of things, the universe! o how i wish i could predict the future, i would never have left that dorm and eat more oranges to relieve my boredom. p.s. oya maacih fellow badde manorian @nininditya udah bawain ini #straightouttapunchbowl!
Author does a great job characterizing BaniÕs aspirations to whiteness and paternalistic attitude to women. The stream of consciousness writing felt a little dry/winding & the use of racial slurs/descriptions felt gratuitous.
slow-paced
I could not finish this depressing story about toxic masculinity and racism.
Bani Adam is a Leb, like most of the other boys at Punchbowl Boys. Being an Arab Muslim in Sydney, around the time of terrorist attacks and gang rapes in the early 2000s, is hard, and Bani is different, because he is bookish, and wants to be a writer. This is a raw, harsh, somewhat bleak coming of age novel, full of the violence, misogyny, and coarseness of teenaged boys with little hope for the future, but it's also funny, real, and gently heartwarming.
Wow, this guy did not hold back! Great reading. The writing crackles off the page, harsh and tender at the same time somehow - often funny and/or disturbing, but never boring. I would put the book down and feel like I'd had my head out the window of a high-speed car. Reminded me of Martin Amis, but less cartoonish and more authentic.