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The Book of Fuck
Written in real time over seven days, THE BOOK OF F**K is a short, sharp, pun-addled pulp fiction pastiche where the absurd underworld of music and reality are exaggerated to new dimensions. Following the frantic movements if a rock fan on the trail of America's public enemy number one, THE BOOK OF F**K is a buckled break-neck rant let loose at punk rock speed, literature that comes none more black. Echoing the energy and urgency of the music that inspired it, short, sharp and pure in intention - advance copies of THE BOOK OF F**K have already fallen fowl of censors in certain countries due to its uncompromising title, leading one Italian newspaper to describe as "an insult to literature" and one UK chain of bookstores to ban it.The book really was written in one long seven day-sitting, leading Time Out to described it as "Something odd but irresistible that's both poetry, prose and a punk rock protest song, yet neither one nor the other."
Paperback
First published September 1, 2004
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About the author
Benjamin Myers
38 books1,226 followersBenjamin Myers was born in Durham, UK, in 1976.
He is an award-winning author and journalist whose recent novel Cuddy (2023) won the Goldsmiths Prize.
His first short story collection, Male Tears, was published by Bloomsbury in 2021.
His novel The Offing was published by Bloomsbury in 2019 and is a best-seller in Germany. It was serialised by Radio 4's Book At Bedtime and Radio 2 Book club choice. It is being developed for stage and has been optioned for film.
The non-fiction book Under The Rock, was shortlisted for The Portico Prize For Literature in 2020.
Recipient of the Roger Deakin Award and first published by Bluemoose Books, Myers' novel The Gallows Pole was published to acclaim in 2017 and was winner of the Walter Scott Prize 2018 - the world's largest prize for historical fiction. It has been published in the US by Third Man Books and in 2023 was adapted by director Shane Meadows for the BBC/A24.
The Gallows Pole was re-issued by Bloomsbury, alongside previous titles Beastings and Pig Iron.
Several of Myers' novels have been released as audiobooks, read by actor Ralph Ineson.
Turning Blue (2016) was described as a "folk crime" novel, and praised by writers including Val McDermid. A sequel These Darkening Days followed in 2017.
His novel Beastings (2014) won the Portico Prize For Literature, was the recipient of the Northern Writers’ Award and longlisted for a Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Award 2015. Widely acclaimed, it featured on several end of year lists, and was chosen by Robert Macfarlane in The Big Issue as one of his books of 2014.
Pig Iron (2012) was the winner of the inaugural Gordon Burn Prize and runner-up in The Guardian’s Not The Booker Prize. A controversial combination of biography and novel, Richard (2010) was a bestseller and chosen as a Sunday Times book of the year.
Myers’ short story ‘The Folk Song Singer’ was awarded the Tom-Gallon Prize in 2014 by the Society Of Authors and published by Galley Beggar Press. His short stories and poetry have appeared in dozens of anthologies.
As a journalist he has written about the arts and nature for publications including New Statesman, The Guardian, The Spectator, NME, Mojo, Time Out, New Scientist, Caught By The River, The Morning Star, Vice, The Quietus, Melody Maker and numerous others.
He currently lives in the Upper Calder Valley, West Yorkshire, UK.
He is an award-winning author and journalist whose recent novel Cuddy (2023) won the Goldsmiths Prize.
His first short story collection, Male Tears, was published by Bloomsbury in 2021.
His novel The Offing was published by Bloomsbury in 2019 and is a best-seller in Germany. It was serialised by Radio 4's Book At Bedtime and Radio 2 Book club choice. It is being developed for stage and has been optioned for film.
The non-fiction book Under The Rock, was shortlisted for The Portico Prize For Literature in 2020.
Recipient of the Roger Deakin Award and first published by Bluemoose Books, Myers' novel The Gallows Pole was published to acclaim in 2017 and was winner of the Walter Scott Prize 2018 - the world's largest prize for historical fiction. It has been published in the US by Third Man Books and in 2023 was adapted by director Shane Meadows for the BBC/A24.
The Gallows Pole was re-issued by Bloomsbury, alongside previous titles Beastings and Pig Iron.
Several of Myers' novels have been released as audiobooks, read by actor Ralph Ineson.
Turning Blue (2016) was described as a "folk crime" novel, and praised by writers including Val McDermid. A sequel These Darkening Days followed in 2017.
His novel Beastings (2014) won the Portico Prize For Literature, was the recipient of the Northern Writers’ Award and longlisted for a Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Award 2015. Widely acclaimed, it featured on several end of year lists, and was chosen by Robert Macfarlane in The Big Issue as one of his books of 2014.
Pig Iron (2012) was the winner of the inaugural Gordon Burn Prize and runner-up in The Guardian’s Not The Booker Prize. A controversial combination of biography and novel, Richard (2010) was a bestseller and chosen as a Sunday Times book of the year.
Myers’ short story ‘The Folk Song Singer’ was awarded the Tom-Gallon Prize in 2014 by the Society Of Authors and published by Galley Beggar Press. His short stories and poetry have appeared in dozens of anthologies.
As a journalist he has written about the arts and nature for publications including New Statesman, The Guardian, The Spectator, NME, Mojo, Time Out, New Scientist, Caught By The River, The Morning Star, Vice, The Quietus, Melody Maker and numerous others.
He currently lives in the Upper Calder Valley, West Yorkshire, UK.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 22, 2016
WRECKING BALL PRESS official book description of Ben Myers - The Book Of Fuck
Written in real time over seven days THE BOOK OF FUCK is a short, sharp pun-addled pulp fiction pastiche where the absurd underworld of music - and reality itself - is exaggerated to new dimensions.
Following the frantic movements of a rock fan on the trail of America's public enemy number one, THE BOOK OF FUCK is a buckled break-neck rant let loose at punk rock speed. Literature that comes none more black.
"With a title like that, you've got to write a good book or have the word "wanker" silently appended to your name forever after. Just to make things more difficult, the press release trumpets the fact that The Book Of Fuck was written in seven days. I don't know about your criteria for choosing a book to read, but something written in seven days sounds to me like it will be a cramp-stomached vomit of speed-crazed gibberish, especially if the back cover states it's "a buckled break-neck rant let loose at punk rock speed".
Thankfully, none of these things are true. The Book Of Fuck is a homage and a pisstake of the twilight world of music journalism, a first person reportage of a starving hack sent off in search of a death metal antichrist superstar called, to the joy of America's Christian masses, the God Of Fuck. GoF is like Marilyn Manson, Alice Cooper, Iggy Pop and GG Allin all rolled into one - the bogeyman of popular culture. But GoF doesn't get much of a look-in even though the search for him propels the plot - the pages are taken up with the internal monologue of our protagonist, a mix of furious punning, musical musing and starving artist clichés twisted into new shapes, all set against his love of London's squalid glamour. It's a prose style that can certainly be called punk rock, but the tone of our hero is far more gentle and even genteel than even the most half-hearted sneer from Mr Rotten. He's a Cat Stevens' fan, for Christ's sake.
That notwithstanding, there's a touch of Hunter S. Thompson to the prose, which is a compliment not to be awarded likely because The Book Of Fuck echoes HST's style without trying to ape it. It runs in parallel to rather than behind it, connecting a mordant intelligence with a sense of amused bewilderment at the predictments in which the narrator continually finds himself.
As someone who used to read the music papers religiously as a teenager, back in the golden era of Melody Maker at the end of the 80s, The Book Of Fuck has a lot of resonance with that time, before intelligent music journalism all but disappeared underneath the market forces of dad rock and prepubescent marketing exercises. (Can't we ban The Beatles ever being featured on another magazine cover ever?). The Book Of Fuck doesn't offer up anything particularly profound, but it does provide a superb black humoured roadtrip of the soul in search of profundity, which is possibly even better.
And, as the work of a small UK publisher, Wrecking Ball Press, The Book Of Fuck has superb production values: from the size to the spacing to the use of fonts, this is a book that wants to be read. Sadly there are numerous typos scattered through it, but then, that's very punk rock too so I guess I'll have to live with it." - Chris Mitchell, Spike Magazine
"A hilariously rendered tale... if Bukowski liked heavy metal, this is would be the result." - The Guardian
"Something odd but irresistible that's both poetry and prose... yet neither one nor the other." - Time Out
"In a world of scrubbed-up pop-star tossers, the counter culture still burns fiercely" - City Life
"The Book Of Fuck is an entertaining and brave voyage into the realms of 'gonzo' literature. Fast-paced, witty and full of surprises, this book goes a long way to fill the void between British and US styles of writing. Influenced heavily by the late-great writers of a depressed America, Myers has captured a certain style and uniquely made it his own. Highly recommended." - J.N. Smith (Amazon)
Ben Myers has the imagination of a lovable serial killer, his writing will fill you with love and scare you to shit." - Kelly Jones
Written in real time over seven days THE BOOK OF FUCK is a short, sharp pun-addled pulp fiction pastiche where the absurd underworld of music - and reality itself - is exaggerated to new dimensions.
Following the frantic movements of a rock fan on the trail of America's public enemy number one, THE BOOK OF FUCK is a buckled break-neck rant let loose at punk rock speed. Literature that comes none more black.
"With a title like that, you've got to write a good book or have the word "wanker" silently appended to your name forever after. Just to make things more difficult, the press release trumpets the fact that The Book Of Fuck was written in seven days. I don't know about your criteria for choosing a book to read, but something written in seven days sounds to me like it will be a cramp-stomached vomit of speed-crazed gibberish, especially if the back cover states it's "a buckled break-neck rant let loose at punk rock speed".
Thankfully, none of these things are true. The Book Of Fuck is a homage and a pisstake of the twilight world of music journalism, a first person reportage of a starving hack sent off in search of a death metal antichrist superstar called, to the joy of America's Christian masses, the God Of Fuck. GoF is like Marilyn Manson, Alice Cooper, Iggy Pop and GG Allin all rolled into one - the bogeyman of popular culture. But GoF doesn't get much of a look-in even though the search for him propels the plot - the pages are taken up with the internal monologue of our protagonist, a mix of furious punning, musical musing and starving artist clichés twisted into new shapes, all set against his love of London's squalid glamour. It's a prose style that can certainly be called punk rock, but the tone of our hero is far more gentle and even genteel than even the most half-hearted sneer from Mr Rotten. He's a Cat Stevens' fan, for Christ's sake.
That notwithstanding, there's a touch of Hunter S. Thompson to the prose, which is a compliment not to be awarded likely because The Book Of Fuck echoes HST's style without trying to ape it. It runs in parallel to rather than behind it, connecting a mordant intelligence with a sense of amused bewilderment at the predictments in which the narrator continually finds himself.
As someone who used to read the music papers religiously as a teenager, back in the golden era of Melody Maker at the end of the 80s, The Book Of Fuck has a lot of resonance with that time, before intelligent music journalism all but disappeared underneath the market forces of dad rock and prepubescent marketing exercises. (Can't we ban The Beatles ever being featured on another magazine cover ever?). The Book Of Fuck doesn't offer up anything particularly profound, but it does provide a superb black humoured roadtrip of the soul in search of profundity, which is possibly even better.
And, as the work of a small UK publisher, Wrecking Ball Press, The Book Of Fuck has superb production values: from the size to the spacing to the use of fonts, this is a book that wants to be read. Sadly there are numerous typos scattered through it, but then, that's very punk rock too so I guess I'll have to live with it." - Chris Mitchell, Spike Magazine
"A hilariously rendered tale... if Bukowski liked heavy metal, this is would be the result." - The Guardian
"Something odd but irresistible that's both poetry and prose... yet neither one nor the other." - Time Out
"In a world of scrubbed-up pop-star tossers, the counter culture still burns fiercely" - City Life
"The Book Of Fuck is an entertaining and brave voyage into the realms of 'gonzo' literature. Fast-paced, witty and full of surprises, this book goes a long way to fill the void between British and US styles of writing. Influenced heavily by the late-great writers of a depressed America, Myers has captured a certain style and uniquely made it his own. Highly recommended." - J.N. Smith (Amazon)
Ben Myers has the imagination of a lovable serial killer, his writing will fill you with love and scare you to shit." - Kelly Jones
October 22, 2014
Perhaps hiring a proofreader would have been too corporate for radical writer dude Ben Myers... but it would have been a good investment. Is the God of Fuck called Hugh? or is it Godfrey? Myers seems to forget. But that's not surprising as his main character's own acquaintances sometimes change their names twice on the same page! (Landan to Paris and back again without flinching). I feel Myers' pain. His character feels it in his "asides". Some mornings the guy even gets up twice in the same day!
While reading this book I was compelled to grab red marker pen and highlight the errors, adding a footnote of "Must try harder" rather than "see me" as a visit from anyone who writes this turgid crap would be boring beyond relief. Fan fiction, it would seem, is not my thing... and this is fan fiction- from the pen of a Marilyn Manson fanatic who never quite got what it was all about. Manson, the eponymous Rock God, coined the God of Fuck monicker himself and should probably sue Myers for plagiarism...or perhaps defamation of character.
And finally, naming each chapter after a day of the week does not equate to writing in real time. Like most other literary creations, this book is written in the past tense.
It's a shame- the cover design, layout, blurb and intro all had great potential, but by page 100 it was all seeping through the contents many cracks.
While reading this book I was compelled to grab red marker pen and highlight the errors, adding a footnote of "Must try harder" rather than "see me" as a visit from anyone who writes this turgid crap would be boring beyond relief. Fan fiction, it would seem, is not my thing... and this is fan fiction- from the pen of a Marilyn Manson fanatic who never quite got what it was all about. Manson, the eponymous Rock God, coined the God of Fuck monicker himself and should probably sue Myers for plagiarism...or perhaps defamation of character.
And finally, naming each chapter after a day of the week does not equate to writing in real time. Like most other literary creations, this book is written in the past tense.
It's a shame- the cover design, layout, blurb and intro all had great potential, but by page 100 it was all seeping through the contents many cracks.
August 31, 2021
I am a big fan of Benjamin Myers.
This sucked.
This sucked.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews