What do you think?
Rate this book
Chopper (Floradale/Macmillan) #5
Pulp Faction: Chopper 5
Crime fiction writers, from bored academics to Bondi butchers, have tried writing about the underworld. Only one has researched it with a gun in his hand.
- GenresTrue Crime
288 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1995
1 person is currently reading
56 people want to read
About the author
Mark Brandon Read
40 books45 followersMark Brandon "Chopper" Read is an Australian ex-criminal who wrote a series of semi-autobiographical and fictional crime novels.
--from wikipedia
--from wikipedia
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 29, 2020
Time for a Good Yarn
29 January 2020
Okay, this is the first of Chopper Read’s books that I’ve read, namely because I found a collection of them in a secondhand bookshop, and since he had made a pretty big name for himself as an author, I thought I should give it a go. The problem turned out that it was his first collection of fiction stories, namely because he wasn’t actually allowed to write non-fiction anymore (a rule passed down by the prison authorities). You, see, Chopper wrote these books while he was in gaol, and in fact, is probably one of the very few underworld figures that have made it big as an author.
Honestly, you’ve seriously got to give the guy credit because if he had just been a standover man – namely some guy that shakes down other guys for money, and tends to keep a cut for himself, nobody would have known of him, and he would have died in obscurity. However, because he decided to spend his time in gaol writing, and actually got his works published, he ended up becoming a household name. Hey, they even made a movie about the guy (and a pretty bloody good one at that). Yeah, as it turns out, this guy made more money writing that he ever did from crime, but if it wasn’t for the fact that the guy was a crook, he never would have been a famous author. Yeah, I love his comment that you have all these people (me included) who study literature at university and never make a cent from their writings, and here’s this guy, who never finished highschool, and he is a best seller.
Well, I’ve read one of his books now, and I must say that he does tell a pretty damn good story. That’s the key though, the fact that Chopper really knows how to spin a yarn. In fact, there are quite a lot of crooks out there that their best skill is actually telling a really entertaining story. I ought to know because I used to hang around with guys like that back in my teenage years. In fact, it is their stories that are able to draw gullible young fifteen-year-olds into their lifestyle. Actually, I’m surprised that not many more of them have been as successful as Chopper has.
The stories are pretty interesting. The first few really deal with this underworld that he created in the first story – I guess because he couldn’t write non-fiction anymore, he had to create his own version of the Melbourne underworld to be able to continue writing. The other stories are actually just as interesting. For instance, there is one about a couple of gunners, or standover men, that decide to retire and open a shoe store. Well, they discover that there is this massive crime syndicate that controls all of the shoe shops in the world, and then end up busting up this gang by walking into a party and firing off a heavy machine gun and a flame thrower. Yeah, I must admit, Chopper really has a pretty awesome imagination.
The final one is interesting though because it is a lot darker than his other works. In fact, it is about this part of Victoria that the aboriginals had cursed, namely because the settlers moved in and gunned down the original occupants. No doubt Chopper would have known a few First Nations people in gaol since they happen to make up much more of the prison population that they really should. It is quite spooky, but it is still pretty good. Honestly, I still have two more collections in this book to read, but I would really like to read his first couple of books, the ones that are sort of based on fact.
Oh, and from reading the first couple of stories it is pretty obvious that he wrote them while he was in gaol. In fact, there is one character that is clearly a representation of himself, since a woman visited him, and walked out bowlegged. Yeah, you can tell that he hadn’t, well, been with a woman for quite a while. Also, one has to question his tastes in women, if he suggests that crack whores are actually good looking, and can actually get away with sleeping with influential people. Honestly, just do a Google image search and you’ll know what I mean.
Anyway, as the author famously said – never let the truth get in the way of a good yarn.
29 January 2020
Okay, this is the first of Chopper Read’s books that I’ve read, namely because I found a collection of them in a secondhand bookshop, and since he had made a pretty big name for himself as an author, I thought I should give it a go. The problem turned out that it was his first collection of fiction stories, namely because he wasn’t actually allowed to write non-fiction anymore (a rule passed down by the prison authorities). You, see, Chopper wrote these books while he was in gaol, and in fact, is probably one of the very few underworld figures that have made it big as an author.
Honestly, you’ve seriously got to give the guy credit because if he had just been a standover man – namely some guy that shakes down other guys for money, and tends to keep a cut for himself, nobody would have known of him, and he would have died in obscurity. However, because he decided to spend his time in gaol writing, and actually got his works published, he ended up becoming a household name. Hey, they even made a movie about the guy (and a pretty bloody good one at that). Yeah, as it turns out, this guy made more money writing that he ever did from crime, but if it wasn’t for the fact that the guy was a crook, he never would have been a famous author. Yeah, I love his comment that you have all these people (me included) who study literature at university and never make a cent from their writings, and here’s this guy, who never finished highschool, and he is a best seller.
Well, I’ve read one of his books now, and I must say that he does tell a pretty damn good story. That’s the key though, the fact that Chopper really knows how to spin a yarn. In fact, there are quite a lot of crooks out there that their best skill is actually telling a really entertaining story. I ought to know because I used to hang around with guys like that back in my teenage years. In fact, it is their stories that are able to draw gullible young fifteen-year-olds into their lifestyle. Actually, I’m surprised that not many more of them have been as successful as Chopper has.
The stories are pretty interesting. The first few really deal with this underworld that he created in the first story – I guess because he couldn’t write non-fiction anymore, he had to create his own version of the Melbourne underworld to be able to continue writing. The other stories are actually just as interesting. For instance, there is one about a couple of gunners, or standover men, that decide to retire and open a shoe store. Well, they discover that there is this massive crime syndicate that controls all of the shoe shops in the world, and then end up busting up this gang by walking into a party and firing off a heavy machine gun and a flame thrower. Yeah, I must admit, Chopper really has a pretty awesome imagination.
The final one is interesting though because it is a lot darker than his other works. In fact, it is about this part of Victoria that the aboriginals had cursed, namely because the settlers moved in and gunned down the original occupants. No doubt Chopper would have known a few First Nations people in gaol since they happen to make up much more of the prison population that they really should. It is quite spooky, but it is still pretty good. Honestly, I still have two more collections in this book to read, but I would really like to read his first couple of books, the ones that are sort of based on fact.
Oh, and from reading the first couple of stories it is pretty obvious that he wrote them while he was in gaol. In fact, there is one character that is clearly a representation of himself, since a woman visited him, and walked out bowlegged. Yeah, you can tell that he hadn’t, well, been with a woman for quite a while. Also, one has to question his tastes in women, if he suggests that crack whores are actually good looking, and can actually get away with sleeping with influential people. Honestly, just do a Google image search and you’ll know what I mean.
Anyway, as the author famously said – never let the truth get in the way of a good yarn.
Read
January 25, 2013A load of crap!!! Purely made up!!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews