Punchbag

by Robert Llewellyn

Nick hasn't yet managed to achieve much in his life except a good set of pecs. At thirty-five he has a grotty flat, a stationary car, a teenage son he doesn't know all that well, an ex-girlfriend, Barney's mother, who hates his guts, and no proper job.Then one of the organisers of a women's conference invites him to San Francisco. She wants him to be a padded assailant, the man inside the hard plastic who beats up women for a living every day. Why not Though the self-defence classes she runs sound a bit weird, it's a free trip to the States. But Nick has no idea what he's getting into.

Genres: Fiction, Modern, Comedy

Paperback

Published January 1, 2000

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads data base.

Robert Llewellyn is an English actor, presenter, and writer. He is best known for his roles as presenter of Scrapheap Challenge, and as the android Kryten in the hit sitcom Red Dwarf.

Reviews

[Brendan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The man in a Kryten suit in Red Dwarf wrote this book. Deals for the most part with recovering rape victims. Is funny in parts, confronting in others. Easy to read.

[Dane Cobain · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second Robert Llewellyn book that I’ve picked up, and both of them have been pretty good so far. In this one, we’re following a story about women’s self-defence classes, where the titular punchbags are essentially men who get paid to dress up in protective gear and get beaten up by woman so that they’re better prepared to defend themselves if they get attacked.

One of the interesting things about it is that it was published at around the dawn of the millennium, which means there are a few technological references that feel kind of dated, including a primary character who doesn’t know how to send an email or use a website.

But even though those technological references feel pretty dated, the themes of the book are more relevant than ever. In fact, it’s pretty interesting to read this in the post-#MeToo era.

What I will say is that I think the book could have done with a little more editing, because it was a slow burner with a few pacing issues that probably could have benefited from having 50-100 pages removed from it just to streamline it. It’s not that the added material isn’t good, it’s just that it doesn’t do anything to drive the narrative forward.

It’s also one of those weird books where instead of there being a build up to a dramatic conclusion, it pretty much stays on an even keel throughout. It’s almost as though Llewellyn prioritised playing with the ideas that he had over telling the story, and I have no problem with that. I just think that there are readers out there who’ll find it to be a turn-off.

I think if I wasn’t already a Llewellyn fan and if I hadn’t picked up three of his books as part of a job lot, I wouldn’t have stuck with him past the first book, but this one made me take him a little more seriously as a writer. If he has more books like this up his sleeve, I’ll be a happy boyo.

Just don’t expect this to be particularly fast-paced, and while the quotes on the cover say that it’s a comedic book, don’t expect too much of that either. That doesn’t mean that it’s not good, it’s just the kind of book you’ll want to chew over. So yeah!

[Ace Renshaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up to 4!!! i love robert llewellyn so much, and i was sort of skeptical about this book but i’ve genuinely learned a lot. a tad dated but it was the 90s, still a good read 30 years later!

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

not for the faint hearted

[Ian Fiddes · Rating 3 out of 5]

6/10. Not great although a fairly easy read.