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Pure Mania
Pure Mania is set in an almost fictional anarcho-punk milieu around the squats and council estates of East London. This trashy adventure story takes the form of a blatantly falsified tour of eighties youth trends. It's a pastiche of the fiction published by New English Library during the 1970's. MARX CHRIST AND SATAN UNITED IN STRUGGLE * * Pure Mania is a pulp tragicomedy set in London's punk and skinhead scene at a time when both ready to blow the British Isles to hell * * SEXUAL PERVERSION AT ITS VERY WORST *
Note: The cover concept was to make 1st edition look like a reprint, with small version of non-existent 'original' cover on cover. The paperback reprint 34 years later is designed to look like the 1st edition! The reprint publisher has added to the confusion by describing their reprint as the "original edition". First print run of this paperback reprint was deliberately littered with typos to create a collector's edition. Subsequent runs have typos corrected.
Note: The cover concept was to make 1st edition look like a reprint, with small version of non-existent 'original' cover on cover. The paperback reprint 34 years later is designed to look like the 1st edition! The reprint publisher has added to the confusion by describing their reprint as the "original edition". First print run of this paperback reprint was deliberately littered with typos to create a collector's edition. Subsequent runs have typos corrected.
- GenresFictionHumor20th Century
224 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1989
1 person is currently reading
45 people want to read
About the author
Stewart Home
95 books284 followersStewart Home (born London 1963) is an English writer, satirist and artist. He is best known for novels such as the non-narrative "69 Things to Do With A Dead Princess" (2002), his re-imagining of the 1960s in "Tainted Love" (2005), and more recent books such as "She's My Witch" (2020) that use pulp and avant-garde tropes to parody conventional literature.
Home's unusual approach to writing is reflected in the readings he gives from his novels: he recites from memory, utilises ventriloquism, stands on his head and declaims his work and even shreds his own books.
Home's first book "The Assault on Culture: Utopian Currents from Lettrisme to Class War" (Aporia Press and Unpopular Books, London, 1988) is an underground art history sketching continuations of dadist and surrealist influences on post-World War II fringe radical art.
Home's first novel "Pure Mania" was published 1989 (Polygon Books), and details a violent neo-punk subculture. Unmistakenly postmodern but nfluenced by surrealism and the nouveau roman, it pushes the appropriation of pulp tropes and use of repetition found within historical avant-garde fiction to such an extreme that some critics mistook it for a piece of low-brow writing.
Home continued in much the same vein with his next four novels, starting with "Defiant Pose" (Peter Owen, 1991) and continuing with "Red London" (AK Press 1994), "Blow Job" (published in 1997 but written in 1994) and Slow Death (Serpent's Tail 1996).
All Home’s early fiction collages in large amounts of prose from a wide variety of sources – and while it is often close in spirit to the work of ‘postmodern extremists’ such as Kathy Acker, the appropriated material is much more heavily reworked than in the latter’s books.
The novels Home wrote after the mid-nineties featured less subcultural material than his earlier books and focus more obviously on issues of form and aesthetics. Home’s sixth novel "Come Before Christ And Murder Love" (Serpent's Tail 1997) featured a schizophrenic narrator whose personality changed every time he had an orgasm. This was the first novel Home wrote in the first person, and much of the fiction he wrote after this utilised the device of an unreliable first-person narrator.
"Cunt" (Do Not Press 1999) is a postmodern take on the picaresque novel. "69 Things to Do With A Dead Princess" (Canongate 2002) mixes porn with capsule reviews of dozens of obscure books as well as elaborate descriptions of stone circles, while in "Down and Out In Shoreditch & Hoxton" (Do Not Press 2004) every paragraph is exactly 100 words long. "Tainted Love" (Virgin Books) is based on the life of the author's mother, who was part of the London subcultural scene in the 1960s. "Memphis Underground" (Snow Books 2007) has a long conventional literary opening that is slowly unravelled.
Home’s 2010 novel "Blood Rites of the Bourgeois" (Book Works) is to date his only work written in the second person. The plot – as far as there is one - concerns an artist hacking the computers of London’s cultural elite to infect them with modified penis enlargement spam. Reviewing Home’s incredibly weird campus novel "Mandy, Charlie & Mary-Jane" (Penny-Ante Editions 2013) for The Guardian, Nicholas Lezard observes: “I think one of the great virtues of Home's work is the way it forces us to address our own complacency.”
"The 9 Lives of Ray The Cat Jones" (Test Centre 2014) is a fictional exploration of the life of one of the author's more infamous criminal relatives. "She's My Witch" (London Books 2020), is a love story exploring an unlikely relationship between a fitness instructor and a heroin addicted witch. "Art School Orgy" (New Reality Records, 2023) is a 'BDSM extravaganza'. Before this Home published his collected poems "SEND CA$H" (Morbid Books 2018) and a book about martial arts films "Re-Enter The Dragon: Genre Theory, Brucesploitation & The Sleazy Joys of Lowbrow Cinema" (Ledatape 2018).
Home's unusual approach to writing is reflected in the readings he gives from his novels: he recites from memory, utilises ventriloquism, stands on his head and declaims his work and even shreds his own books.
Home's first book "The Assault on Culture: Utopian Currents from Lettrisme to Class War" (Aporia Press and Unpopular Books, London, 1988) is an underground art history sketching continuations of dadist and surrealist influences on post-World War II fringe radical art.
Home's first novel "Pure Mania" was published 1989 (Polygon Books), and details a violent neo-punk subculture. Unmistakenly postmodern but nfluenced by surrealism and the nouveau roman, it pushes the appropriation of pulp tropes and use of repetition found within historical avant-garde fiction to such an extreme that some critics mistook it for a piece of low-brow writing.
Home continued in much the same vein with his next four novels, starting with "Defiant Pose" (Peter Owen, 1991) and continuing with "Red London" (AK Press 1994), "Blow Job" (published in 1997 but written in 1994) and Slow Death (Serpent's Tail 1996).
All Home’s early fiction collages in large amounts of prose from a wide variety of sources – and while it is often close in spirit to the work of ‘postmodern extremists’ such as Kathy Acker, the appropriated material is much more heavily reworked than in the latter’s books.
The novels Home wrote after the mid-nineties featured less subcultural material than his earlier books and focus more obviously on issues of form and aesthetics. Home’s sixth novel "Come Before Christ And Murder Love" (Serpent's Tail 1997) featured a schizophrenic narrator whose personality changed every time he had an orgasm. This was the first novel Home wrote in the first person, and much of the fiction he wrote after this utilised the device of an unreliable first-person narrator.
"Cunt" (Do Not Press 1999) is a postmodern take on the picaresque novel. "69 Things to Do With A Dead Princess" (Canongate 2002) mixes porn with capsule reviews of dozens of obscure books as well as elaborate descriptions of stone circles, while in "Down and Out In Shoreditch & Hoxton" (Do Not Press 2004) every paragraph is exactly 100 words long. "Tainted Love" (Virgin Books) is based on the life of the author's mother, who was part of the London subcultural scene in the 1960s. "Memphis Underground" (Snow Books 2007) has a long conventional literary opening that is slowly unravelled.
Home’s 2010 novel "Blood Rites of the Bourgeois" (Book Works) is to date his only work written in the second person. The plot – as far as there is one - concerns an artist hacking the computers of London’s cultural elite to infect them with modified penis enlargement spam. Reviewing Home’s incredibly weird campus novel "Mandy, Charlie & Mary-Jane" (Penny-Ante Editions 2013) for The Guardian, Nicholas Lezard observes: “I think one of the great virtues of Home's work is the way it forces us to address our own complacency.”
"The 9 Lives of Ray The Cat Jones" (Test Centre 2014) is a fictional exploration of the life of one of the author's more infamous criminal relatives. "She's My Witch" (London Books 2020), is a love story exploring an unlikely relationship between a fitness instructor and a heroin addicted witch. "Art School Orgy" (New Reality Records, 2023) is a 'BDSM extravaganza'. Before this Home published his collected poems "SEND CA$H" (Morbid Books 2018) and a book about martial arts films "Re-Enter The Dragon: Genre Theory, Brucesploitation & The Sleazy Joys of Lowbrow Cinema" (Ledatape 2018).
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
December 25, 2014
This novel makes more sense when read (as the blurb explains) as a parody of the hack novels on Hell’s angels and skinheads published by the New English Library in the 1970s. The prose makes fun of the casual sex and violence in such productions, and the repetitive and dreadful descriptions of the sexual act (“beating out the primitive rhythms of the swamps”), cartoonish violence (“spitting out gouts of blood and a piece of broken tooth”), and turgid romantic dialogue permeate the novel in between its moments of clever and amusing satire—the plot features an aimless group of militant vegans whose absurd and brutal protests and turn as a punk outfit create a minor stir in the media. Entertaining.
Read
February 15, 2011one of the greatest and strangest ex library books (a passion of mine even at the worst of times) that i've ever bought, a real jewel in the rough and a rough and ragged jewel at that, but its only more interesting for every scratch and mark, like an old brutalist jazz punk adventure record made more real for every fizz and pop and crackle. pure mania is the epitomy of the sparkle and danger of the hard sought after dusty crackling record, errupting in clouds of dead skin with every furious beat, grabbing you by the spine and dragging you down to the base of this mountain of fire beckoning you to climb climb climb climb.
August 20, 2019
Stuart Home was there in the streets of South London during punk.
(He did the fanzine DOWN IN THE STREET) and hung around Villa Road squats with anti-statist Marxist Revolutionary punk band CRISIS (PC1984)
His book is heavily influenced by Situationist theory ala Malcolm Mclaren & Jamie Reid mixed with Cockney Red street violence of CRISIS. / Gary Bushell in his I.S. Student Union Napalm fanzine days
He’s aiming to be the Richard Allen pulp fiction writer for the punk era 😂
I loved this book - full of fun & street life
(He did the fanzine DOWN IN THE STREET) and hung around Villa Road squats with anti-statist Marxist Revolutionary punk band CRISIS (PC1984)
His book is heavily influenced by Situationist theory ala Malcolm Mclaren & Jamie Reid mixed with Cockney Red street violence of CRISIS. / Gary Bushell in his I.S. Student Union Napalm fanzine days
He’s aiming to be the Richard Allen pulp fiction writer for the punk era 😂
I loved this book - full of fun & street life
March 18, 2011
Ridiculous. A guilty pleasure.
September 23, 2019
Pretentieloze waanzin, seks en eco-terrorisme.
November 1, 2024
Loved this. I know I shouldn't have.
Imagine somebody took "The Young Ones" and combined it with "Day of the jackal". I loved the political satire - especially the mockery of right on political idealists and the nonsense they spout. I was also really taken with the exploration of the punk themes, such as the re-packaging of rehashed concepts as original art. The whole book is pure Dada; except there's also a thread of bad relationships and narcissistic bullying that's unexpectedly touching.
Sections about gang warfare between rock bands set fireworks exploding in my head - such a great idea for a book - I wish it had been explored further.
Imagine somebody took "The Young Ones" and combined it with "Day of the jackal". I loved the political satire - especially the mockery of right on political idealists and the nonsense they spout. I was also really taken with the exploration of the punk themes, such as the re-packaging of rehashed concepts as original art. The whole book is pure Dada; except there's also a thread of bad relationships and narcissistic bullying that's unexpectedly touching.
Sections about gang warfare between rock bands set fireworks exploding in my head - such a great idea for a book - I wish it had been explored further.
August 20, 2023
Given that copies of the cult pulp novel PURE MANIA now go for over £40 at least on Abe Books and other collector, second hand and rare book websites, it was about time somebody released a popularly priced version of this street favourite, allowing sorts of reduced means to be able to get a copy.
This new issue of the novel, 34 years after the First Edition is titled 'ORIGINAL' which is not meant to be confusing, and so far it appears to be more confusing to internet algorithms than it is to readers. This new edition is in fact the original version and vision of the novel, although it is the exact same text as the 34 year old First Edition - - minus a few typos here and there.
PURE MANIA has been printed at last in a supercheap street and popularly priced format so that everyone can read it and not have to shell out nearly fifty quid to get a copy from some collector somewhere! This will only in fact raise the values of those collectible 1989 editions online of course, but this is about you and me simply getting our hands on this amazing text and enjoying it as it was always meant to have been enjoyed.
The 34 years that have passed have been unkind in some ways, although more generous in others. The music and publishing industries have become safer than ever as commodification becomes universal; politics has been through the blender post-Blair era centrism, and all art strikes have collapsed and the middle classes have cemented their stranglehold on arts bureaucracy and production wherever they can do so.
PURE MANIA emerges unscathed and is an amazing read, and for those not born when this book first came out, this is your chance now to see inside the political and aesthetic heart of the world that came before this one. Vegan terror was real! Street sorts and teenage mayhem was real! And finally the complexities of the London punk scene and the music industry's fast moving destruction of art through greed and art's destruction of the music industry through violence - - both real too!
So don't shell out fifty quid to read this corker! Get it at last at a proper and popularly Poplar-priced Stewart Home street price and let your jaw drop to the ultra-pulp sex, music and violence that is PURE MANIA by STEWART HOME.
This new issue of the novel, 34 years after the First Edition is titled 'ORIGINAL' which is not meant to be confusing, and so far it appears to be more confusing to internet algorithms than it is to readers. This new edition is in fact the original version and vision of the novel, although it is the exact same text as the 34 year old First Edition - - minus a few typos here and there.
PURE MANIA has been printed at last in a supercheap street and popularly priced format so that everyone can read it and not have to shell out nearly fifty quid to get a copy from some collector somewhere! This will only in fact raise the values of those collectible 1989 editions online of course, but this is about you and me simply getting our hands on this amazing text and enjoying it as it was always meant to have been enjoyed.
The 34 years that have passed have been unkind in some ways, although more generous in others. The music and publishing industries have become safer than ever as commodification becomes universal; politics has been through the blender post-Blair era centrism, and all art strikes have collapsed and the middle classes have cemented their stranglehold on arts bureaucracy and production wherever they can do so.
PURE MANIA emerges unscathed and is an amazing read, and for those not born when this book first came out, this is your chance now to see inside the political and aesthetic heart of the world that came before this one. Vegan terror was real! Street sorts and teenage mayhem was real! And finally the complexities of the London punk scene and the music industry's fast moving destruction of art through greed and art's destruction of the music industry through violence - - both real too!
So don't shell out fifty quid to read this corker! Get it at last at a proper and popularly Poplar-priced Stewart Home street price and let your jaw drop to the ultra-pulp sex, music and violence that is PURE MANIA by STEWART HOME.
May 2, 2024
Set during the punk era, "Pure Mania" is the sort of novel that Sid Vicious might have written, if he hadn't got himself killed. Originally published in 1989, it has now been reprinted by Edinburgh publisher Leamington Books.
It's a crazy, alcohol, speed and cocaine fuelled roller coaster of a journey through the dregs of the dregs, featuring a collection of characters ranging from the unpleasant to the demonic. As militant vegans collude with goose stepping fascists in order to attack cafes and restaurants that not only serve meat but also sell tea, a drink that apparently exploits the workers who pick it, various tone deaf bands fight to take the stage in order to perform before crowds that drown out their "music".
Most of the characters when not fighting or destroying property are having sex with each other in various combinations and positions. Both the violence and the sex are explicit, yet the descriptions of both are remarkably similar. One character, Paul, believes that his girl friend the militant vegan Tracy is being faithful to him. But she has fallen for Case, who gets his rocks off by dressing in a Nazi uniform, and wants to continue to have relationships with both of them, which neither of the men are happy with. Paul himself as had his first gay experience with Case.
I'm not entirely sure what to make of "Pure Mania". Is it a parody or a satire? Is it badly written porn? Is it an excuse for gratuitous sex and violence? Who knows? But one thing is for sure, I found this crazy book strangely addictive, and the more disgusting the descriptions were, the more addictive it became. "Pure Mania" is sick - yet great fun. And I suspect the author had great fun writing it.
Dig out your Sex Pistols records, make sure your seat belt is secure and prepare yourself for a dizzying ride. The phrase "guilty pleasure" could have been created to describe reading "Pure Mania".
It's a crazy, alcohol, speed and cocaine fuelled roller coaster of a journey through the dregs of the dregs, featuring a collection of characters ranging from the unpleasant to the demonic. As militant vegans collude with goose stepping fascists in order to attack cafes and restaurants that not only serve meat but also sell tea, a drink that apparently exploits the workers who pick it, various tone deaf bands fight to take the stage in order to perform before crowds that drown out their "music".
Most of the characters when not fighting or destroying property are having sex with each other in various combinations and positions. Both the violence and the sex are explicit, yet the descriptions of both are remarkably similar. One character, Paul, believes that his girl friend the militant vegan Tracy is being faithful to him. But she has fallen for Case, who gets his rocks off by dressing in a Nazi uniform, and wants to continue to have relationships with both of them, which neither of the men are happy with. Paul himself as had his first gay experience with Case.
I'm not entirely sure what to make of "Pure Mania". Is it a parody or a satire? Is it badly written porn? Is it an excuse for gratuitous sex and violence? Who knows? But one thing is for sure, I found this crazy book strangely addictive, and the more disgusting the descriptions were, the more addictive it became. "Pure Mania" is sick - yet great fun. And I suspect the author had great fun writing it.
Dig out your Sex Pistols records, make sure your seat belt is secure and prepare yourself for a dizzying ride. The phrase "guilty pleasure" could have been created to describe reading "Pure Mania".
November 3, 2023
I loved this book. I recently read the new edition and have it marked as my favourite book of 2023 so far. It's darkly hilarious, with lots of sex and violence that is purposefully trashy and repetitive, which indirectly references pulp novels of the past. There are lots of spelling mistakes that add to the intended effect. It will be a polarising book, and easily misunderstood by those expecting a straightforward novel - as with Home's other books, like 69 Things to do with a Dead Princess, I think it is better to approach it as a work of art.
October 29, 2023
Stewart's first novel was a massive step forward in literature. It's a dialectical masterpiece! Simultaneously super-clever and idiotic, hilarious and depressing, funty and sad. Stewart is a bloke who knows how to have his cake and eat it! I strongly urge everyone to grab a generous slice now it's available again at a modest price...
August 27, 2023
It's all right.
January 27, 2025
Self indulgent funny read.
December 27, 2011
There is more about the book at the following link: http://www.stewarthomesociety.org/pur...
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews