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The Glue Ponys
"When lieutenant Teddy Malovich finally died they left him in the bed for a week and then put his body inside some black plastic trashcan liners, wrapped it up with duct tape and put him in the hallway closet."
So begins the opening story in this startling first collection by author/painter Chris Wilson. Thirty tales about, as the author himself puts it, ‘the lost and the wandering of America.’ The settings: prison yards, sidewalks, alleyways, hospital wards, rusting cars, woodlands, deserted houses, miracle beaches, truck stops, penthouse apartments. The cast: junkies, hookers, hustlers, cellmates, bi-sexual transexuals, glue ponys, anorexic pornstars, runaways, the innocent, the wounded – and heroin, always heroin...
"The Glue Ponys is populated by misfits, hustlers and heroin addicts. Wilson is a master of the unspoken and the fragmentary, and his characters often remain unnamed, unsure of where they are going or how they will get there. The best of Wilson’s short stories are reminiscent of Lou Reed’s Walk on the Wild Side."
--The Skinny
Chris Wilson was born in 1961 in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and grew up in Dar es Salaam, East Africa. He moved with his parents to California in 1971. After many years of living in the streets and prisons of the USA, he was extradited to the UK in 1998. Since becoming drug and crime free in 2001, he has studied at the Chelsea College of Art and Design, where he was awarded a First with Distinction. His paintings have been exhibited across the UK and his first book, Horse Latitudes, was published in 2013. He currently lives in London.
So begins the opening story in this startling first collection by author/painter Chris Wilson. Thirty tales about, as the author himself puts it, ‘the lost and the wandering of America.’ The settings: prison yards, sidewalks, alleyways, hospital wards, rusting cars, woodlands, deserted houses, miracle beaches, truck stops, penthouse apartments. The cast: junkies, hookers, hustlers, cellmates, bi-sexual transexuals, glue ponys, anorexic pornstars, runaways, the innocent, the wounded – and heroin, always heroin...
"The Glue Ponys is populated by misfits, hustlers and heroin addicts. Wilson is a master of the unspoken and the fragmentary, and his characters often remain unnamed, unsure of where they are going or how they will get there. The best of Wilson’s short stories are reminiscent of Lou Reed’s Walk on the Wild Side."
--The Skinny
Chris Wilson was born in 1961 in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and grew up in Dar es Salaam, East Africa. He moved with his parents to California in 1971. After many years of living in the streets and prisons of the USA, he was extradited to the UK in 1998. Since becoming drug and crime free in 2001, he has studied at the Chelsea College of Art and Design, where he was awarded a First with Distinction. His paintings have been exhibited across the UK and his first book, Horse Latitudes, was published in 2013. He currently lives in London.
- GenresShort Stories
160 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2016
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64 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
January 31, 2017
This collection of ferociously hard stories about the streets asks no quarter, and offers none. Like Down and Out in London and Paris, the book is so obviously steeped in the authentic observation and living of these lives that it transcends fiction, and can and should inform our critique of the social contract, and our own humanity. The prose is bone-thin, haggard, and hungry and the lives that populate the pages are terrifyingly and precisely rendered. As a way to understand the hardest and darkest elements of lives lost to the streets, the book is invaluable. As a collection of hard-hitting fiction, it's equally heartbreaking.
As ever, Tangerine Press delivers with another gorgeous production, and another haunting book that matters.
As ever, Tangerine Press delivers with another gorgeous production, and another haunting book that matters.
November 17, 2022
"The characters who populate the short stories of The Glue Ponys, Chris Wilson's debut collection, are down-and-outs of every stripe, who share, in one form or another, the same preoccupation: drugs. Addiction leers across every page; its consequences are conjured in thirty-one short, striking pieces... The brevity of each story provides some of the appeal of The Glue Ponys. Shorn of establishing detail or elaborate plotting, the stories have a beguiling immediacy... The best of these stories provide compelling glimpses of American lives touched by addiction... The Glue Ponys is like looking into the eye of stranded souls."
— Times Literary Supplement
"The Glue Ponys by Chris Wilson is one of the most unapologetic, skilled pieces of writing I’ve read in a long time. Chris has a unique voice and important stories to tell. Sharp wit, snappy stories and punchy style is what make The Glue Ponys an unforgettable new read."
— Bookmunch
"Wilson is a master of the unspoken and the fragmentary, and his characters often remain unnamed, unsure of where they are going or how they will get there. The best of Wilson’s short stories are reminiscent of Lou Reed’s Walk on the Wild Side."
— The Skinny
"The Glue Ponys travels various timezones and hangs out with the wasted, troubled lifers, loners and drug dealers that join him in the bliss of being somewhere else but here. For Chris Wilson, long prison stints broke the habit. Inside he found philosophy and a myriad of stories. It’s the combination of this that makes this collection of short stories so tantalising."
— Urban Fox
"These tales provide thought provoking, challenging reading. The writing is succinct, vivid, with an articulacy that demands consideration."
— Never Imitate
"No punches are pulled and the reality of life in the gutter is exposed."
— Bookmuse
"Wilson’s prose is measured, well-paced, with a sense of immediacy and brevity that makes every encounter sting with the sharp barb of honesty without sentiment."
— The Contemporary Small Press
— Times Literary Supplement
"The Glue Ponys by Chris Wilson is one of the most unapologetic, skilled pieces of writing I’ve read in a long time. Chris has a unique voice and important stories to tell. Sharp wit, snappy stories and punchy style is what make The Glue Ponys an unforgettable new read."
— Bookmunch
"Wilson is a master of the unspoken and the fragmentary, and his characters often remain unnamed, unsure of where they are going or how they will get there. The best of Wilson’s short stories are reminiscent of Lou Reed’s Walk on the Wild Side."
— The Skinny
"The Glue Ponys travels various timezones and hangs out with the wasted, troubled lifers, loners and drug dealers that join him in the bliss of being somewhere else but here. For Chris Wilson, long prison stints broke the habit. Inside he found philosophy and a myriad of stories. It’s the combination of this that makes this collection of short stories so tantalising."
— Urban Fox
"These tales provide thought provoking, challenging reading. The writing is succinct, vivid, with an articulacy that demands consideration."
— Never Imitate
"No punches are pulled and the reality of life in the gutter is exposed."
— Bookmuse
"Wilson’s prose is measured, well-paced, with a sense of immediacy and brevity that makes every encounter sting with the sharp barb of honesty without sentiment."
— The Contemporary Small Press
January 14, 2024
Absolutely brutal but I imagine very realistic, especially considering the author's life story. I did become almost numb to the sheer level of gratuitous description (I think it was necessary for the type of book, but didn't make for pleasant reading). It's hard to recommend in the way that some historical novels or books about refugee journeys or slave narratives can be too - to be true to the time / place / characters, the stories are often harrowing.
August 8, 2020
Well crafted, bleak, relentless but not entirely without hope.
June 2, 2022
Stays with you - bleak and beautiful writing
September 25, 2016
“one way or another, they all been robbed of something precious, and the crazy thing is, most of them don’t even know”
The Glue Ponys, by Chris Wilson, is a collection of short stories featuring characters that most know exist but whose well-being is rarely considered, even by themselves. They are the drug users, the pimps and prostitutes, the convicts and degenerates who live within the cracks of modern society. These people are also human beings, even if they do eschew the lifestyle to which most others aspire. Not for them low paid work and a struggle to rent a decent place in which to live. They have discovered heroin, and do whatever it takes to chemically get by.
The author lived on the streets, used drugs and has done time in prison in the USA. Knowing this adds an authenticity to the tales he weaves. The narrative is crude and direct; the tone matter of fact, almost unsympathetic; yet the pictures conjured by his words are darkly poetic. There is little of beauty in these lives. The rawness evoked is viscerally felt.
The characters in each story have chosen to live their lives this way, although perhaps because they can foresee no acceptable alternative. They watch as their peers die young, of overdose or user related illness. Death is a fact of life to which they appear numbed.
Yet each of them once had a childhood. These backgrounds are too often filled with years of abuse from which they escaped. They have achieved a kind of self destructive control. They risk jail, but know what it takes to get by. They live each day from one hit to the next.
There are thirty-one stories in the collection, most only a few pages long. The vignettes are set around freeways, in shelters, broken cars, cheap motels and on the downtown streets of San Francisco. Sex is a commodity, drugs a way of life. They form bonds and help each other out, then walk away with whatever they can take for themselves.
The first tale, ‘The Lieutenant’, tells of two thirty year old children, the last survivors of a band of misfits drawn from the four corners of the globe to care for a Vietnam veteran in order to share the drugs bought with his VA checks and social security payments. When the veteran dies these two put the body in a cupboard, wrapping it up in plastic bags and duct tape. They then continue to cash his cheques and inject.
The final tale, ‘The Mummy’, tells of a heroin user who breaks into a house to pilfer goods to sell. He comes across a body, muses over the man’s life and why nobody has noticed his death:
“you’ve probably been here about a week and not a soul has seemed to miss you. In fact, you could be me, I realised. Yes, we have something in common, but I earned my fate. I wonder what you did to be of no consequence or meaning to anybody else in the world.”
In between are stories of those who make money from supposedly respectable, tax paying citizens who cruise the streets looking to buy their own drugs and sex. When the providers have learned young that their bodies can be taken by others, it is more understandable why they choose to use them to profit themselves.
These tales provide thought provoking, challenging reading. Few wish to tackle the causes of the problem lives explored, much easier to berate those who end up this way. The Glue Ponys offers the opportunity to better understand. The writing is succinct, vivid, with an articulacy that demands consideration. It is a powerful reminder: we too are here.
My copy of this book was provided gratis by the publisher, Tangerine Press.
The Glue Ponys, by Chris Wilson, is a collection of short stories featuring characters that most know exist but whose well-being is rarely considered, even by themselves. They are the drug users, the pimps and prostitutes, the convicts and degenerates who live within the cracks of modern society. These people are also human beings, even if they do eschew the lifestyle to which most others aspire. Not for them low paid work and a struggle to rent a decent place in which to live. They have discovered heroin, and do whatever it takes to chemically get by.
The author lived on the streets, used drugs and has done time in prison in the USA. Knowing this adds an authenticity to the tales he weaves. The narrative is crude and direct; the tone matter of fact, almost unsympathetic; yet the pictures conjured by his words are darkly poetic. There is little of beauty in these lives. The rawness evoked is viscerally felt.
The characters in each story have chosen to live their lives this way, although perhaps because they can foresee no acceptable alternative. They watch as their peers die young, of overdose or user related illness. Death is a fact of life to which they appear numbed.
Yet each of them once had a childhood. These backgrounds are too often filled with years of abuse from which they escaped. They have achieved a kind of self destructive control. They risk jail, but know what it takes to get by. They live each day from one hit to the next.
There are thirty-one stories in the collection, most only a few pages long. The vignettes are set around freeways, in shelters, broken cars, cheap motels and on the downtown streets of San Francisco. Sex is a commodity, drugs a way of life. They form bonds and help each other out, then walk away with whatever they can take for themselves.
The first tale, ‘The Lieutenant’, tells of two thirty year old children, the last survivors of a band of misfits drawn from the four corners of the globe to care for a Vietnam veteran in order to share the drugs bought with his VA checks and social security payments. When the veteran dies these two put the body in a cupboard, wrapping it up in plastic bags and duct tape. They then continue to cash his cheques and inject.
The final tale, ‘The Mummy’, tells of a heroin user who breaks into a house to pilfer goods to sell. He comes across a body, muses over the man’s life and why nobody has noticed his death:
“you’ve probably been here about a week and not a soul has seemed to miss you. In fact, you could be me, I realised. Yes, we have something in common, but I earned my fate. I wonder what you did to be of no consequence or meaning to anybody else in the world.”
In between are stories of those who make money from supposedly respectable, tax paying citizens who cruise the streets looking to buy their own drugs and sex. When the providers have learned young that their bodies can be taken by others, it is more understandable why they choose to use them to profit themselves.
These tales provide thought provoking, challenging reading. Few wish to tackle the causes of the problem lives explored, much easier to berate those who end up this way. The Glue Ponys offers the opportunity to better understand. The writing is succinct, vivid, with an articulacy that demands consideration. It is a powerful reminder: we too are here.
My copy of this book was provided gratis by the publisher, Tangerine Press.
January 2, 2017
Interesting collection of stories, drawing from a life in prison and on the road across the US seeing the sweepings of modern life up close. The stories are more successful when they keep a cool head, and less so when they try to make a wider point. Tragedy, neglect and nihilism underscore everything, but also the universal existence of love, care and beauty.
September 7, 2016
A superb and original collection
Read
November 11, 2016The Glue Ponys is billed as a short story collection but to my mind it is more a collection of vignettes. Anecdotal in form and substance, these pieces give glimpses into life at the lower end of society. We meet the drugged up and the desperate, the sick, the dying and the imprisoned. People live in cars or on the street; they con, steal and do tricks for drug money. This is a world of junkies, hookers and hustlers.
Though often fundamentally sad, these stories are never miserable. There is plenty of humour here – dark humour involving bodies in cupboards, beached whales, over-literal porn stars, and a redneck neo-nazi “being pinned to the wall by a six foot two black male transvestite with fake tits and wearing a spandex leotard.”
Chris Wilson spent time with “the lost and wandering of America” living on the streets and in the prisons of the USA before returning to the UK. Though this collection is classed as fiction, it would seem many of the incidents recorded are autobiographical or based on personal experience. The writing is straightforward and gritty, though at times I found the language of the streets and drug culture a little obscure. No punches are pulled and the reality of life in the gutter is exposed like a pus-filled open wound.
It’s difficult not to like these bruised and bleeding characters, though – the wily, the stupid, the drug-addled – and to feel for them in their deludedly optimistic quests for another score, another hit, another chance.
Though often fundamentally sad, these stories are never miserable. There is plenty of humour here – dark humour involving bodies in cupboards, beached whales, over-literal porn stars, and a redneck neo-nazi “being pinned to the wall by a six foot two black male transvestite with fake tits and wearing a spandex leotard.”
Chris Wilson spent time with “the lost and wandering of America” living on the streets and in the prisons of the USA before returning to the UK. Though this collection is classed as fiction, it would seem many of the incidents recorded are autobiographical or based on personal experience. The writing is straightforward and gritty, though at times I found the language of the streets and drug culture a little obscure. No punches are pulled and the reality of life in the gutter is exposed like a pus-filled open wound.
It’s difficult not to like these bruised and bleeding characters, though – the wily, the stupid, the drug-addled – and to feel for them in their deludedly optimistic quests for another score, another hit, another chance.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews