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Punch
Punch is a collection of stories exploring the uncanny, the uncomfortable and the surreal in the everyday, at home and abroad. Whether its a man with a growth on his hand, a couple trying for a baby, a woman finishing a book, a pope with penis envy, or a bullied girl, characters throughout the collection assess their surroundings and are often forced to reassess themselves. Punch offers the reader a humorous and disturbing take on life in the twenty-first century.
113 pages, Paperback
Published March 4, 2019
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March 25, 2025
The characters in Punch find themselves in weird, surreal situations that only take four or five pages to leave an atmosphere and a lasting sense of unease in the reader.
Opener Mask looks at a Mask, grotesque and seemingly malevolent when it seems to follow the lead character Sarah around her holiday home. In Lick, Paul finds his hand developing a tongue just after he turns thirty, and meets a girl that could be the one. It is the everyday details in this story, the hopes and fears of worst dates, before revealing a body horror that would shock most Doctors, let alone potential girlfriends.
In Pope Penis IX, holidaymakers find out about the deliberate vandalism that a former Pope carried out on statues, to maintain public decency. The title story is an overheard argument, whilst The Wrong Coat follows the aftermath of a party when taking the wrong coat, and the small changes in someone’s life that can result from a small mistake.
There is something of the writing of Raymond Carver here, and maybe something of Angela Carter. The stories are all surreal, but strongly grounded in reality, the characters are well drawn, and all of the stories fit together. There is nothing in the collection that seems stylistically or thematically out of place.
If you like short, short stories that leave an atmosphere of unease then Punch is a book well worth the investigation.
Opener Mask looks at a Mask, grotesque and seemingly malevolent when it seems to follow the lead character Sarah around her holiday home. In Lick, Paul finds his hand developing a tongue just after he turns thirty, and meets a girl that could be the one. It is the everyday details in this story, the hopes and fears of worst dates, before revealing a body horror that would shock most Doctors, let alone potential girlfriends.
In Pope Penis IX, holidaymakers find out about the deliberate vandalism that a former Pope carried out on statues, to maintain public decency. The title story is an overheard argument, whilst The Wrong Coat follows the aftermath of a party when taking the wrong coat, and the small changes in someone’s life that can result from a small mistake.
There is something of the writing of Raymond Carver here, and maybe something of Angela Carter. The stories are all surreal, but strongly grounded in reality, the characters are well drawn, and all of the stories fit together. There is nothing in the collection that seems stylistically or thematically out of place.
If you like short, short stories that leave an atmosphere of unease then Punch is a book well worth the investigation.
Displaying 1 of 1 review