Customer Reviews

Ports of Hell

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
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I enjoyed this book thoroughly. Swift, nervy narrative, with nonchalant bizarreness and details everywhere to make you laugh, furl your brow or shudder. Take this: "Elias made a circle with his cigar and set it in the ashtray. He put his fingers together and the shadow it projected resembled a bird. Across the room wearing a long pale face, Winks sat quietly plucking at his sleeve. Elias examined his nails, saw something he didn't like, picked at it, reexamined it and passed inspection." If you don't seem to find the time or funds for travel, read this book. It'll jump-start you (in the legs or brain or both), for starters.

Having read Ports of Hell, I can see why writers like Herbert Huncke and Alexander Trocchi -- and probably Genet and Celine too -- must appeal to Johnny Strike. A real sense of lived experience informs and enriches his writing. William Burroughs wrote a blurb for this book stating that it draws a map of real places -- which is incredible, because these are some far-out places -- and yet you get the sense that Burroughs was right. Strike's stuff leaves you with the impression that, however incredible these places may have been, he went there and came back to tell the tale.

If you are a music fan, check out the CD's w/Johnny Strike (Crime) composing, playing, singing some of the best rock+roll to come out of 70's Punk in the US. There is a complexity and simplicity, in words and music that was rare for this time, place and genre. Brilliant really.

NOW we have this BOOK published by Headpress,Manchester-UK, a critically acclaimed independent publisher, more eclectic and adventurous than major publishing houses and known by people in the know for fine cutting edge books since the early 90's. VERY ECLECTIC.This is a partnership!

Johnny Strike is a premier storyteller.A man of keen imagination and experience. The visuals, the layers, the places, the characters, plots and sheer COOLNESS of the writing. THIS IS MODERN, VISIONARY ENTERTAINMENT.Calm and collected. It takes you on a real journey. For real travelers. Take the trip.

A great read to stash away in your backpack alongside your Loney Planet guidebook. A short, face-paced thriller of a slacker whose life suddenly gets turned inside out as he finds himself in exotic locales with unforseen dangers at every turn. Leaves you waiting for the next one in what one hopes may be a series.

Rather than a trip through the pits of human degradation, "Ports of Hell" is an adventure...its many characters are on a wild ride and enjoying every twist, turn and bump in the road. The influence of Burroughs (and maybe even Herbert Huncke?) is apparent, but this is modern stuff steeped in today's pop-cultural landscape. I dug the hell out of it.