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Friction

Joe Stretch

$27.99

Paperback

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English
Vintage
01 May 2008
A remarkable debut novel about the pornography of everyday life - as hilarious as it is twisted.

Life in Manchester is sexy and stinking. Hold your breath. Justin wants a sex life, not a sex death. Rebecca has breasts but doesn't understand them. She needs to talk to Dostoevsky about erections, hairy armpits and firing squads. Life is difficult. Steve wants cash so he can enjoy his trendy body. He wants Carly too, but she just wants a never-ending orgasm. Johnny wants to be touched and, if possible, he'd like to seem happy. Colin wants to know why tits make his fists clench.

This is their story. They try their best. They drag their feet through the fashions, the foul, the famous and the drunk of twenty-first century Britain. They're looking for happiness. What they find is friction.
By:  
Imprint:   Vintage
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 198mm,  Width: 130mm,  Spine: 26mm
Weight:   295g
ISBN:   9780099515968
ISBN 10:   0099515962
Pages:   352
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  Professional and scholarly ,  College/higher education ,  ELT Advanced ,  Undergraduate
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Joe Stretch was born in 1982 and brought up in Lancashire. He moved to Manchester at the age of 18 to study politics at Manchester University. His band, Performance, in which he is lead singer and lyricist, released their debut album in 2007. Friction is his first novel.

Reviews for Friction

Joe Stretch is such an original writer it's pointless to compare him to anyone, yet his black humour, sardonic tone and sheer readability suggest that Anthony Burgess is alive and well and still living in Manchester. This is A Clockwork Orange for the 21st century -- Nicholas Royle Like Houellebecq for generation WHY Ewan Morrison Raw, wild, aflame with ideas, Friction will bring a cure-or-kill medicinal shock to our post-boom hangover -- Boyd Tonkin Independent Transports the dystopian sexuality of Michel Houellebecq to the throbbing bars of Manchester, where a gaggle of characters numb their morality in pursuit of the ultimate orgasm. Satirically imagining a bleakly banal world of rampant consumerism and pregnancy as the final, putrid fetish, Friction snarls, spits and crackles like an anti Sex and the City or Kafka with cum-shots ID magazine A sharp and intense world created by a radical new writer -- Xiaolu Guo


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