Chav Punk Hobbit: The Quest to the End of the World

by Jason Phillips, Norris Nuvo (Illustrations)

Barely surviving the extreme dementedness of Freekuency Festival 2012, Jason (Flapsandwich) bids farewell to his fellow Sicknote band members and embarks on an epic, totally unprepared pilgrimage along the Camino Portugues, from Porto to Santiago (240km of rugged terrain and extremes of weather that no TK Maxx raincoat or Poundland shades were ever meant to endure). This salutary change of scene soon produces dementedness all of its own, and after memorable encounters with rabid dogs, random perverts, and religious fanatics, not to mention the untimely demise of his staunch traveling companion Smaragda the Laptop, the temptation to quit raises its ugly head more than once. However, the Chav Punk Hobbit is not alone in his adventure. Aided and encouraged by a deranged assortment of fellow pilgrims, blues musicians, mad theologians, and ambulatory beards, he finds within him the determination to embrace the moment and pursue his quest beyond Santiago, and right to the End of the World. The road goes ever on, or at least far enough to make the Chav Punk Hobbit regret trusting in that pair of trainers he blagged off Stevie G..."

84 pages, Paperback

Published November 27, 2015

Reviews

[C K P · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great for those who like this sort of writing. Others not yet give it the consideration it deserves.

[WIlliam Gerrard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jason is a Welsh Musician, and in this short book, he details his most recent Camino de Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage experience. He takes the Camino Portugués from Porto, a follow up to his previous encounter with the more traditional, and more widely known and popular, Camino Frances. We find Jason alone in his hotel room in Porto in a dusky predawn, a crazed band post-gig, having departed, and left the protagonist with little money and equipment and a pipe dream to escape yet again on pilgrimage to Santiago. This book is a modern pilgrimage, a journey to self. We are not sharing the voyage of a medieval religious monk, we share our modern chav hobbit's punk desires. He needs not mass, blood wine and body bread, but wifi, bocadillos and plastic auberge mattresses. Our modern day pilgrim needs not God's guidance, but is savouring the beauty and tranquility of a rustic, muddy countryside, as his mind ventures into the pilgrim spirit and devours itself in questions of self-exploration. A host of characters is met and through the hero's transcript of muttered profanities as he describes the lurid animals he meets en route we make friends with a myriad of personalities from dotted around the globe. Most notably, German astronomer-theologian Thomaas and later, Irish reveller and journeyman Eoin. Interspersed with Spanish natives and kind Portuguese innkeepers and waiters, our bubbly hero sounds off his thoughts and shares in the rich tapestry of life of his fellow men, all the time progressing his own mind's journey and in a self-revelatory manner, touching our soul with more profound deeper and wise philosophy. Jason loves his woman in Wales. He never quite transcends and escapes his homeland of Wales. From the murky sacred Ulla river reminding him of his hometown, Newport, to thinking of his absent grandfather having disappeared to Australia on his journey's End, nostalgia is always a containing force to Jason, preventing him from moving on and getting the success and desires he so craves from life. Is it money he seeks? He answers and affirmative no and sees it as a means to an end in life's great journey. He does seek Broadband and Wifi, yet after we lose communications and move out of the realm of technological contact with the outside world, our hero is not lost but finds himself again and can let his hair down properly in the taverna and hostels, enjoying more ancient revelry, wine and brandy, guitar-laden five star meals and the warmth of traditional hospitality so frequented by the tourists of these ancient routes over the Millennia. The language of Jason's book is often shockingly coarse, but equally it is a direct language and the best philosophy succeeds in its directness. We move with the writer along the pilgrimage and as you read the book you can feel the rain pelting down, the books brevity comforting us as each night draws to a close and we settle down for the night on the auberge mattresses. Blankets or not, Chav Punk Hobbit reveals to us our own conflict in a modern age, where religion matters little and journeys of self are replaced by instant gratifications.I feel jealous, having not directly journeyed the route myself, green as I cannot feel the a priori mental revelations that resound in between the fast-flowing narratives. We must all strike out in this world and go on personal journeys to reveal our deepest thinking and to share with others the pleasures of life. Chav Punk Hobbit is an adventure and to overlook the beauty in the book's touching simplicity means that you are not grasping the Welsh Hemingway's poetic raison d'être. It is modern day philosophy in its most rawest essence. ENJOY!

[Safä · Rating 2 out of 5]

(I received this book as a giveaway)

I tried to give this book a nice review, yet it seems rather difficult to do so. I will start with the positive points and finish with the cons.

Right. The idea of the book is neat and Phillips does give some food for thought (quite rarely, nevertheless) like the money theory in page 30, or ironically embarking on a pilgrimage with rubbish shoes. He also writes in a relaxed manner and thus sounds like he's simply having a conversation with the reader in a pub with a beer in the hand. That, plus the frequent use of onomatopoeia gives the narrative a light and informal feel that one cannot experience with an academically written text (and as I'm writing a thesis at the moment and reading formal texts in abundance, this is a nice escape).

I'm afraid I have no more pros now, so let's crack on with the cons... Since I already said that the book's idea is lovely, I have to admit that an absurd ending (for example, the realisation that pilgrimage was a stupid idea with no miraculous effect on one's psychology, the reveal of more issues with humans and one's self and so feeling even more irritated with life afterwards, or even getting stuck in the second to last city and having to stop the journey and go home without really finishing the pilgrimage, etc) would have made the book much more interesting, because this yet another book that promises a positive outcome. In fact, the book claims to be a journey, which transmutes the author, yet his character does not undergo any characteristic growth. He even finishes the text, with a macho line in the framework of 'all right, bring it fucking on, universe!' and I hardly deem that a moment of revelation, as it's quite a poor and abrupt ending that sounds, if anything, quite hasty. Finally, the narrative is too dramatic involving an exaggerated diction that perhaps aimed to enhance the punk attitude, yet it simply gets pretentious. In fact, every time (except twice, I reckon) the author introduces a new character, he insults and derides them, embracing an 'I'm better than you all and fuck you' behaviour, which continues until the end of the text, highlighting the unchanged personality of the author after a so-called spiritually-transforming adventure.

Overall, the book is probably just a diary of a lad going on an unfortunate journey and needs to whine, but thought it could be sold as a book.

[Lucian · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received this copy from a giveaway in exchange for a fair review.

Now, I really wanted to like this book, and I wanted to read it. However, the biggest problem with it is the writing in my opinion. The author's reliance on onomatopoeia is just too big. Page after page of woofs, bangs and other assorted sounds the character hears and relays to us. The whole thing felt a bit like a first draft. It was missing polish, or perhaps I just didn't really like the author's voice. The illustration are very nice.

Other people will probably find the book better if they're into this kind of funny narration writing, but it simply wasn't to my taste.

[John Naylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book for free via Goodreads First Reads.

I have read a few travel books in the past and I find it to be a varied genre. I feel this is a travel book rather than a travel guide.

In this case, the author is a lot more interesting than the places and the people he meets. His words and how he feels are more informative than how he describes places. I would read more from him in another genre.

It cannot get a recommendation as a travel book from me. It gets 3 stars as the author is worth reading.