Surviving Sting

by Paul McDonald

A crazy week of sex, violence and betrayal gives a hilarious new twist of realism to this intelligent evocation of growing up fast in "the ugliest town in the country" Ace Face wannabe Dave "Mac" McVane think he's got it made. At the Friday night disco luscious Joolz?the most shaggable girl in Walsall?invites him to her home on the notorious Jerome K. Jerome estate. But will the woman of his dreams and a "real" saddlemaker's job in the Happy Stallion make Mac the man he wants to be? Take a cast list that includes demented Billy-Bob and his twizzler parents, sociopathic Tezza, a boy named Sue, and Brainy Kev, red-wine drinker and swot?add a pet scorpion and an overdressed Yorkshire terrier to this Black Country brew, vintage 1979, and a pacy comic nightmare takes over. Oh, and someone gets a duffel-coat toggle rammed up his nose.

213 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Paul McDonald is a British academic, comic novelist, and poet. He teaches English and American Literature at the University of Wolverhampton, where he also runs the Creative and Professional Writing Programme.

Reviews

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

pretty funny novel set in Walsall, UK.