Bonk on the Head

By John J. Ford

Winner of the 2006 Ottawa Book Award for English Fiction Bonk on the Head is the fictional account of a young man's strange and gruelling journey through military indoctrination, and the strange and gruelling family life that drives him to it. Author John-James Ford, himself a graduate of Royal Military College, presents a spirited coming-of-age novel that is at once both gripping and hilarious. The unforgettable Verbal Kempt, boy-man, flits between deranged assaults on the senses and sensory deprivation, between memory and amnesia, to define and redefine his own understanding of freedom and personality. His dilemmas take the form of private wars inside and outside the skull--embroiling family, institutions, landscape and language.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0889712042
• ISBN13: 9780889712041
• Release Date: June 2005
• Publisher: Nightwood Editions
• Length: 282 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Incredible First Novel

I can't wait to read more of John Ford's work. Bonk on the Head was a riveting read that succeeded in doing what all great literature should do......make one think!

Tales of the psyche

Reviewed by Sondra Fowler for Reader Views (2/06) John James Ford writes poetically, brutally, and yet almost lyrically, about the struggles of a young man searching for himself and his place in his family and the world. Herbert "Verbal" Kempt is the son of a military Colonel and his shell shocked wife. Verbal struggles to reconcile himself with a family that is fraught with eccentricity, dysfunction and trepidation. After his wild yet lovable younger sister runs away, Verbal is left to float adrift with no true purpose in sight. He finds direction and unexpected confidence in the form of Reserve Military Service. Yet amidst all of the success Verbal can not seem to keep from sabotaging himself. Much of this story is set at the Royal Military College of Canada. It was a very colorful depiction of life in a military setting. The situations and characters were beautifully and fully written. You felt that you were a fly on the wall through all the torments and achievements experienced by the cadets of November Flight. While the outside world played a large role in the torment of Verbal Kempt the war inside his head was as challenging. He was a young man with much to learn, much to overcome and much to reconcile. While some of the military and Canadian terminology was alien to me I found I lost nothing of the story. I feel that "Bonk on the Head" would be enjoyable to those interested in the military tales but equally enjoyable to those who prefer tales of the psyche. It was well written and a pleasure to read.

Review from The Globe & Mail

I'm no critic, but this read is well worth it. Take it from Jim Bartley of The Globe & Mail: Freaks like us By JIM BARTLEY Saturday, August 20, 2005 You've heard of army brats. Gertie Kempt takes the figurative out of the brat. Throbbing along the back roads of the Ottawa Valley in her dad's muscle car, she's a brash and reckless mentor to her malleable younger brother, Herb. In John-James Ford's assured, often disturbing debut -- a boot-camp bildungsroman -- Herb's journey toward a soldier's manhood is impelled largely by deep and ambivalent love for his rebel sister. Their father (the "Kernel") is a coiled spring, unwound nightly by gin. Tense after a long day at National Defence Headquarters, he erupts in upper-case during dinner: "THERE'S ABSOLUTELY NO REASON YOU NEED TO USE SO MUCH MILK ON A DAILY BASIS." Alternatively, he's quiet and menacing: "I'm always at the ready... I can see through the bullcrap, my son." Gertie is the family peacenik. Rejecting meat, she describes slaughterhouse techniques at dinner. One day she comes home with some liberated chickens. Within days, dad has blown them to red mist with his shotgun. When Gertie checks out, heading to a B.C. commune, Herb loses his anchor on sanity. One night, on the edge, he cranks up the volume on a recording of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. "I was no longer Ottawa Valley Irish, but came from hard Russian stock... I had no time to stop for fallen comrades... [and] there was Gertie, waiting for me, torn and ravaged and ragged, but weeping tears of joy at this reunion with her brother, her comrade, her poet-warrior." Tension builds until, late one night, burned toast and too much gin push dad over the edge. Herb stands up to his father's bullying with eloquent indignation and earns a head-first flight into the kitchen drywall. As the crisis builds and explodes, Ford negotiates the labyrinth of emotions with prose that enters the mind, not like fine writing but simply and powerfully, like all the things it evokes: volcanic anger, sorrow, aching regret. "Our house was a goddamn freakshow," Herb tells us. It's impossible not to agree. What Ford does, with great sensitivity, is to make the freaks recognizable, and their life sentence an extension of the one we know. The book is filled with hyperbole and dark comedy, but not a hint of the cartoonish. Ford couldn't be more attuned to the tragic potential in petty resentments and the inability to express love. Absurdly, and completely convincingly, Herb attempts to escape his father by embracing the ironclad certainties of the military. After he's accepted at boot camp for officers, the Royal Military College in Kingston, the real nightmare begins. Things happen at Ford's RMC that, had they been reported from Abu Ghraib, would only have magnified the scandal. But these lost boys are fellow warriors and the shocks have a purpose: the making of unquestioning killers. Can it be as brutal at RMC as Ford implies? Ford makes it seem plaus

Gritty coming of age classic

"Bonk on the Head" is a book that I can't believe wasn't written before now. Canada's Royal Military College (RMC) is an amazing setting for a novel, packed with hilarious and sometimes scary characters and a pressure-cooker of a place where people are put through almost unbelievable demonstrations of their loyalty. John-James Ford uses this backdrop to full effect, and with startling honesty, as he presents the trials of his main character, Verbal Kempt. Whether it's the demands of conforming to the rigorous and insular school society, thinking about sex and how to deal with his girlfriend, or Verbal's thoughts about where he belongs in his messed up family life, Ford delivers an internal monologue and external dialogue that rings true. Ford is also great at evoking atmosphere-places like the no-privacy room Verbal has to share with his roommate Mack, and the colourful daydreams of victory and revenge Verbal has to cope with life. What I especially liked about the book was that Verbal Kempt is not sure of his motivations or where he wants to go, either at home or at military college. This is not a heroic novel. Rather, it's one that I think is that much harder to write but more compelling-the story of a guy who just isn't sure where he belongs. Many of the chapters (whose headings are fantastic in and of themselves) read like short stories, which means the book is a good one for road trips or grabbing a few chapters on your lunch break. I'd also recommend this book to every college or university-level student, if for nothing else so that you say "at least my life isn't that hard, no one was hazing me at 3 a.m. during my first week away from home". I should warn you that the writing is sometimes graphic, so if you have a weak stomach for things like what a men's rugby team may get up to on the road, or what gross obstacles might be set in the path of new military recruits, this book may not be for you. Ford is also brutally honest about just how difficult life at the military college is for women, so don't expect any candy-coating. Overall, a fun and compelling read. I hope this becomes a new coming of age classic.