Five Pubs, Two Bars and a Nightclub

by John William and John Williams

Gangsters, pimps, dealers, bookies and the Nation of Islam...Welcome to Cardiff Eight fast-paced and gritty short stories from this electric new British writer. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1582340277
• ISBN13: 9781582340272
• Release Date: June 1999
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.6" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Guy Ritchie get your Camera ready

i loved this book. i picked it up at the library. the name is catch as hell. it took me awhile to get into it and understand what he was doing. each chapter has one of the characters point of view. i think there where 7 or 9 main characters but more like 15 characters. the story is easy to follow and very enjoyable. i actually felt for these people and how they saw their life in their seedy underworld of drugs,pimps and gangsters. this can easly be made into a movie, alot like snatch how the characters intervolve which each other. i recommend this very highly and you won't regret.

Tales of Underground Cardiff

The title refers to the eight locales from which each of these interwoven stories takes its title. The crime-tinged tales are all generally set in Butetown, a working-class, largely Caribbean neighborhood in Cardiff, Wales. Characters move in and out between the stories, most of which are set contemporarily and involve, crime, drugs, and sex. While there is an air of seediness about the shady lives everyone leads, Williams gives each story just enough humor and humanity to keep the collection light. Fun stuff. If you like this, definitely check out his subsequent novel, Cardiff Dead, which features some of the same characters (pothead Col, lesbian pimp Bobby, and heavy Kenny Ibdullah to name a few). Also check out Williams' debut novel, Faithless and his earlier travelogue of American crime writers, Into the Badlands. One of the stories in this volume previously appeared in the Fresh Blood 2 anthology.

A rich, dimensional tableau

'In FIVE PUBS, TWO BARS AND A NIGHTCLUB, John Williams captures the voices of the last-chanceres, the near-losers, and the dispossessed, and gives them dignity and life. Like Damon Runyon before him, Williams creates a rich, dimensional tableau, a human comedy for the ages.' -George P. Pelecanos, author of THE SWEET FOREVER

John Williams has...

'The most undecaffeinated voice this side of Dylan Thomas.' -Kinky Friedman, author of SPANKING WATSON, etc.