Some 30 years ago, Richard John Parfitt was a founding member of catchy, punky Newport guitar rockers 60 Ft. Dolls. Stray Dogs, his debut novel, has been published by Third Man Books – the publishing arm of Jack White’s label of that name – and indeed is the first book by a UK writer they’ve picked up.
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It’s a coming-of-age story set in Toronto’s Sin Strip during the late 1970s. Turner, Millboy and Frankie find themselves driving a stolen car with a dead Hell’s Angel on the back seat and a trunk full of faulty dictionaries to sell, supplied by huckster Romeo Silva. Soon the troublesome three are running from not only Silva, but from the Devil’s Children biker gang as well.
Stray Dogs is tense, thrilling, and often harrowing, but peppered with pitch-black humour. Parfitt’s words are hard to shake off or forget: “The smell of candy apples and diesel fumes carried on a breeze made us woozy with expectation,” comes to mind, or “The waitress’s hair hung down like a busted crow’s wing and she wore a name tag that said Janice Morningstar.” Turner narrates the story as himself and his buddies travel down the wrong road, fighting for their survival in a brutal and nightmarish awakening.
Imagine if On The Road had been written by Charles Bukowski instead of Jack Kerouac – well, the end result might just be close to Stray Dogs, which could prove a straight-out-of-nowhere cult classic.
Stray Dogs, Richard John Parfitt (Third Man Books)
Price: £11.99. Info: here
words DAVID NOBAKHT