Here we have 300 manic, readable pages bookended between a suicide attempt and a funeral. A working knowledge of post-Behan Dublinese is preferable but not essential. It's 1977 and 17-year-old Joxer Daly is killing time around Finglas in his yellow cowboy hat. Along with his mates, Mikey and Keith, he spends most of his days stoned on hash, Valium, cough bottles or whatever's available. Is he a waster or "the worst kind of bastard imaginable?"
Joxer is quick-witted and essentially decent, but he has a vicious tongue and a terrible self-destructive streak. He's too troubled and obstinate to get along with those in authority. His teachers are wary of his angst-fuelled subversion, while his father beats him up at the least suspicion of cheek. When he meets the gorgeous Yvonne, who writes poetry and "has everything he dreams of, from the accent to the hat," Joxer is so smitten that he gives up the cough bottles. Yvonne sees his fierce intelligence and idealism, and for a while he has something to feel good about. Can it last? Slow Punctures is grim, funny and bawdy in equal measure. Parts of it could benefit from being more concise - the best passages are those where the writing is as speedy and edgy as Joxer himself, whose cool, contradictory, charismatic personality is vividly rendered.