8:1: Flemmich Webb on Boxer Handsome by Anna Whitwham Flashcards
What is the audience?
- Independent reads
- fans of Webb, those interested in boxing
- fans of new literature
- people who have read the novel.
What is purpose?
- informing
- persuading
- entertaining
What is the genre?
Review
Context: Anna Whitwham
- Born in London.
- Well-travelled (e.g. lived in the USA)
- Studied drama and English at the University of California.
- Published her debut novel in 2014.
- Her grandfather was a boxer.
- She is a lecturer for a course about the concept of masculinity.
Context: The Independent
- Only digital now.
- Initially a broadsheet newspaper.
- Centrist.
- Founded in 1968, so fairly recently.
Context: Flemmich Webb
- Environmentalist.
- Journalist and editor for the Guardian, Independent and Evening Standard.
- Sadly passed away in 2020.
What is the voice?
- A critical voice that doesn’t fail to question Whitwham’s work.
- However, seeing as this is a positive review, he provides a very supportive and approving voice.
- Along with this, his voice is educated (e.g. with the literary allusions and low-frequency lexis)
- a reliable and informed voice (e.g. with quoting for evidence).
“Boxer Handsome is Anna Whitwham’s first novel and was inspired by her grandfather, John Poppy, a young featherweight boxer at the Crown & Manor Boys Club in Hoxton.”
- Immediately meets conventions of a review. In present tense and declarative.
- “Hoxton” - fairly poor area.
Puts the book into context with the use of location and people proper nouns.
Biographical. - “Featherweight boxer” - fairly oxymoronic.
- “Inspired” - suggests her grandfather has done great things. Engages readers.
“This familial connection gives this exciting debut an authenticity, which allied to a confident writing style, suggests Whitwham has a promising future ahead of her.”
- Gives a clear judgement.
- “exciting”, “confident”, “promising” - all emphasising the potential the writer has.
- “allied” - emphasises how all of the positives are working together to create a powerful force.
“The story opens with Bobby fighting childhood friend Connor over a girl.”
- Summarising but not giving away too much to encourage people to read.
- Continuous present - immerses you in the story.
- “girl” - connotations of youth and perhaps informal, allowing us to connect to the characters.
SEMANTIC FIELD OF BOXING
“fighting”, “boxers”, “ring”, “competition”, “fight”, “fists”
“Both amateur boxers in the same boxing club in East London, they are due to fight each other in the ring in a divisional competition in a week’s time, but this flurry of fists takes place by the canal, bare-knuckled and brutal.”
- “flurry of fists” - fricative alliteration, giving an aggressive sound. Metaphor emphasises how fast the fists are going, emphasising the danger or perhaps even a lack of experience.
- “bare-knuckled” - “bare” has connotations of weakness, emphasising the danger element.
- “bare-knuckled and brutal” - this idea of a raw fight, really increasing the intensity.
- “divisional” - connotations of being very organised and planned, which is juxtaposed by the “flurry” and “brutal”.
“Bobby wins but can’t resist a victorious act of brutality that drives subsequent events.”
- “subsequent events” - deliberately vague language, which leads readers to question.
- “drives” - suggests that the events are impactful and that the prior event was enough to cause a knock-on effect.
“Whitwham acknowledges the value of boxing in society – giving wayward kids a focus, trainers acting as father figures to young men – through Derek, who runs the Clapton Bow Boys Club and keeps an eye out for Bobby and his other charges.”
- “value of boxing within society” - a broader look at context.
- “through Derek” - this idea of seeing characters as a vessel for the ideas of the author. Presents her as an intelligent writer who wants to spread a deeper message than simply an engaging story.
- With the parenthesis, clear examples are given, perhaps making the review more accessible for those not into boxing.
- Narrative hook by giving us a taster of one of the characters.
“But she doesn’t shy away from its brutal side and the thin line that separates regulated fighting in the ring from unfettered violence outside it.”
- “But” - frontal coordinate conjunction creating an immediate contrast. Quite a chatty use of language, creating that relationship with the reader.
- “doesn’t shy away” - idiom use. He is complimenting her.
- “unfettered” - emotive language.
Semantic field of violence.
“Casualties of this world lay strewn throughout the world Whitwham creates.”
- “strewn” - suggesting that it is everywhere.
- “world” - perhaps a hyperbolic noun. Emphasises how vast and incredible the story is.
“Joe, Bobby’s father, was once a decent boxer himself, but is now a sad alcoholic, a broken shell of a man with none of the respect that his fists once commanded.”
- “once” and “now” - temporal deixis used to create a juxtaposition between the two versions of his father.
- “his fists once commanded” - personification? Shows the skill he had. “Commanded” holds connotations of control, which he no longer has.
- “sad alcoholic” - a simple, even colloquial way of putting it.
- “broken shell” - suggests he is hiding from what he once was? Shell could also be seen as a bomb, perhaps suggesting he is easily triggered.
“Bobby’s mother, a victim of domestic abuse at the hands of Joe, sees history repeating itself as her son follows in his dad’s footsteps, a slave to the code of honour that this macho world demands.”
- “slave” - suggests he has no control. Becomes more a criticism of society than simply a review.
- “macho world” - “world” is a very inclusive noun, bringing readers into the issue as well. Links to context of the course the writer teaches.
- “demand” - aggressive connotations. This idea of the macho world being in control (personification).
“There’s something of Shakespeare’s emotionally stunted warrior, Coriolanus, in Bobby.”
- Intertextual reference/literary allusion to Shakespeare - could suggest there is a tragedy at hand even if the character is a hero. The play has strong themes of masculinity and prowess, but that prowess leads to Coriolanus’ exile.
SEMANTIC FIELD OF WAR?
“macho”, “slave”, “code of honour”, “warrior”, “victim”
SEMANTIC FIELD OF MASCULINITY
father”, “son”, “boxing”, “fighting”, “warrior”, “macho”, “history”
Link to context?
“Whitwham’s writing is as sharp as a one-two combination, short punchy sentences that capture effectively the brooding atmosphere of the East End, the threat of violence at every turn and the savagery of fighting.”
- “one-two combination” - boxing lexis within the simile. Shows the writer is educated on what he is reading about.
- “short punchy sentences” - more boxing lexis word play.
- “capture” - perhaps suggest its a challenge to do so and Whitwham has overcome that.
- “brooding atmosphere” - may mean the negative, masculine moping and create a tense feel. However, it may hold a double meaning in the context of a bird “brooding”, perhaps revealing the softer side of the novel.
- Continued semantic field of violence
- “threat of violence” - idea of danger, reinforced by the use of fricative alliteration.
- “savagery” - almost animalistic.
“‘Then [he] cracked the bridge of his nose wide open. Skin split. Blood spat. Connor stumbled about headless.’”
- Example to back up his prior comments on the novel.
- Judicious quotation - well-selected. Shows everything he has described in the novel. This makes his opinion sound reliable.
