8.1 Boxer Handsome

Question 1

Genre / mode

Answer 1

Print newspaper based review; reproduced online

Question 2

Audience?

Answer 2

Readers of The Independent; fans of boxing; Webb; people interested in literature; writers; review opinions

Question 3

Purpose?

Answer 3

Inform, give critical appraisal, persuades people to buy the novel

Question 4

Written by… about…

Answer 4

Flemmich Webb, about ‘Boxer Handsome’ by Anna Whitwham

Question 5

Generic conventions of written reviews?

Answer 5

Generally positive, literary, book events, formal, synoptic

Question 6

Language for voice?

Answer 6

Complimentary, critical, optimistic, balanced, professional, careful

Question 7

‘-Giving wayward kids a focus, trainers acting as father figures to young men-‘

Answer 7

Parentheses, informal; provides context without spoilers; themes of book

Question 8

‘Flurry of fists takes place by the canal, bare-knuckled and brutal.’

Answer 8

Fricative alliteration, dynamic metaphor; present tense; references of world of book; boxing lexis, motif; violent plosives

Question 9

‘Something of Shakespeare’s emotionally stunted warrior, Coriolanus, in Bobby.’

Answer 9

Literary allusion, complimentary; Whitwham’s expertise; parallels to Bobby, idea of character; book review

Question 10

‘A broken shell of a man, with none of the respect his fists once commanded.’

Answer 10

Juxtaposes respect; familiar collocation; boxing lexis + synecdoche, only fists; direct + dynamic verbs, DV, world building

Question 11

‘Whitwham’s writing is as sharp as a one-two combination, short punchy sentences.’

Answer 11

Positive, witty; boxing lexis, metaphor / simile

Question 12

‘Promising future ahead of her […] This is a promising debut’

Answer 12

Premodifier, start; phrasal template; anaphora, main point, end